Rape In Small Town America: If Her Name Begins With A-Z, She Wants It

On October 12th, 2013 the Kansas City Star published an article by Dugan Arnett chronicling the troubling story of two young girls raped by four male students in the town of Maryville, Missouri. The tragic story brings us yet another illustration of how “All American” small towns all too often choose to rally to the defense of rapists instead of their victims.

Like the Steubenville, Ohio case,?which resulted in convictions for a pair of High School football players earlier this year, the Maryville, Missouri incident involved athletes sexually assaulting younger women. Like the Steubenville case, the Missouri assault also featured alcohol and exploitative photographing of one of the victims. In addition, like the Ohio incident, much of the community in Maryville rallied to defend the perpetrators instead of defending the victims.

The community engaged in “slut shaming” of the 13 and 14-year old victims. The mother of the 14-year old girl, who a Senior football Player raped, was dismissed from her job. Eventually, one of the victim’s families felt forced to leave town. After they left, their home burned down in a possible case of arson. In contrast to the Steubenville rape, none of the Maryville boys who participated in the rapes face any criminal charges stemming from the assaults.

One of the girls was allegedly raped by 17-year old Matthew Barnett, a senior on the football team. Matthew is also from a prominent family in the community, as he is the grandson of former four-term Republican State Representative Rex Barnett, who served in the Missouri House from 1994 to 2002. Matthew Barnett admits to having had sex with the girl but denies that he raped her, even though the victim was likely incapacitated from alcohol consumption.

She recorded a .13 blood alcohol content at the hospital seven hours after the incident. Another football player, Jordan Zech, took footage of the sexual assault on his Iphone. After the incident, the boys dumped the barely conscious girl outside in 22 degree weather in just a T-shirt and sweat pants. She spent three hours in the cold, incapacitated and presumably unaware of her condition or her surroundings.

The Republican County Prosecutor Robert Rice, who dropped the charges, has political ties to the Barnett family. Rex Barnett’s granddaughter volunteered on the House campaign for GOP Congressman Sam Graves, who also employs Prosecutor Rice’s sister as a Congressional aide for constituent services. Rice and Barnett both deny allegations that Barnett pressured Rice to drop charges, and a spokesperson for the office of Congressman Graves denied the Congressmen knew anything about the case before being contacted by a reporter for the Kansas City Star.

Matthew Barnett, is now playing College football at the University of Central Missouri. The 14-year old girl has attempted suicide twice since the incident. Matthew Barnett’s attitude towards women is perhaps best illustrated by a recent tweet?stating:

“If her name begins with A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z, she wants the D (ick).”

The drama that played out in Maryville this year has become an all too familiar and frankly all too American story. While self-congratulatory Americans are fond of pointing the finger at other nation’s and chastising them for mistreating women, we had better start cleaning up or own back yard as well. In small town after small town, victim blaming and “slut shaming” have become the norm, and we as a nation must not only condemn the culture of rape, but we must also call out the communities that condone it when they enable rapists and torment their victims.

Edited by SS

 

Keith Brekhus is a progressive sociologist who resides in Red Lodge, Montana. He is co-host for the Liberal Fix radio show. Keith is a former Green Party candidate for US Congress (2002 in Missouri's 9th District). He can be followed on Twitter @keithbrekhus.