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Author Louise O'Neill Uses the Steubenville Case to Make Teens Care About Rape

The Irish YA publishing sensation addresses sexual assault, female sexuality, and jock culture in her "incredibly disturbing" new work.
Shan Dodd via Stocksy

Any piece of writing that deals with rape is going to be affecting. What makes Irish author Louise O'Neill's latest work of fiction so traumatic and infuriating is that writing it was motivated by multiple real-life cases of sexual assault.

At 30, the Irish writer has become a breakout publishing hit; the Guardian describes her as the "best YA fiction writer alive today", with a unique ability to appeal to both young and adult readers. Her first book, Only Ever Yours, has just been re-released as an adult novel. She finished the first draft of Asking For It in May 2014 after following the disturbing Steubenville High School rape case, in which a sixteen-year-old girl was publicly and repeatedly sexually assaulted by two teenage football players, while she was incapacitated by alcohol.

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The crime was documented and shared online. A 12-minute video later emerged of one local teenager joking of the attack: "They raped her quicker than Mike Tyson raped that one girl." O'Neill fictionalizes the Steubenville assault and other reported cases of sexual assault, setting her story within the confines of a rural southern town in Ireland, a country which has a 1-2 percent conviction rate in rape cases—an even lower number than the US. As Asking For It hits the shelves, we caught up with the author to talk about why she's fed up with blame culture.

Louise O'Neill, the author of Asking For It. Photo courtesy of Louise O'Neill

Broadly: What happens in Asking for It?
Louise O'Neill: It's about a girl called Emma O'Donovan who is 18, intelligent, beautiful, popular and has the world at her feet. One night she drinks a lot, takes some drugs and wakes up the next morning on the front porch of her house. She has no recollection of how she got home and what happened to her. Then photos start to emerge on social media and through the photos Emma begins the piece together what happened the night before. The book is split into two halves, the first half is before the rape and the second half is after the rape.

Who are the accused?
They're local heroes and the stars of the town's GAA (Gaelic football) team. There's certain things that I'm very interested in with this book; rape culture and how that ties into jock culture, the discrepancy of how we view female sexuality versus male sexuality, victim blaming, slut shaming… There's a whole myriad of issues.

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Which cases influenced the story?
There were a few different ones. Firstly, Todd Akin's' 2012 comments about "legitimate rape". I was very interested in that phrase. Then the Steubenville case happened and the Maryville case in Missouri. The two were so uncanny. I was really fascinated by them, especially as they were both in very small communities where the local football team were heroes. I kept thinking, what would have happened if a case like this had happened in my hometown or a town like mine? Would the community have banded together to protect the perpetrators?

As you were writing, it seemed like more and more cases were coming out. Did you wonder if you were living in a bubble?
While writing I am a bit of a hermit, but I'm still doing a lot of research. Friends who knew I was writing this book just kept sending me links to articles and opinion pieces, so I knew it wasn't just me. It seemed like every day there was something new or some new horrific rape case where a rapist escaped conviction or as happened recently, a GAA team rallied to support a Dublin man who had been convicted of raping his girlfriend's eight year-old child. It was just constant.

Do you think there are many misconceptions about what qualifies as sexual assault?
Yes. In the book, there are actually three incidents that could be considered sexual assault. There's one that she hints at in which a guy coerces her into giving him oral sex, another incident where she wants to go back to the party and says "no" but he just keeps on going and Emma doesn't consider that rape. Then there's the very clear-cut gang rape where she's unconscious and is completely unable to give consent. There's a whole spectrum of sexual assault and we need to understand that none of it is acceptable.

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Young women are constantly being taught how not to get raped and young men aren't being told 'don't rape' and to respect a woman's boundaries.

Which incident in the novel have you had the most reaction to?
It's the second sexual assault with Paul that so many readers have found unsettling. A lot of people have said to me "that feels too real" or "that was incredibly disturbing." It's tied to an idea that no one wants to have that label or think that they have been sexually assaulted. It's why I want not only young women, but young men to read this novel.

What differences do you see between how male and female sexuality is viewed?
Women and girls are constantly taught to be careful. When I was a teenager my parents would tell me not to leave my drinks unattended, watch out for my friends and please don't walk home. There was a constant level of fear that something would happen to me. Young women are constantly being taught how not to get raped and young men aren't being told "don't rape" and to respect a woman's boundaries. That sort of education puts the responsibility on a woman's shoulders that "you have to be careful and if something happens to you, it's your fault."

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Do you think that puts people off reporting assault?
Blame culture definitely contributes to the fact that a very limited amount of people who are sexually assaulted do report it, not to mention managing to get it into court. There's also long waiting times, low conviction rates, the experience of other victims…. When a person has been violated in such an extreme manner, to endure years of legal battling can be just beyond their comprehension or abilities at that stage.

Have you heard of the recent Magnus Meyer Hustveit case, in which a Norwegian man repeatedly raped his Irish girlfriend in her sleep and was given no jail time? What message does that send?
That case was unbelievable. Under Irish law, rape cases come down to the issue of consent, which is a difficult thing to prove. In this case, he had written emails admitting he had raped her in her sleep without consent, and he gets no jail time. It's so damaging on so many levels. Number one, any other victim of sexual assault will ask, what is the point? And number two, it sends out a message that rape isn't that important of a crime and if you do rape someone, you're unlikely to face serious consequences.

Have you had any negative attention?
I wrote a piece for the Guardian last week and within a half an hour I received my first abusive message. It is a bit daunting, but you just have to hope it won't be too overwhelming. It's just such a triggering subject, but I really believe in what I'm doing and the message in this book and sometimes you have to risk that negative attention.