I attend a women's college. While there are plenty of articles by women just like me who write about why they chose a women's college, I haven't seen one that has addressed the simple fact that statistics matter. I'm not talking about academic statistics though I would love to be but that's just not the world we live in right now. Academics are just not that high up of a priority for me, or most women, when we look at colleges. Neither are success in the workforce or graduation rate. Those are all factors that make up a man's list when considering college that are second to the real factor for women. For me, a woman, the most important factor is safety.
I chose a women's college. I chose a women's college because I am logical. I am factual. I am afraid. I am scared because my logical, factual mind that considers the statistics and outcomes of every situation realizes the reality that if I were to attend a coed college, I wouldn't be able to just walk in, join a frat, get my degree, and walk out like college was the best four years of my life. Instead, I may walk in, take all the precautions, not finish my degree, and walk home with my tail in between my legs because college was the worst four, if I even make it that far, years of my life because, statistically, I will be raped.
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The essential fact of the situation is that I will be safer without men around. My chances of being raped will drop exponentially. The likelihood that I will graduate on time and go on to grad school soar sky high when I eliminate the factor of men. You might say I'm missing out. On what may I ask? On covering my soda can the entire night? On having to take the equivalent of my English class of girls with me every time I have to go to the bathroom? On spending hours in the mirror thinking, which of these articles of clothing will take the longest to tear off so I'll have the most time to fight?
Don't you dare tell me I will miss male insight in the classroom or guy friends who are less dramatic than girls. Don't tell me I'll become a lesbian because there is nothing wrong with non-heterosexual orientations as much as there is wrong with your fundamental misunderstanding of sexuality and the entitlement of males to women's bodies and the overbearing need of men to mansplain.
But this, my friends, is not about the classroom. This is about not having to wake up every night in the middle of the night for the rest of my life with flashbacks paralleling the severity of those of soldiers with PTSD because what happened to me was torture. This is about having a choice because if I didn't make this choice then my voice will never be heard when I scream no and stop over and over again. This is about never being to able to look myself in the mirror again because I'm so disgusted with myself. This is about losing out on a wonderful life of intimacy because I'm so traumatized I hyperventilate when someone actually cares about me hugs me and scream when they kiss me. This is about my future because men's futures will not be affected by this at all as has been shown by our criminal justice system. This is about the fact there are no women's law schools in the United States so in four years anyways I will have to jump back into shark-infested waters and put myself at risk for the crime of wanting an education.
Until America solves it's rape problem, because rapists and rape culture are the problem, I'll gladly take my four years in peace at a women's college before I have to spend the rest of my life fighting.
