Facebook pages created for the sole purpose of making confessions have been vastly popular amongst students over the past year, though their consequences (theoretical and actual) have caused universities to be wary of them, even forcing some colleges to shut them down entirely as a form of preventative action.
Months ago, Her Campus VCU was actually able to interview the creator of the numerous college confession pages in the state of Virginia, who said that the pages were created for students to connect with one another and boost school spirit. It didn’t take long for the pages to catch on, and within weeks the trend had gone viral. Like many trends, the confession pages appeared to die out…at least until recently.
Number 7,122 – that was the confession that finally pushed students over the edge. This particular confession discussed in some detail three different rapes, one of which was the rape of his friend’s girlfriend. While the confessor admits to feeling shame and remorse with statements such as “I couldn’t believe what I had become”, but also admits to feeling a certain amount of pride with words like “…I had gotten away with it.”
The problem of rape on college campuses is a very real one, especially when it comes to the confusion of consent. Arguments have sprung up about whether or not it’s okay to have sex with someone if they’re drunk or inebriated in any manner, and even Dr. Phil recently came under fire for tweeting that question to his followers, many of whom believed that he was saying drunken sex was okay.
The Sexual Assault Violence Prevention (SAVP) at Vassar has published a list of statistics that show one in four women surveyed are survivors of rape or attempted rape, and a startling 42% of women questioned stated that they expected to be raped at some point in their life. What’s unfortunate is that this number is overtly shocking. Starting at an early age, girls are told to dress certain ways to avoid being raped instead of boys being told to simply not rape. What is shocking, however, is the fact that these women “expect” to be raped “again”, as if it’s a fact of life – as if it’s something that cannot be stopped.
A study completed by the U.S. Department of Justice determined that out of 4,500 women surveyed, 27.7 per 1,000 were victims of completed or attempted rape.
So when a student from a respected university such as Boston College anonymously admits to the rape of three unsuspecting women, it stands to reason that his peers would be utterly outraged. Upon inspection of the comments reacting to post #7,122, we instead see people that feel bad for him because so many people are attacking him. Comments range from “I honestly feel bad for him for having everyone attack him” to “Crucifying him won’t do any good!”
As of last night, however, a student had apparently come forward after seeing the quasi-outrage of his peers and admitted that he had made the entire story up. A quote from Boston College’s independent student paper The Heights says,
“Yesterday evening a student came in on his own to BCPD and admitted that the entire post was a hoax. The student appeared quite remorseful, nevertheless, this matter will be referred to the Student Conduct System for resolution as it is an egregious violation of our Community Standard.”
Even if the story was in fact a hoax, rape is not something that should be taken lightly nor is it something to joke about.
No word yet on what kinds of remedies or resolutions Boston College has in mind, but some students are calling for the serious rape culture problem at BC to be “addressed immediately”.