Episode 67: Nora Zelevansky
The Rape of Jane Doe.
Author Nora Zelevansky and I have a nuanced conversation about Roll Red Roll: Rape, Power, and Football in the American Heartland. A book that she and Nancy Schwartzman wrote based on Schwartzman’s documentary film about a tragic rape that happened on an evening in August 2012 in Steubenville, OH after a high school football game. Jane Doe was the victim of at least two rapes that night by at least two boys who were stars of the Steubenville High School football team. Her assault was witnessed by dozens of high schoolers at multiple parties throughout the area after the football game, and no one did anything to help her or stop the two boys from raping her. In fact, pictures and video were shared of the crime happening in real time leaving a mountain of digital evidence against the two boys eventually charged in Jane Doe’s rape.
The crime gained national attention because of the work of reporters at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, The New York Times and an internet sleuth and crime blogger named Alex Goddard. But ultimately the story gained traction with the wide release of an incriminating video related to the crime by the anarchic collective Anonymous. Because of that video, the rape of Jane Doe became the first assault broadcast on social media and changed our understanding of what going viral meant in the age of the internet 2.0. It blew the lid off what had been and continues to be the country’s inability to grapple with our own complicity in creating a culture where men casually assume the role of predator, and many women are left to fend for themselves in harm’s way as friends, institutions and supposed trusted systems fail them.
Nora and I delve into the intricate reverberations of the case: the concept of the perfect victim not being the perfect victim, how rigid gender roles and boys’ fears of being labeled as “gay” contributed to the crime, and the phenomenon of slut-shaming. We ask the question is there a role for restorative justice in these cases and determined that if anyone’s child is to be safe, all children must be safe. And lastly, how do we break down the destructive “boys will be boys” mentality in our society that oftentimes rewards or excuses the idea that real manhood is rooted in dominating other people. Roll Red Roll and the details of the rape divided the residents of Steubenville, OH and shocked the nation. Opening a door to uneasy conversations that have persisted for 11 years.
For Nora and me too, it wasn’t an easy conversation, but a necessary one where we sought answers and understanding, not blame.
