This isn’t a cake recipe. There is no step-by-step guide for this topic that, if you follow perfectly, guarantees a particular outcome. That being said, there are some things that might help put the odds in your favor.

Don't be a woman.

We’ve all heard the statistics: nearly one-in-five women have been raped in their lifetime. That’s a considerably higher average than the one for men, where only one-in-71 is likely to be raped. It’s not a contest, of course, just a fact. Being born with two x chromosomes makes your future a more dangerous and uncertain thing.

Avoid all men.

More than 95 percent of sexual assailants are men, after all. And according to statistics gathered from the US Department of Justice, 15 out of 16 rapists will never spend a day in jail. Those of you who have been following the case of the rapist from Stanford won’t be surprised at that - after all, a prison sentence could have a severe impact upon a rapist. Heaven forbid. It might just be safer to avoid 50 percent of the world’s population than to risk trusting the wrong man.

Spend all of your time at home.

What cost is a social life when safety is your payout? Of course, four out of 10 sexual assaults take place at the victim’s own home. Not good odds, but still, that means the majority of assaults take place outside the victim’s home. Anything you can do to improve your chances of not being raped is something you should do, right?

Cut your hair short.

I’ve met women who keep their hair short, because they heard that they’ll be less likely to be raped if their attacker doesn’t have anything to grab onto. I’ve met women who clutch their car keys between their fingers like makeshift claws while they walk through parking lots, so that they’ll have a form of defense if attacked. Women who, before a date, will send pictures of what they’re wearing to friends — not to be assured that they look cute, but so that if they go missing the police will know what to look for.

This is reality, where routines are shaped around fear. The most terrible thing about it is — you can be a man, you can never leave your home, you can walk through life arm in arm with a bodyguard — you might still be raped.

It’s an evil that has pervaded every corner of our society and it is so ugly that we lie and say we don’t see it, we don’t believe it, because otherwise we would have to address the fact that it’s here and we don’t know how to stop it. It is easier to doubt victims, to accuse people of seeking attention, than to acknowledge this world we live in, the world where we don’t have control over our safety.

The only thing that prevents rape is the choice not to rape. Sadly, I doubt rapists are reading thinkpieces online about how their actions have affected and continue to affect people. Villains rarely think of themselves as villains, after all.