In the United States alone, one in six women will be a victim of sexual assault or rape. One inthirty-three men will be a victim of sexual assault or rape. Of the victims, most will fall between the ages of 12 and 34, the majority being college-aged individuals. Most of the children, ages 12-18 will be assaulted by a family member or close friend. If the abuser is a family member, chances are the abuse has occurred long before puberty. Every 98 seconds a sexual assault occurs and even then, only six of every thousand rapists will be incarcerated.
These are facts. Terrible, sad, disgusting facts and if I'm being honest, this is only the tip of the iceberg. I could continue to talk about the number of transgender individuals assaulted or even all of those in the LGBTQ+ spectrum. I could go on and on about the assaults happening nationwide as I'm writing this article. But would it make a difference? No. The world has enough indignant people shouting statistics from a mountain top. This problem is nationwide and if affects scores of individuals each year. The problem is that the people in power, the men in suits who refuse to acknowledge rape and sexual assault, are the ones making and enforcing the laws. They are refusing to do anything to help the men, women, and children who are attacked and assaulted every day, every year.
Take for example a few of my favorite quotes.
"If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways of shutting that thing down." Courtesy of Todd Akin, U.S. Representative from Missouri.
"Obviously rape is awful... What is beautiful is the child that could come from this." From Brian Kurcaba, State Representative from West Virginia.
And a few older ones, oldies but goodies.
"Rape is kinda like the weather. If it's inevitable, relax and enjoy it." Given to us by Clayton Williams, a Texan oilman who in 1990 was running for office.
"If a woman has (the right to an abortion), why shouldn’t a man be free to use his superior strength to force himself on a woman? At least the rapist’s pursuit of sexual freedom doesn’t (in most cases) result in anyone’s death." This one by Lawrence Lockman, a Representative from Maine is a personal favorite. He said this statement in 1995, a whole three years before I was born, yet it still resonates that in today's society there are people who think rape is okay. There are people who make our laws who think that rape is excusable, forgivable, and shouldn't be punishable.
This leads me back to the idea of rape and sexual assault in our society. So often, the victim is doubted or questioned more harshly than the attacker. For some reason, it's become the norm to put rape or sexual assault into a category on their own, where no one really wants to believe it happens so people will do anything to prove it didn't. This is the root cause of why 98% of rapists will never see the iron bars of a jail cell. Women are too afraid to come forward, men are even more so, and children, they might not even know what's happened to them. We as a society has shamed those affected by rape so much that now most people refuse to report a rape because they doubt anyone will even believe them. We ask them questions when they do, "Were you drinking?", "What were you wearing?", "Did you flirt with him/her?", "Did you say yes and then change your mind?", and the list goes on.
I hate to break it to you, but none of the criteria discussed above excuses rape. Rape is a violation of another person. Rape is theft; theft of safety, of personal well-being, and the theft of someone's choice. No one is ever asking for that sense of safety to ever be ripped from them, no one is ever asking to be raped or assaulted. The sooner that everyone realizes this the sooner we can begin to heal the wounds and bring justice to those who have evaded it for so long. Rapists do not deserve a free license at life, they do not deserve the chance to attack again and again. They deserve to feel the pain of their victims and their victim's families. They deserve to pay for the emotional and physical damage they've caused. I refuse to live in a world full of Brock Turners or Bill Cosby's. I refuse to live in a world where I can be catcalled walking across campus wearing a hoodie, jeans, and flats. I refuse to live in a world where the most common question college freshmen girls are asked is, "Do you have pepper spray to carry around? You can never be too careful...". This culture needs to stop and if I can help it one article, one post at a time, then by God I'll do it.
There will come a time when politicians and the public alike see rape and sexual assault as it is and begin to change our country. Until then I will stubbornly advocate until I am red-faced and hoarse that no, they weren't asking for it, and victims of rape and sexual assault deserve justice.
