Breaking news: Taking part in a nationwide protest for violence against women, over 400 pairs of underwear were covering Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro. There were hundreds of pairs of red and white underwear surfacing the sands of this famous beach, along with pictures of women with bloody hand prints on their faces, symbolic to the situation. These photos of the models were actually part of an art project, by photographer Marcio Freitas, named "I Will Never Be Silent."The 420 pairs of underwear represents the number of women who are raped every 72 hours in Brazil, with a total of 50,000 women each year. However, that crime is severely under reported.
In Rio last month, a 16 year old girl was drugged and violently gang raped, with picture and video footage circulating around the internet. This horrid series of events further broadened the dispute of physical and psychological violence against women, and condemned the rape culture in Brazil. The uproar involved hashtags #EstuproNuncaMais (Rape Never Again) and #EstuproNaoTemJustificativa (Rape Can't Be Justified) trending all over the social media site.
In other news: Last year, on the night of January 17th, a young women was raped. After an unsettling year-long trial, her rapist Brock Turner was given a much too merciful 6-month jail sentence for such an atrocious crime. Her life changed forever due to the intentional and gruesome actions of a Stanford athlete (which contrary to the media, doesn't change the matter one bit). Over a year later, Turner was convicted of many felonies for his cruel assault. He could have faced 14 years in state prison, but was only sentenced to six months in county jail and probation.
The judge claimed that a longer sentence would have a “severe impact” on the 20-year-old. Now, everyone is talking about the Stanford rape trial. We’ve heard all the details of the case, from the rapist, his father, and the victim. This week, his already short six month sentence was now shortened to three months for good behavior.
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My life for the past week has been consuming myself in these tragedies. If the title of this article scared you then it did its job: we must start addressing how to diminish rape culture, or we will be seeing more of such news categories and writing columns dedicated to it. Not that it shouldn't be in the news: it absolutely should. It is just saddening to begin with too see and hear about so many cases of its wrath in our society. Nonetheless, me stating this fact lessens the importance of the actual issue at hand: it is here. In society, sexual assault and rape culture is very much present, and because of that, we do need news columns and categories devoted to it, or it will never be solved. Though it is terrifying to me exactly how many cases there are every single day, let alone in a week (many of which are not even discussed in the media), it is so so important that we all acknowledge its existence in our lives. Ultimately, education is so integral, because it gives victims the tools that enable them to share their stories. Thus, these stories can send the message that sexual assault cannot and should not be ignored.
After reading through all my news and social media this week, my heart truly hurt. To be frank, there was been times where I lost faith in humanity, broke down into tears over things that I felt I had no control over. I could not wrap my head around the fact that an American is assaulted every two minutes...But I failed to see the bigger picture. I didn't realize the big retaliations and protests held in Brazil after the excruciating rape case of the 16 year old. I missed how the uproar brought so many people together to create the beautiful protest on the beach. I failed to notice the wave of support from people to the survivor of the Stanford attack from her letter, as well as for survivors everywhere. Especially from Joe Biden, in his beautiful open letter to the survivor. I looked around me, and saw my surroundings filled with people full of love and support; people with outrage over the wrongs that occurred and upset with the results, with ideas to fix it, with voices to be heard, petitions to be signed, and movements to be made. I looked around me and saw the good that can overcome the bad.
If we stay silent, the wrongs will continuously occur, but we will be able to correct it sooner. Instead of waiting for another 1,000 rape cases to happen before everybody actually gets it (and understands the real problem here), let us be the ones to get it and to share our knowledge interchangeably; to all come together to change for the better and change others on our way there. Rape culture "is the ways in which society points the finger at the victims instead of at the perpetrators." It is prevalent in questions we ask after a survivor comes forward: “But were you drunk? What were you wearing?” These questions seemingly devalue their claims. So we must change society. Teach them to refrain from asking contradictory questions when listening to a victim’s story. Let them know it is irrelevant what they were wearing or if they were drinking. Maybe this is much too simplistic of a solution, impossible at best. Yet, it is already happening, the internet being prime evidence of this: our generation is refusing this as our reality. We are fighting.
While we have a long way to go, it seems that this is already being set in motion. There are now many petitions asking that Judge Persky (the one who sentenced Brock to six months in county jail rather than the 14 years in state prison he technically could have faced for his crime) be removed from the seat. A series of protests have spread throughout Brazilian cities like wildfire. If we continue these movements in the future, not only will Brazil and the U.S., but the whole world at large, will win the battle against sexual violence and rape.
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"If you have been sexually assaulted, there are plenty of resources to reach out to. The National Sexual Assault Hotline can be reached at 1-800-656-4673. If you know someone who has been sexually assaulted, RAINN has resources that will assist you in doing the best you can to help."
