To be honest, I was actually thinking about going to Recess. I am not 21 yet and not interested in messing with a fake ID, so I was considering making a visit just for the hell of it.
Not anymore. And before anyone tries to question whether or not a tweet from a company account matters, I would like to unequivocally state that it does.
After the past year under the Trump administration, I have felt myself and heard others say that most things are not as shocking as they may once have been. So many horrible things have happened since November 2016 that we have had to grow thicker skin in order to keep going.
But when I saw that tweet for the first time on Saturday, via a screenshot that someone else was retweeting once the original had been deleted, I must have looked like a cartoon character: jaw dropped, eyes bulging, hand pressed to my cheek.
Anyone who still has the audacity and sheer insensitivity to deny that rape culture persists in our society and particularly thrives on college campuses should be shown this tweet, whose blatant objectification of young women as enticing, sexual prizes for a wealthy and powerful man managed to cut through that thick skin I have grown since November and thoroughly shock me.
I wish I did not have to write this. A lot of you probably think I actually do not. “I don’t need you to tell me rape culture is real and terrible, that’s obvious,” you might be saying.
You know what else I would have thought would be obvious? That marketing a nightclub as a hunting ground for teenage girls was a reprehensible thing that any reasonable person should decide not to do.
Something you may also have seen on Twitter, not necessarily this weekend but at some point, is the sentiment that following demonstrations of such obvious harm or carelessness, people are left at the end of their ropes. Confused and angry, they write: “I don’t know how to convince you that you should care about other people.”
Well, because it has once again become necessary to convince people to care about the well-being of young women, here is the best attempt I can make before my deadline.
You should care because by virtue of the fact that you are alive and reading this, you are a human being with the right to expect that you can pursue the life of your choosing without being subjected to cruelty. Young women also have this right.
You should care because if such cruelty did disrupt your life, you would be deserving of the compassion of other human beings to help you and to administer justice. Young women also deserve this compassion.
You should care because regardless of the religious beliefs you hold, there is an undeniable sanctity in human life that requires us all to treat each other as kindly as we can. Young women also require this treatment.
Do not look the other way because you think it is only a tweet. That is delusional and insulting, and you are better than that.
Care. Care because you should, and you know you should. And please, even if it is small, do something about it.
mareklei@indiana.edu
@foreverfloral97
