“Don’t Walk Out at Night? How ‘Bout Don’t Rape?”
Have you ever noticed that
when people lecture you and you are a girl that you are always told to not walk
alone, to not go out after dark? Remember the buddy system!
Ever notice that if you wear
clothes that are too tight or "too revealing" that you are a slut or
asking for something to happen to you?
“My
dad is a cop and my mom is a teacher, you would think that, those being their careers,
would have made me telling them that I got raped easier. But in fact it was the
hardest thing that I had to do. I was always told to not be out by myself, to
not trust people, to not be alone with a stranger. Little did we all know that
it was going to be a friend of mine that was going to hurt me? Was going to
take advantage of me not being able to say no. I confided in him that my
brother in law had molested me in my sleep, was that supposed to have been my
fault…”don’t fall asleep in the presence of a man, he could take that as
consent to touch you”?
How do you tell your dad, that yet again
he wasn’t able to protect you, in spite of you needing to just curl up in his
lap and have him tell you that you are safe? And how are you supposed to
respond when he yells at you…that you should have known better?
Or when you tell your mom, and she tells
you that you NEED to report because what if that puke does this to someone
else?
How are you supposed to respond when he
tells your friends that you got what you deserved and that I was asking for it?
“
That right there is my story. Because of
how society deals with rape and the victim blaming, the survivors then have to
deal with hating themselves because they should have been able to stop it.
How
about we break the system of victim blaming and teach guys to just not
disrespect girls who are out by themselves, or dressed how they want, or are
out in the dark. Don't girls deserve to be alone if they want? What if it is a
beautiful starlit night, shouldn't a girl get the chance to go for a moon lit
stroll by herself? I say that yes, she does get to! Break the cycle, let her
walk around naked, and not get
sexually assaulted!
There is never a reason for a
girl to feel unsafe when she is walking around!
Teach boys to love and
respect, not the normal lecture to girls!