This week has brought to my attention just how ridiculous it is that I, and so many other women, count myself lucky to have existed without experiencing sexual assault or rape.
Brock Turner, the notorious rapist who was sentenced to only three months in a county jail was released this week. There were other factors, too, but the absurdity of considering myself lucky for having existed this long without experiencing sexual assault just struck me quite heavily.
I mean, luck is for the lottery. No one goes about their day and then just thinks, "Wow, it's really lucky I haven't been murdered yet." There is no denying that rape and sexual assault are so common in our society that we are no longer even capable of conceptualizing these as crimes, as they should be. According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, one in five women will be raped during college. For my college floor, that is four girls. For one floor, of one dorm, of one college. Sexual assault and rape are prevalent, and there is little being done to curb these crimes.
This poem was borne of the frustration I feel about the way sexual assault is perceived, as well as its prevalence.
I am lucky
because I am nineteen years old and I have not been raped or molested...
...yet.
I am lucky
because when I was sixteen and my boyfriend trespassed at my job and cornered me in an employees' only area and held on to my arm and refused to let go
until I kissed him I was able to shake him off and run away.
I am lucky
because I have not been attacked while walking through a shady parking lot
although my keys have always been clenched in my fist ready just in case.
I am lucky
because the worst thing to happen to my little sister was when an upperclassman grabbed her from behind and placed his crotch against her butt.
I am lucky
because if I were raped
I could afford to buy emergency contraceptives so I wouldn't have to make a a decision about aborting my rape baby.
I am lucky
because when boys send me unsolicited pictures of their genitalia and ask for pictures in return
I can just block them.
I am lucky
because I have never had to defend my position as a victim against "boys will be boys."
I am lucky
because I have escaped
so far.
Doesn't that make me lucky?
