I personally have not been a victim of rape. But, I can't say that that will always be true.
While that was not meant to be overly-dramatic or theatrical in any way, it is the truth. The lack of justice within our legal system for rapists has put us all at risk. Here's how.
I am a college student, and I like to dress nicely to go to school. This may mean skinny jeans and a tee-shirt, and if I'm feeling really special, maybe even a dress. That means that when I step onto the subway to come to school, I am stared down. By some eyes that just happen to glance towards the door, other eyes ravenous with ill-intent. This means that upon setting foot on that subway, despite the many bodies and the business that may be occurring within that car, I live in fear.
I live in fear that the man across from me will no longer just look and mutter suggestive, undesired, inappropriate slurs at me, but he'll do something. He'll actually do something. He'll approach me, and try to harm me. And even if he hasn't done anything physically, before he even comes close, as he sits across from me, he has already done his damage.
He has already made me fear for the life I know, and my identity. He makes me fear that an undesired action on his part may cause me to lose myself. He has instilled a fear. A fear that will alway be with me.
My mother told me when I was younger, "If anyone touches you inappropriately, I want you to scream as loud as you can", but I was never scared. I was never scared because I knew that if I screamed as loud as I could, someone would hear me. But time and time again, society has proven that sometimes no matter how loud you scream, the guilty may never be served justice.
The release of brutal rapists like Brock Turner normalize rape in our society. They make cat-calling, molestation, verbal abuse, and rape an acceptable and common occurence. This means that when I see that man staring at me intently from across the subway car, I cannot be comforted by the fact that if he were to do something wrong, he will face punishment. This means that as I seem him staring at me, I have to wonder if I'll be able to recover when he gets let out of jail early and I have to live with the fact he could walk the same streets as me.
To those who have survived rape, I bow down. I bow down to your strength, perseverance, benevolence, divinity, all of it. While I have not been through that experience, I sympathize and I hope that my voice, along with yours and the rest of the country's will change our fate, and fears.
P.S. Here are some chilling statements by the victim of Brock Turner's rape crime that will put this article into perspective.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/katiejmbaker/heres-the-po...
P.P.S. Here is a powerful photographer who turned the Brock Turner rape into a powerful photo series.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/kassycho/a-college-studen...
P.P.P.S. (if that's a thing) Here's a powerful po
et who turned her experience into a lesson for everyone.
