Tuesday, November 15, 2022

Roll Red Roll: Rape, Power, and Football in the American Heartland

 

by Nancy Schwartzman with Nora Zelevansky, 2022, 283 pages, hardback, e-book, and audiobook.  A documentary version was released in 2018.

In this compelling account, filmmaker Schwartzman focuses on an August 2012 high school party where several members of the Steubenville football team sexually assaulted an unconscious (drunk and possibly drugged) teenage girl, filmed the assault on their phones and live-tweeted about it.

Schwartzman spent three years in the town documenting the case and its consequences. She interviewed everyone involved, read police reports and trial transcripts, and viewed social media posts. She explored the role high school football played in this struggling rust belt town.

She clearly shows that rape culture (“boys will be boys), victim blaming, and institutional complicity are the rule rather than the exception in too many places. She believes that there has been progress in the ten years since the assault, but we still have far to go. “We have a chance to learn from our mistakes, call in a diversity of voices, and protect future generations. But first we have to be willing to take a hard look at the unconscious, entrenched behaviors that allow this type of culture to flourish.” A well-documented account of a crime without punishment as violence against women continues.

A related, excellent book is She Said by Jodi Kantor & Megan Twohey.


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