Our Guys By Bernard Lefkowitz Essays - Gang Rape, Rape,

Our Guys By Bernard Lefkowitz The novel Our Guys, written by Bernard Lefkowitz, is a very dynamic story about the heinous actions of a dozen middle-class athletes, from a small New York suburb, against a defenseless mentally handicapped girl. Lefkowitz describes a brutal gang rape involving a baseball bat and broomhandle, which took place in this unsuspecting town, by these upstanding young group of boys, as the town would describe them. Lefkowitz looks at the incident which took place and then examines the ?jock clique? sub-culture that allowed such atrocities to happen, and spawned the scandal to cover it up. The town of Glenridge is at the surface not any different than any other surburban American town. Like most towns it has its ?cliques? and the ?jocks? are at the pinnacle of the town. Idolized by the students and a sourse of pride for the entire town, however the Glenridge boys were not like most high school athletes. The ?Jock clique? formed at a very early age,and invaded their surroundings taking over where ever they went, whether it be school, games or around town, protected by the ?boys will be boys? attitude held by the rest of the town. The boys started showing signs of beligerance as early as elementary school, with a common ignorance for authority. The group was later easily passed through middle school to relieve the teachers of another year enduring the ?problem? class. Once in high scholl the boys became the leaders of the school, andpride of the town. In Glenridge sports were valued higher than academics, turning these young men into heros, and everyone else into nobodies. There was not anything anyone could do to derail this movement, nor did they try to. Glenridges attitude towards women was very outdated. Women were regarded as mothers and wives, their jobs weere to make the men of the town happy. They were treated as objects and rarely held positions of authority-there were not any women mentors, therefore everyone lokked up to their fathers and saw that men were the supreme beings. Most of the boys did not even have any female influences other than their mothers; infact only two of the boys involved had sisters, Bryan Grober and Phil Grant. Thes boys were raised in dressing rooms by males and taught to respect the institute and brotherhood of a team. That if they respected their sacred bond they could do anything. Nothing was more important than the team or eachother. The Jocks of Glenridge were very much protected by the town and their parents. When the boys caused destruction or resorted to delinquency, money would simply change hands with out involving the law or the media. Everything was always taken care of and kept very low profile. The parents of these ?jocks? were also very respected within the community and refused to believe their children had any sort of problems. When Kevin Scherzer's problems were brought to the attention of his parents they simply denied the existence of a problem and dismissed the situation. When the school wanted to take disciplinary actions against Kevin, the Scherzer's would not allow it. The parents played a major role in the deliquency of these young men, however they were not alone. The other students acceptance and adoration of the ?jocks? behavior is as much to blame as anything else that led up to this behavior exhibited by the ?jocks?. The ?little mothers?( as they were referred as) were treated with disrespect and as sexual objects. They would repeatedly engage in acts of voyeurism. They would also willingly fellate any member of this group, and some would even go so far as ?making a train? or other acts of group sex with ?our guys?. Many of these girls were referred to as ?trained seals? and were proud of their titles.(p. 147) There was never any complaints made and as the boys got older the more deviant they became. The Leslie Faber rape took place in the Scherzer's basementon the afternoon of March 1, 1989. During the trial the defence attorneys did everything they could to try and potray that Leslie faber was a willing participant and actually enjoyed, if not the acts performed, her inclusion to the