With less than two months to go until the Olympic games begin in Brazil, much more than just the appearance of the Olympic torch has been going on. For those unaware of international news, a few weeks ago, our then president Dilma Rousseff was impeached and a new interim government has been leading the country. Protests, dissatisfaction and corruption have created a country divided by ideals wherein everyone suddenly became an expert in politics and economics yet, sadly, are seemingly unable to listen to their peers and actually carry on debating as adults. However, in the midst of so much chaos (undeniably a situation most Brazilians are quite familiar with), what brought the country together this week was perhaps one of the most horrendous and absurd pieces of news I have come across in a long time.

Last Saturday, a 16-year-old girl was brutally raped by 33 men in a community in the west zone of Rio de Janeiro. If that wasn’t violent enough, the criminals made sure to film the barbarous act, poke fun at the unconscious victim and, of course, post it to the Internet to publicly humiliate her. The case has sparked a general uproar from the moment the video hit the web, where feminist collectives and liberal communities (and pretty much anyone with a good conscience and morals) urged Internet users to report the video along with anyone who posted or reposted it – and of course, not to watch it or take any screenshots. The discussion was so widespread that, in one day, more than 800 reports were filed to the civil police of Rio against the men who posted the video. This created a phenomena known as 'popular pressure,' where the debate over a given topic generates so much attention that the media and the police are incessantly pushed to speak and act on the issue. With such a collective awareness over a given topic, Brazilian men and women mobilized themselves to stage protests and not keep quiet until justice is served and will keep pushing for the eradication of rape culture.

The image above reads: "Our fight is a daily one, we're women, not commodities."

Brazilians have always lived their lives under the tight control of the patriarchal system where rape culture is (sadly) still alive and thriving. Thinly veiled attacks on women have been practiced by our Congress in instances where access to safe abortion practices still remain as illegal as possible (except for cases of rape or where the mother's life is in danger, but even then the accessibility is limited and proving a rape is obnoxiously difficult). Not to mention, the interim Minister of Education publicly invited a man who, on national television, admitted to raping a Mãe-de-Santo (a priestess of Afro-Brazilian religions) and publicly expresses homophobic and racist ideals. There are people who genuinely approve of a congressman who, in his pro-impeachment speech, praised the man who tortured Rousseff and other women during the military dictatorship by raping them with foreign objects and even rats (I know, but I couldn’t make this up if I wanted to).

Blatant acts of violence towards women happen all the time and very seldom does the police do something about it. Every 11 minutes, a woman is raped somewhere in the country. Every hour, at least 3 complaints of child abuse are filed. About 180 reports of aggression towards women are filed every single day. In 2013, 13 reports of female homicide were filed every day. Up until 2005 there existed a law which reduced a rapist’s sentence if the victims were to marry their abusers. Worldwide? 7 in 10 women have suffered some form of sexual abuse, more than 700 million women today were sold as child brides before the age of 18, and it is estimated that about 80% of the reported cases of abuse and violence against women and children happened inside their homes and by someone they knew.

Rape culture is a term coined in the 1970’s during the second wave of feminism and is used to describe the different ways our society blames rape and abuse victims and normalizes male sexual violence. That doesn't go to say men don’t get raped, rather it highlights how women are always degraded and blamed, even in situations where they are not at fault. Once rape allegations come to light, it's just a matter of time until Internet trolls march their way into the comment section and make sure to remind the world of how there are still people who live in the 19^th century.

The terms whore, slut and bitch don’t even begin to cover the insults women are subjected to on a daily basis for attempting to live their lives as free, independent women in a society that constantly presses to remind us how truly despicable we can be as humans. Such a widespread problem (which should have been eradicated by now) could easily be fixed with one thing and one thing only: education. Although there might be people out there who attempt to "cry rape" to delegitimize actual claims (where that number only accounts for 2% of all claims), we live in a society that thrives on shaming and silencing women.

When you educate people, even more so children, on the dynamics of gender and consent, you teach them not to rape instead of teaching women how to be safe at night, always carry pepper spray, go to the bathroom with friends, etc. That notion, specifically, of teaching women to always be weary and to prevent being raped is really saying "make sure he rapes the other girl". Albeit, in the society we live in today it is imperative for women to know how to prevent rape as much as possible; it is still more important that we simply teach people not to rape. Education is the only weapon we can use that will take no lives and save thousands; it is the most powerful tool available and all it takes is teaching people to be decent human beings who respect the free will and choices of others. Far too many people seem to excuse rape by asserting that it’s instinctual, we’re all just animals - as if consciousness and morality are merely fictional concepts. You can contain yourself, you can use your free will to not infringe on another person’s bodily autonomy, you can understand that no means no and that’s that.

Other measures have been posed such as chemical castration, perpetual prison and even the death penalty to ensure proper justice to victims of rape and abuse. However, those measures fail to serve us the correct justice; all the while they might seem like a proper end to such barbarity, they do nothing but flirt with violence and instigate it even more. A wise man once affirmed that we must, “Educate the children and it won't be necessary to punish the men,” and, if his statements, which date back to 570 BC, are still relevant, then there surely is a lesson to be learned in that. While I sit here, frustrated, feeling impotent, terrified and appalled at the lack of humanity in some people and would love to see justice served, I know that the true solution to this problem lies in informing people and dismantling archaic expectations of gender.

So if you, much alike me, and (hopefully) my friends and family, want to put an end to rape, you should stop perpetuating rape culture. The seemingly inoffensive things we do or say on a daily basis are where the real problem lies. Teaching girls at a young age they should "cover up," questioning a rape based on what the victim was wearing or what their habits were, slut-shaming a woman for sleeping with as many people as she'd like, but praising men for doing the same, and even misogynistic jokes you somehow find funny become micro-aggressions that contribute to an unequal society. The girl exposed in the gang rape is just a small example of the terrifying judgmental eye of society that lurks over all of us and allows women everywhere to live in constant fear for simply being female.

If there is one thing I want you to take from this is that rape is never, ever the victim's fault. As a woman, I'd like to invite all men to listen to us and validate our claims of what is misogyny and to shut down your male peers whenever they act in a sexist manner. As for women, may we continue to educate one another, fight in unison, and know that it is sorority towards the next woman that will build a better, more equal world. I, for one, cannot attest to the true pain and suffering of rape victims, but I can tell you with absolute certainty: if you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us #YesAllWomen.