The only real solution to the insidious problem of rape injustice starts and ends with our culture. I cannot say that you should never report being sexually assaulted. That is a personal decision, and a choice that I don’t think should be taken away from you. Ever. But if you look at the likelihood of getting justice, at […]
If we are to talk frankly about the conditions that lead us to use terms like rape culture, then perhaps we need all sides to take ownership of the experiences that add up to something so big and insidious and normalized. Even now, over 20 years later, I can’t bring myself to use his name, though […]
Rapists don’t always “look” evil. Rapists look like all-American swimmers. They look like the boy next door. I had a pretty scintillating date night planned with my apartment—unloading my dishwasher, cooking some pasta, and in other ways making attempts at adulthood—but it was derailed by a text from my cousin/pseudo big sister May. Her 10-year-old son […]
When adults don’t participate in rape prevention alongside children and teens we lose an important opportunity. I’m the violence prevention educator they’ll never see again. This school year began with news of former prep school athlete Owen Labrie’s conviction of a felony sex crime. As high school students prepare for graduation, the news cycle is […]
A woman should be able to pass out drunk in a stranger’s room and—get this!—not get raped. I barely remember some of my best stories from college. One good one I can jog most of the details from was during a trip to Germany for Oktoberfest. I. Got. Trashed. I don’t know why, but when I get drunk in […]
Whether you vote for her or not, please recognize that her nomination has eliminated another male bastion. Many Millennial women are unimpressed by Hillary Clinton’s presumed presidential nomination. They argue that her success isn’t a true feminist victory because she is still white, still rich, still part of the political elite. Now I don’t believe […]
Year after year, we introduce poisoned boys into the cauldron of adulthood and watch them wreak havoc. The outrage has reached a fever pitch over the Stanford swimmer’s convicted rapist’s unusually light sentence—six months in county jail, or as few as three with good behavior—for the brutal rape of an unconscious young woman behind a dumpster. […]
