Law and the Language Around Campus Rape
By: Samantha Stephens
Tags: Rape Culture, Campus Safety, Consent, Sexual Assault, Victim Blaming

Law and the Language Around Campus Rape

Yale student accused of rape in 2015 was taken to trial in February of 2018 and found not guilty. So why didn’t the jury believe the victim?

Campus protest for a safer campus.

On Halloween night of 2015, a young female student attending Yale University accused fellow student, Saifullah Khan of raping her. On November 2nd, she visited the sexual assault and resource center on campus, on November 9th Khan was suspended from the university and on November 12th of 2015, he was arrested. It was not until the beginning of 2018 that the case was finally taken to trial. According to the Department of Justice, only 4–20% of female college students who are raped report it to law enforcement. With that being true, the case between the Yale students was rare but very important in terms of understanding consent, rape culture, and the language around rape on college campuses.

On the night of the assault, the female college student said she began her night at an off campus party, like many other students celebrating Halloween. Following the party, she attended a show performed by her schools orchestra, where she explains she was drunk for the first time. While at the performance, the student claims she was so intoxicated she got separated from her friends and ran into, Saifullah Khan, who was an acquaintance at the time. Khan then sat with her while she threw up several times until he walked her back to her dorm. The female college student then explains waking up in the middle of the night to Saifullah Khan on top of her. She explains she tried to push him off but was unsuccessful. The next thing she remembers is waking up naked and with bruises on her leg. This is when she knew she was raped, remembering she went to sleep with her clothes on.

According to Saifullah Khan, the night was very different. Khan explains that the female college student had been flirting with him through text message for days prior to that night. On Halloween, he explains the female student had invited him back to her room, where she had then undressed herself and consented to sex.

In late February of 2018, the case was finally taken to court. After a little less than two weeks in trial and three hours of deliberation, the jury found Saifullah Khan not guilty of rape, sighting a lack of substantial evidence.

During the trial, there were a few things that were mentioned that further perpetuated victim blaming and reinforced rape culture. The language that is used around rape during a trial is very particular and is used as a tool to paint a certain picture. Khans defense lawyers asked questions revolving around what the female student was wearing, and how she carried herself. They pointed out how she was wearing a sexy black cat costume and her “lol”’s in text messages to Khan as being flirtatious. In Fighting Bodies, Fighting Words: A Theory and Politics of Rape Prevention written by Sharon Marcus, the use of language around rape is analyzed in regards to feminist theory. Marcus explains, “Our cultures various techniques of feminization tends to buttress the rape script, since the femininity they induce ‘makes a feminine woman the perfect victim of sexual aggression’”. By painting the female student in a way that made her to be a temptress, sexualized and flirtatious, it furthers the rape script and an image of consensual sex. Unfortunately, this language is only intended to further victimize the victim, not paint a valid picture of what counted as consent.

The rape script paints an image that focuses on the victim in the story, focuses on what she was wearing, what she was doing to entice the culprit. Sexualizing the victim in the story, and even just reviewing text messages that were written between the two students, should not matter. Consent should be what is observed, and whether it was given or not. In this case, it should be whether the female student was capable to giving consent, which I believe she was not. Something else that needs to change about the language used around rape culture is questioning the validity of the victims account. In this court trial, the females students account was repeatedly questioned of whether she was being truthful or just trying to make sense of foggy memories. She remembers trying to push Khan off of her yet he still continued to have sex with her. This claim should be enough to show truth behind the sexual encounter. Also the fact that she reported the rape a day after, is not something easy to do and further shows the guilt of Saifullah Khan.

The conversation around rape on college campuses needs to change. The language needs to shift from victim blaming to keeping the culprit accountable. Unfortunately, it has not happened yet, but the Yale rape case can be used as an example of how rape culture is perpetuated and defendant in the court of law.