Saturday, January 31, 2009
word swap
Rape. One in six women are sexually assaulted in their lifetime. College age women are four times as likely to be raped. Sixty percent of rapes are not reported to the police and only six percent of rapists will ever spend a day in jail. Today, you probably walked by or talked to someone who has been raped. Maybe you have been raped. Maybe I have been raped. If I tell you, will you tell me? If I tell you and you tell me, do you think it will be better? To know that you are not alone, that I am not alone? That is isn't your fault. That it isn't my fault. That it isn't our shame. It is pain we share. Why does it feel like shame?
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I constantly think about the socially-constructed vulnerability of women in the context of my own privilege. It haunts me every time I have the freedom travel alone, and I feel compelled often to reconcile with it. I still haven't.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I've been thinking of the fear of rape in the context of one of my final '100 thoughts' topics: "with strangers." I want to encourage interactions with strangers, for the positive connections that random interactions yield, but there's that huge society fear factor, even though a huge percentage of rapists are already known (or related to) the victim.
I think it's a struggle, but part of the struggle requires women going out into the world without fear. Which paradoxically is a scary thing to do.