No, I will not feel gender guilt

[antigone382]

105. In one study, one in sixteen college men admitted to rape.

That is a large number. I refuse to believe that the percentage of irredeemably sick men in our society is that high, especially when you examine rape in a global context. In India, it is abundantly clear that rape is often a punishment for women who step out of line. In Cambodia, it is abundantly clear that women are regarded as property and can be sold into sex slavery as little girls. In Sub-Saharan Africa, it is abundantly clear that rape is a common part of life for women who are not expected to have any control over their sexual and reproductive lives. If rape is obviously tied to larger social forces and ideologies of gender in these places, why is it so difficult to admit that similar cultural factors are in play here?

And when the rates of rape are still so incredibly high (one in six women, one in thirty-three men), when the context of rape is so frequently someone the victim trusts (between 80 and 90% of all caases), when mechanisms for enforcing that rape are still incredibly low, how can you question the need to learn or understand more? How can you possibly say that we are repeating the message about respect, boundaries, and gender equality too frequently? How can you possibly get impatient with the women who are trying to stop their own victimization by addressing the social factors that contribute to it?

I'm sorry this is like sitting in a boring classroom for you. That classroom is every woman's daily life, and the lecture never ends.