Slut shaming is practiced within the majority of households without even realizing it. By age 13 or even younger, parents are telling their girls to cover up and not wear revealing clothing to prevent unwanted attention from boys. Girls are being taught shame. By telling your daughter not to wear "slutty" clothing to avoid being raped, this is what you're actually saying: "If you are a woman and you expose too much skin, then you're asking for it." As if to say if women wear a skirt or shirt or anything that reveals too much, that automatically justifies them being raped and that makes it okay. Rape or sexual harassment of any form is never okay.

The girl wearing a crop top deserve the same amount of respect as someone wearing a turtleneck. Hell, even the girl wearing a tiny bikini or even the girl wearing absolutely nothing at the beach deserves respect. Every woman deserves respect. Regardless of their attire, nobody deserves rape. Being violated is not a choice, but violating someone is a choice. Instead of teaching our girls how not to be raped, we should be teaching our boys not to rape.

Our bodies aren't the issue -- boys' attitudes towards women are.

"Boys will be boys" is not a valid excuse. That's a load a bull crap. Boys need to be held accountable for their actions. We need to stop making excuses for them and teach them respect. Adults will say this phrase as if to say the inappropriate behavior towards girls is somehow acceptable because of their gender. You hear it all the time. We teach women how not to be raped, but what do we teach men? ..Nothing.

Because in our society, men are automatically expected to view women as sexual objects and when something as drastic as rape occurs, we never blame the men because "boys will be boys." It's somehow always the women's fault.

This is why slut shaming needs to end.

It begins in the household and even schools. Back in middle school, we'd have assemblies and the principal dismissed all of the boys early so she could talk to the girls privately. We had the "3 B Rule" -- meaning we weren't allowed to show our boobs, our bellies or our butts. We were 10 to 14 years old. Do you see how wrong this is? From an early age, we are taught to hide our bodies in order to prevent negative attention from boys. We were essentially taught that we are nothing more than cheap sexual objects and serve no true purpose in this world other than pleasuring men. I highly doubt the principal ever had a discussion with the boys about respect. If that doesn't say anything about rape culture, nothing will.

Women are not sex toys simply there for your viewing pleasure. We have a brain and a heart and a soul. We are more than a pair of boobs and a vagina. We owe you nothing. It's not our problem that you can't control your sexual urges and keep it in your pants. Too bad. Learn respect like everyone else.

I pray that someday instead of teaching girls to cover up their bodies, we teach boys to respect women. Because that's the real issue here -- respect.