( CNN ) -- Is anyone else wondering why the Steubenville , Ohio rape victim 's two best friends testified against her ? With this week 's arrest of two other girls who `` menaced '' the teen victim on Facebook and Twitter , we have the beginnings of an answer . Rape culture is not only the province of boys . The often hidden culture of girl cruelty can discourage accusers from coming forward and punish them viciously once they do . This week , two teenage boys were found guilty of raping a 16-year-old classmate while she was apparently drunk and passed out during a night of parties last August . Everyone who was there and said nothing that night was complicit ; if we want to prevent another Steubenville , the role of other girls must also be considered . On the night in question , girls watched the victim ( Jane Doe ) become so drunk she could hardly walk . Why did n't any of them help her ? Why , after Jane Doe endured the agonizing experience of a trial in which she viewed widely circulated photos of herself naked and unconscious , did one of the arrested girls tweet : `` you ripped my family apart , you made my cousin cry , so when I see you xxxxx , it 's gone be a homicide . '' Why were two lifelong friends sitting on the other side of the courtroom ? The accusation of rape disrupts the intricate social ecosystem of a high school , one in which girls often believe that they must preserve both their own reputations and relationships with boys above all else . This is a process that begins for girls long before their freshman year and can have violent consequences . From the earliest age , girls are flooded with conflicting messages about their sexuality . They are socialized to be `` good girls '' above all : kind , polite and selfless . Yet they are also told -- via media images , the clothing that 's marketed to them and the messages conveyed by some adults -- that they will be valued , given attention and loved for being sexy . The result is a near-constant anxiety about not being feminine or sexy enough . Opinion : Steubenville case shows how the rules have changed . Meanwhile , girls consume romance narratives that tell them the most important relationships they can have are with boys who love them . They also observe a huge amount of psychological aggression among girls on television and in movies , often portrayed as comedy . Last year , researchers found that girls of elementary school age were more likely than boys to commit acts of social aggression at school after viewing them on television . No surprise , then , that when the first crushes are confided in elementary school , it 's not uncommon for girls to turn on each other if they believe a friend is competing for the attentions of a boy they like . It often does not occur to them to reprimand the boy . This pattern is fairly innocuous in childhood , but by adolescence , it could have far more serious implications : Instead of grabbing the hand of a girl too drunk to consent and taking her to a safe place , some girls may instead angrily watch the drunken girl leave with a boy , figuring she deserves what she gets . From late elementary school onward , the label `` slut '' hovers dangerously over girls ' every move . Most girls who are called sluts are not even sexually active . The word is used to distinguish `` good '' girls from `` bad , '' and the definition is constantly shifting . Few girls are let in on the criteria for who gets called a slut in the first place . The insecurity creates an incentive to call out someone else lest you be next . In 2011 , a study by the American Association of University Women found that girls in grades 7-12 were far more likely than boys to experience sexual harassment , including rumors , both in person and online . And Leora Tanenbaum interviewed 50 girls and women for her book , `` Slut ! Growing Up Female With a Bad Reputation ; '' all of them told her girls , far more than boys , were at the forefront of the slut rumor mill . I am not saying that Jane Doe was raped because of girls ' silence . Girls may choose not to speak up for many reasons , but it 's hard to ignore the power of a culture that pushes them to choose boys over each other and punish other girls to protect their own reputations . We must talk to girls about their responsibility in situations like this . If we want to prevent another Steubenville , we need to teach children from an early age about gender-based violence . The word `` slut '' is not just an epithet ; it is a word that has given adolescents permission to abandon and hurt each other when a girl needs support most . Girls must understand not only their moral obligation but their power to be allies to each other at parties and other potentially unsafe spaces for girls . If boys knew that girls banded together to support each other , they would be less inclined to share on social media , much less commit , these horrific acts of sexual violence . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Rachel Simmons .
Rachel Simmons : The first thing I noticed was the smell. She says 'rape culture ' affects girl behavior too , silences them when another girl is in trouble . She says girls absorb message from early age : be sexy , compete for boys ' attention . Simmons : Labeling others `` slut '' allows girls to withhold help . They must be taught different .