Are we too quick to judge?

I am.

We're in the wake of a whole slew of scandals.  The Penn State scandal with Jerry Sandusky, the Syracuse scandal with Bernie Fine, and we can't forget Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain.  The allegations made against these gentlemen all have to do with sex.  Sex sells.  Right?

Since when is rape funny?

I like to think that I live in an America where I am accepted for being an intelligent woman.  Sometimes, I'm reminded that this is not always the case.  I have re-encountered the pro-rape ideology.

Two weeks ago, it came to my attention that Facebook had been ignoring pro-rape groups for two months.  That's an awfully long time for the social networking giant to ignore groups such as "What's 10 inches and gets girls to have sex with me? My knife," "Abducting, raping and violently murdering your friend, as a joke," and "You know she's playing hard to get when your chasing her down an alleyway." The last group received over 350,000 likes.

We Remember

I was just waking up when my phone lit up.  "I'm fine," read a text from my then-boyfriend.

I didn't really know what that meant and, still groggy, was satisfied to simply close my phone.  We had been dating (mostly long distance) for only a few months and I had gotten home the night before from a weekend with him.

It was the first time I went to visit him at his university and my parents made the drive with me.  My then-boyfriend and I spent a fantastic weekend together - he showed me around campus and we watched movies.  When it came time for me to leave, he asked me to stay one more day.  Of course, I couldn't.  I had classes Monday morning and my parents were my ride.  We were naive freshman, and it was April 15, 2007.

Survey Says: Stupid.

For those who don't know, I am from a small town in Baltimore County, Maryland called Perry Hall.  I am proud to be from this town, which boasts not only an Ikea down the road and an awesome 24-hour grocery store (where I had my first job), but also my alma mater, Perry Hall High School.  With 2,300 students, PHHS was almost as big as my undergraduate university, and is the biggest high school in Baltimore County.  I loved it there (although mostly in retrospect because, let's face it, high school is miserable).  I was in theater, I played on the marching band's drum line, I took all AP classes and left with some of my best friends still today.