Everyone Needs To Watch This Important Sexual Assault PSA Starring "Girls"
An important reminder that every rape survivor "is someone."
The cast of "Girls" came together for their most important announcement yet. It had nothing to with season premieres or finales of their acclaimed HBO show, and everything to do with awareness of a growing issue in our society.
Lena Dunham, Allison Williams, Jemima Kirke, and Zosia Mamet stood together and spoke about the disturbing facts surrounding sexual assault. This PSA comes in the midst of the Stanford rape case involving college freshman Brock Turner who raped a fellow student after a party. While Turner was originally sentenced to just six months in prison, recent reports state that Turner is now expected to serve even less time for the assault—how is that right?
Dunham made it clear that the timing of the PSA had nothing to do with the heightened attention to the Stanford case, but she did dedicate the PSA to the Stanford student who bravely wrote a letter and read in court which has been read over five million times.
Lena tweeted the PSA on June 8, thanking the "brave survivor" for giving "so much change" to the conversation about sexual assault.
Brock Turner has been portrayed in the media as a clean-cut star athlete with a swimming scholarship.
The portrayal of the athlete unveiled a major double standard when it comes to the way criminals are portrayed in the media.
It took months of requests for the mugshot of the 20-year-old rapist to be released.
Before his sentencing, Turner wrote a letter and read it in court.
"I've lost two jobs solely based on the reporting of my case," he wrote. "I wish I never was good at swimming or had the opportunity to attend Stanford, so maybe the newspapers wouldn't want to write stories about me."
He expresses some regret in the letter, but ultimately blames Stanford's party culture and alcohol for the crime.
After tweeting out the PSA Wednesday, several people took to social media to show their support for both the survivor of the assault and the message that "she is someone."
People continue to have strong reactions to both the PSA and the Stanford rape case.
A petition has been started to remove Judge Aaron Persky who sentenced Turner to just 6 months in jail for his crime.
The petition has over 900,000 signatures so far.