Intolerance is not behind us, sexism is not a way of the past and rape culture is not a myth.

Recently the news has been dominated by headlines surrounding rapist Brock Turner and the victim of his sexual assault, the anonymous author of a 12 page letter addressed to Turner. The letter was written as a statement to Turner, the defendant, regarding his unconscionable crime and the impact it has had on her throughout the past year and a half.

This letter, which went viral following Turner’s sentencing on June 2, depicts in gut wrenching detail the torment the author felt and continues to feel as she became “distorted beyond recognition” and “closed off, angry, self deprecating, tired, irritable, empty.”

Turner was sentenced to six months on probation (three months with good behavior) in county jail despite the 14 years in prison his sentence could have held and the six years prosecutors were aiming for.

The focal points of the trial appeared to be his victim’s blood alcohol content in combination with Turner’s All-Conference athlete reputation rather than the facts.

Despite the overwhelming evidence: the two Swedish graduate students who pulled Turner off of his unconscious victim the night of the assault, the multiple cuts, scratches and abrasions inside and outside of the victim’s body, and Turner’s outright refusal to be accountable for his crime Honorable Judge Aaron Persky decided to give Turner what appears to be a light pass—even though the jury found him unanimously guilty on all three counts of sexual assault.

My question is: would Persky have been so lenient on Turner if he was not a promising swimmer on Stanford’s team or a high achieving student? In the same vein would Persky have allowed Turner off if Persky himself was a woman?

Persky’s pass and Turner’s actions and subsequent denial are two major indicators that this country has a ways to go in establishing equality and general human decency.

There are many people (in the LT community as well throughout the world) who believe feminism is merely an advent for women to attain special privileges and opportunities to compensate for being slighted in the past. These same opponents of feminism argue that equality has already been achieved so why are women still complaining? The textbook definition of feminism, however, remains to be the political, social and economic equality of the sexes.

Additionally, there are many who take to social media claiming that because rape culture in the Middle East, Pakistan and various developing nations around the world is so blatantly egregious in nature, the epidemic taking place on our college campuses is trivial in comparison and does not warrant our attention.

These assertions are both offensive and utterly inaccurate, especially in light of the Turner case and the letter written by his unconscious victim. “Assault is not an accident” and there are no re-do’s after committing such a heinous act. We can no longer enable “a culture that suggests we learn that rape is wrong through trial and error.”

We are a far cry from equality when a woman on a college campus or any other social setting for that matter constantly has to be on guard, with a buddy or not accept drinks from strangers. The standard is not the same for men in comparison to women, who society has ingrained to be incredibly more cautious.

Turner’s victim sadly became another statistic, but her voice rings true and speaks for us all at the end of the day.

Our beacon of hope comes from the pen of a woman no longer defined by her victimhood, but a woman who has become a pioneer for justice as she writes “we are getting somewhere.” She concludes her statement by addressing her final words to all girls everywhere: “you are important, unquestionably, you are untouchable, you are beautiful, you are to be valued, respected, undeniably, every minute of every day, you are powerful and nobody can take that away from you.”