Ched Evans, a professional football player (soccer to you Americans), left prison last week. Having served half his five-year term for raping a 19 year-old in a hotel room, it’s not yet known whether he will be returning to play for his old soccer club, and to the money and standing such a position gives a person in a football-mad country like England. At the same time, a world away in South Africa, social workers, psychologists and prison officers have spent the last week arguing that Oscar Pistorius should avoid a prison sentence for shooting his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, through a bathroom door at their home in Pretoria.

Why do I mentioned both? Because, having seen these two cases flicker across my computer screen over the past few days, it’s been hard not to draw conclusions about how, as a society, we tend to measure the worth of men and women against one another.

In revenge for “ruining” Ched Evans’ career, his Twitter fans have twice revealed the name of the young woman he raped (rape victims in the UK are given life-long anonymity). The first time it happened, she was forced into hiding. With her new name and identity published again this week, goodness knows she will probably have to do it again.

And this is what worries me. A great deal of people think Ched has been unfairly treated. That he is a victim in this case. People think that rape is bad, but that what Ched did wasn’t really that bad because the scenario (a hotel room, a drunk girl) doesn’t adhere to our traditional understanding of what rape looks like.

In the UK, discussions of the case serve as a strong reminder that the public still has a poor understanding of what rape is. As one prominent and much-loved daytime TV host put it, why shouldn’t Ched Evans be allowed to return to football, considering the rape in question hadn’t been “violent” ?

“He didn’t cause any bodily harm to the person,” said Judy Finnigan last week, “and she had far too much to drink.” It’s something others we look up to (like BBC news presenters) have also discussed. Because in our society drunk equals “asking for it,” equals “must have deserved it.” And drunk wannabe girls who sleep with talented young sportsmen shouldn’t have the right to ruin their lives and deprive the nation of their talent.

Because who doesn’t love a bout of good, old-fashioned victim blaming?

So far, over 155,000 people have signed a petition against Evans being reinstated by his old football team. Probably because, while most of us believe in the importance of rehabilitation, we also recognize that most football clubs have codes of conduct that prevent ex-convicts and those on the sex register from playing for them.

Football players are role models in our society. They inspire young people, and they spend much of their time representing their clubs at youth events, talking about things like racism and homophobia. In a society in which everyone is meant to be equal, while ex-offenders have every right to re-enter the job market, this does not extend to roles that expose them to families and young children if they are registered sex offenders. Usually that kind of thing bars you from being anywhere near kids, let alone running around inspiring them.

But back to South Africa, where during sentencing, the defense sought to make out who the real victim of the Pistorius trial was, Pistorius himself. Because this was a story about a national sporting hero and Paralympic champion who had suffered enough for his mistake. In a narrative that has become oddly familiar, Pistorius’ defense pointed to the loss of Pistorius’ advertising contracts, his poor mental health, even the fact that he’d had to sell the home in which he’d shot his girlfriend.

“It is foreseen that Mr Pistorius will require intensive and ongoing psychotherapy… We are left with a broken man who has lost everything.”
– Pistorius’ psychologist

I think I laughed real, belly-curling laughter when I read live updates of the social worker’s recommendation that Pistorius do janitorial work for two days a month for three years, coupled with some house arrest. This, for shooting a woman using ammunition banned for use in warfare under the Hague Convention?

With a final sentence of 5 years, it’s no surprise that the current topic trending on my twitter feed is #ThingsLongerThanOscarsSentence

Thankfully, the day after he was found guilty of culpable homicide (that’s “shooting your girlfriend four times through a locked bathroom door” to you and me) the International Paralympic Committee made it clear the conviction wouldn’t bar Pistorius from participating in athletic events in the future. Because, despite the proverbial elephant (or, you know, dead woman) in the room, apparently a nice-looking man’s tale of overcoming adversity and being good at running really fast matters so much more.

As Craig Spence (said Paralympic spokesman) stated, “Oscar’s done a great deal for the Paralympic movement. He’s been an inspiration to millions.”

In countless cases it is clear that, for many, the lives of men are of more worth than those of the women they have harmed. Lest we forget, much of the Steubenville rape case followed this pattern: instead of the tale of a young girl being raped by multiple aggressors, much of the coverage told a different story, that of the ruined lives of two young football stars.

“You know, Paul, a sixteen-year-old now just sobbing in court, regardless of what big football players they are, the other one just seventeen, a sixteen year old victim, they still sound like sixteen-year-olds… The thing is, what’s the lasting effect, though, on two young men being found guilty in juvenile court of rape, essentially?”
– Candy Crowley, CNN Chief Political Correspondent

If you are interested in watching it, there is footage online of CNN news reporters reacting live to the sentencing of Ma’lik Richmond and Trent Mays. If you watch long enough you will see CNN General Correspondent Poppy Harlow saying the following:

“(It’s) incredibly difficult, even for an outsider like me, to watch what happened as these two young men that had such promising futures, star football players, very good students, literally watched as they believed their lives fell apart…when that sentence came down, (Ma’lik) collapsed in the arms of his attorney…He said to him, ‘My life is over. No one is going to want me now.’ Very serious crime here, both found guilty of raping the sixteen-year-old girl at a series of parties back in August.”

We see this narrative played out again in the Evans case, in which his defense sought to portray him as a victim in the trial: “Until now, [Ched Evans] had a promising career to which he has devoted his whole life since his teens,” Evans’ defense QC said. “That career has now been lost.”

Are women’s lives really worth so little that people can stand up and say, without irony, that the true tragedy is the loss of a man’s standing and career, as opposed to their victim’s suffering?

I don’t think barring Ched Evans from professional football is an undue reaction now that he has served his time, and I don’t think imprisoning Oscar Pistorius is about vengeance for his girlfriend’s death. Evans shouldn’t be allowed entry into a whole host of professions in general because his criminal conviction should bar him from doing so. He shouldn’t be allowed re-entry into football in particular because the Football Association has a Code of Conduct which Evans has breached.

In Pistorius’ case, the best response I can give is that given by Reeva Steemkamp’s cousin, who testified at Pistorius’ sentencing: “My family are not people who are seeking revenge, we just feel that to shoot somebody behind a door that is unarmed, that is harmless, needs sufficient punishment.” I think I agree with her.

—
By Stephanie