Stop the Rape Culture (TRIGGER WARNING)
(TRIGGER WARNING) A woman was raped last week in Toledo, Ohio on the side of busy street in broad daylight. A high school student approached her as she was walking down the street and threatened her with a pair of scissors. Cars drove by and several beeped. One witness called 911 but no one stopped. According to the local police, some witnesses thought the act was consensual and some may not have comprehended what they were seeing. How could they have? This is not supposed to happen in a civilized society.
Late last year, we were shocked and frightened by the gang rape of a high school girl outside a school dance in Richmond, California. Now we are sickened by a rapist brazen enough to attack out in the open in broad daylight.
(Trigger warning) Over at Shakesville, there is an excellent piece on rape culture – what it is and what contributes to it. I’ve linked to it before. Again, if you can read it, I recommend it.
I thought I was done writing about the Senate election in Massachusetts, but as I reread Melissa McEwan’s piece at Shakesville, I couldn’t help but reflect on our new Senator-elect.
During the last weekend of the campaign, someone at a rally for Scott Brown yelled out a suggestion for Brown’s opponent Attorney General Martha Coakley, “Shove a curling iron up her butt,” yelled the unseen man. You can watch the video here. Brown asserts he did not hear the comment. But he certainly heard about it after the fact and he never expressed any outrage. That is rape culture.
A rape takes place every two minutes in this country. One in three women will be sexually assaulted in her lifetime. Who is going to reverse this trend? Certainly not the politician who sees no need to decry public outbursts suggesting sodomy. Victims should not be held accountable for stopping rape. Rapists, public safety officials and our elected leaders must be held accountable.
And since I plan to stop writing about the election, I want to get this off my chest too. Senator-elect, women are not property.
Since the dawn of civilization the good thinking and all that is good are culture. It is complete picture of life. It represents what we do in our daily life. Language ,music,ideas about what is bad and good,ways of working and playing, and the tools and other objects made and used by people in the society-all these are part of a society’s culture.Cultures vary from society to society or country to country.
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Great piece. I particularly appreciate that you use accurate statistics- 1 in 3, rather than the 1 in 6 that is being widely reported. The reality is that we may never know just how widespread this epidemic is because of the very climate you write about.