If there’s anything we know to be true having now lived through October’s Harvey Weinstein scandal, and now November’s Kevin Spacey scandal, it’s that rape culture is alive and well in this country.
Statistics show that 20 percent of American women today will be raped in their lifetime.
If the latest Hollywood scandals are any proof, victims are more likely to stay quiet, than they are to speak out. Research shows only 40 percent of all rapes are reported to police.
That’s because with rape often comes shame, fault, and guilt. If not by the victim, by those around them.
The problem is that we, as a society are not conditioned to talk about it. For too long, rape and sexual assault have been swept under the rug, silenced by those in power or who find themselves too uncomfortable to talk about it.
But our negligence and inability to talk about consent, and assault winds up being destructive and damaging to others. If you’re not doing something to change the problem, you are inadvertently causing the problem.
Three strangers spoke candidly with BuzzFeed about things that were said—or not said—to them when they revealed they had been raped.
Their stories are vulnerable and gut-wrenching, and their words are an inspiring lesson to society as a whole about what we can do to make a change.
Rape culture touches every single person on this planet. If you haven’t been the victim of rape, then you likely know someone who has.
We are called to lift each other up. No person deserves to be taken advantage of, raped, or physically touched without consent. Yet today’s culture has insisted on shaming the victim, and not the abuser.
When people join together like they have in Hollywood as of late, victims are more likely to come forward with their experiences because there’s a community of support behind them.
We have the power to make a change. Join us in stopping rape culture dead in its tracks.
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