***Apropos of the current political atmosphere (semantic debates about the use of the words “forcible,” and “accuser,” and political pontification on whether women should have a say in what happens to their bodies), here is a must read from Emily L. Hauser***
I’ve never been raped.
Why? Because I’m lucky.
Nothing more. Nothing less.
I’ve been groped on more than one occasion. I’ve been followed by men in a car late at night. I’ve been harassed on the street, and more than once not been certain it was going to end at “harassment.” A friend and I once found ourselves in a shared taxi with two men who tried to convince the driver (in a language they shared and we barely understood) to take us somewhere they could attack us (the driver physically pulled them from his car). I once discovered that my gynecologist was no longer in business – because he had raped several patients.
I am a woman, and I live in the world. This is what living in the world looks like, if you happen to be a woman. If none of that becomes rape? You’re lucky. Nothing more. Nothing less.
And while I might not have been raped, I know many women who were. Some more than once. Some when they were children. Some by people they believed loved them. Rarely, but occasionally, by strangers. And this is just the people I know.
The assault on Lara Logan & the reality of rape.Post + Comments (251)