Rape culture affects more than rape victims.
@9 months ago with 5 notesIt affects more than victims of sexual harassment.
It affects women on a daily basis.
An estimated 15-20% of women have been raped at least once, but that’s a statistic received from a survey of a small portion of women. How many women aren’t sure if they were raped because they weren’t aware of their surroundings? How many refuse to admit it even to themselves? How many are scared to say anything about it because of the reaction they will receive?
“You got raped? What did you do? Where were you? What were you wearing?”
Why these questions? Because it’s the victim’s fault, of course, and that is why so many women (and men) say nothing about the treatment they receive.
It goes beyond rape, though.
A woman who is harassed on the street or other public place- be it catcalling or refusing to leave the woman alone- is also thought to be at fault. She was probably dressed inappropriately for the situation, or she was behaving in a manner that indicated she wanted the attention. After all, if rape is instigated by the victim, then the lesser crime of harassment must also be her fault.
Even more prevalent are things that don’t constitute harassment. Someone saying something that’s not inappropriate, but there’s an intention behind their words that you can sense. A look that makes you feel like squirming under their gaze. But you can’t say anything, because of course you’d be “overreacting.” He didn’t “mean anything by it,” I’m sure. Or perhaps you’re “reading too much into it.” Most likely though, you’re “full of yourself” for assuming that men are regarding you as though you were a snack instead of a person, even if they never say anything, and you can just hear it in their voice.
So it’s my fault, and I want to know why. Why is it my fault that I walk down the street to get to work, and every straight male with eyes watches or calls out to me? Why, when it’s dark and all you can see is the outline of a person, is it my fault that men yell across the street to me because they can see that I’m shaped like a woman? Why is it my fault that the way my psychiatrist says “Aren’t you thrifty?” because I break my pills in half instead of cutting them, makes me feel like I’m about to be eaten alive?
Because that’s where it starts- with that mindset that most men don’t even realize that they’re in. Even if they’re never raped or harassed a woman. Even if they’re genuinely good men. They don’t realize that a woman they don’t know is also a person with a past, and a family, and a story, and a personality. They think if she’s attractive, it’s a personal invitation and they look at her as a body. A vagina, a pair of perky breasts, long legs, pretty hair. And it doesn’t matter what she’s wearing, or where she is- she’s a woman, and the issue is not a man’s inability to see more than the parts of a whole, it’s the fact that she’s a woman.
Fuck that.
