The Stanford swimmer, the rape, and the letter the victim read in court

I saw it, was heartbroken all over again. ... but also thought she is courageous, and because she is so articulate, she came across incredibly well. She is likeable.

I did disagree with the notion that the media was at fault, which she said at one point. I won't fault her for feeling that way, she has a right to feel any way she wants. But how Brock Turner got painted by some people wasn't the fault of some monolithic media, it was because of the circumstances of the case and who he was. All a news reporter can do is report the actual story, and then people are going to comment however they want.

Women get sexually assaulted every day, and most of it doesn't get reported by anyone. This got reported because of who Brock Turner was and maybe also because of the two Swedes who caught him -- who as an aside are about the two coolest humans on earth. Throughout, she was faceless, just Emily Doe, which by its nature dehumanizes her. All we knew about was Turner as the accused, and it's understandable that there was a degree of focus on the fact that he was a Stanford student, a swimmer, an Olympic hopeful, and then a degree of: "Jesus, he destroyed what looked like a noteworthy future." To me that is natural.

What I loved here (as much as you can like anything about what happened) is that so many RIGHT things came of it, when usually nothing right comes from a woman being assaulted or raped. Turner was caught (Go Sweden!). He stood trial, had to answer for it. Her victim impact statement went viral and she had a huge impact making a lot of people think about a thing that happens and often gets swept under a rug. Other victims found comfort and felt like they found a voice in her, as evidenced by the letters that made their way to her.

Sure, the judge was a fuckwad, but even there, there was outrage at the lenient sentence, the judge got recalled and the legislation actually got changed -- quickly and in a consensus way. People weren't being complacent about what was a horrific act.

Something terrible happened to her, but I hope she was being truthful about how she feels good about many of the things that came from it. She should.