It has come to my attention that there is an overwhelming amount of sexual assaults in the United States. According to The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN), one sexual assault occurs every 98 seconds and nine out of ten sexual assaults are committed against women. These are truly awful and traumatic events that can leave people with lots of mental issues and perpetrators often go unjailed and unpunished. Such events do not allow for a safe or mentally sound society.
Not only are these sexual assaults things that block overall happiness and safety of a society, they also slow down the productivity of society and cause further problems. They weigh down our court's systems and take up a lot of time and energy that could be spent in other areas. For example, RAINN would not even be an organization if there were no sexual assaults to be combating. This would allow its members time and energy to be used elsewhere in the society to fix other issues and be productive in other ways.
In cases of rape, it’s easy to see how sexual assault creates other problems for others within a society. Things such as unwanted pregnancy, financial issues, medical issues and various others come into play and affect not just the individual, but other members of the society. Even if the rape survivor does not become pregnant, there are still the medical aspects both physically and mentally that have to be addressed. These are both things that need money to tend to and programs to assist the survivor as undoubtedly, this becomes a burden on them. And if the survivor does become pregnant, she must then make the difficult decision whether to carry out the pregnancy or not. If she does decide to keep the child, then additional medical and financial issues are brought up where further programs and support are often needed. And say she does decide to carry out the pregnancy but does not want to keep the child, then the child is placed into the low funded and already overcrowded foster care system. Here they will most likely grow up as a very troubled child with abandonment issues and low self-esteem. Later in life, these children become misled, becoming involved in drugs, theft and other issues that are a burden on society.
In a recent Time article titled “When Rape Brings Babies”, it discusses this very issue. Already, babies who have been conceived in rape and grow up in the foster care system have been titled the “lost generation”. Even for those children who are brought to term and then raised by the mother, as her own, create psychological and physical challenges. Playwright Eve Ensler has been working with female survivors of wartime sexual violence and recently wrote an open letter to the U.S. Senate candidate in the Huffington Post where she bore witness to her personal experiences of women who had been raped and brought their babies to term. In it, she described that the women struggled with a sense of being continually re-violated and attempting to not project their anger and hatred onto their child. Mothers dealing with this should not have the additional stress of worrying about the logistics of being a good parent as well, although, of course, they do so.
It is with all these spiraling problems in mind, that I am able to see the full extent of the terrible act of sexual assault and its impact on society. It is for these reasons that I believe sexual assault should be completely rejected from society and actively prevented. I have devised a simple and ingenious method to lower sexual assault nationwide. It is quite simple, women should just completely cover their bodies from neck down in clothing. And in order to enforce this policy and keep women safe, it should be made a law that no woman should be allowed in public with more than their hands, wrists, heads and on warmer occasions, feet in full view.
If women were to completely cover themselves, the number of sexual assaults would rapidly decrease. Think about it, men who are committing sexual assaults must be provoked by the victim in some way. Otherwise, these assaults would not occur. If women were to completely cover themselves, there would be nothing to provoke the perpetrator and the entire sexual assault conflict would be avoided entirely.
One reason that sexual assault in schools is already so low in schools is because many high schools have already implemented dress codes where young girls and women are required to cover themselves in ways that they do not necessarily follow outside of school. According to RAINN only about 8% of all sexual assaults happen in schools. This number would be even lower if all schools were to actively enforce a dress code. These dress codes are in place to help protect young women and their innocence. They would not exist otherwise and it is an important model that can be taken and applied to the rest of society by creating a law to enforce these standards.
Within a society that upholds these standards, women who disobey or resist them will face consequences. This law would be enforced by various institutions as well as the government and police force as any other law is. Women who do not cover themselves are not allowed to work and can be forced to leave without pay or reported. Women who show up to schools will be forced to go home and change. Police will fine women not dressed properly in public and restaurants will refuse service. And of course, men will undoubtedly act out on women not dressed properly, forcing them into unwanted and unpreventable situations of assault.
Some women may try and argue against this logic, claiming that it is against the Constitution and against their freedom of speech. This is not true, though. Such a law allows women to choose their clothing from any range of styles, prints and expressive choices. This allows expression of their individual personalities and proves their freedom of speech through their clothing. Obviously, though, to ensure that this method works, it is best to wear loose fitted clothing that does not flaunt one’s figure. This will help guarantee that men will not be provoked in any way so as to avoid sexual assault encounters.
The Supreme Court will also uphold that this does not counter the first amendment, as they have done so in the past. The Wallace v. Ford supreme court case dealt with dress code issues in schools and established that dress codes were not a violation of the freedom of speech as certain regulations were necessary to properly run institutions. These regulations include safety and health decency. In this case, the institution that needs to be properly run is our society and in order for it to function properly, regulations regarding the health and safety of its members need to be constructed.
Others may claim that such an idea is prejudice towards women themselves. However, such an idea has been around for centuries. The same principle is distilled into various religions, where women are called to cover themselves to remain spiritually pure and protect their dignity from preying men. This is a concept that has been used in various applications to help protect women. Clearly, such a system that is used even by spiritual practices, is one established only with women’s best intentions at heart.
If women really feel as though sexual assault needs to be combated and fixed, then the answer is simple enough: just cover up. With the proposal of such logical reasoning, women should be thrilled that their government is finally doing something to protect them. This law will be easy for any women to follow since almost undoubtedly, most women have the materials to comply sitting right in her own closet. All it takes is a long sleeve shirt with a modest neckline, a pair of jeans and some shoes. This law would work harmoniously into the American constitution, with no restriction on freedom of speech and it would be for the greater good of all women. Imagine a world free of sexual assault where women know they are safe; now that’s a world I want to live in.
