As a woman, which is not to say that men don't experience this too, do you ever rethink going out to do something because your physical safety may be at risk? For instance, wanting to take an evening walk alone, going for a run somewhere new, or rethinking parking too far away from a street light or the building you're heading for. How often do you pause and consider whether or not putting yourself in one of these seemingly mundane situations could cause you to be raped? At this point, it's probably so ingrained in your thinking that you don't even notice what you're considering. Or how ridiculous it is that you have to think about it.
Let's break this down for a moment and mention a recent rape case and its outcome.
Especially noteworthy is the Stanford Rape Case, where the victim was found behind a dumpster with the attacker still on top of her. He was removed from her and held for the police and she was told later what had happened. Brock Turner was sentenced to six months in prison and three years of probation because the judge on the case, besides being a Stanford alumnus, felt that his life was too important to disrupt for any longer because of a mistake made while under the influence of alcohol. Turner's father agreed, saying that his son's life shouldn't be ruined because of a 20 minute mistake.
So what I want to know is, simply put, why shouldn't Turner's life be ruined anymore for the "20 minute mistake" than the life of the victim? Why do we value the lives of men who commit an inherently violent crime against another human being more than we value the lives of the women who are irreversibly impacted by someone else's choice that was entirely out of her control? Why do we think it's just to punish a man with six months of his life while the woman impacted by his choices with spend the rest of her life recovering? Where did this "slap on the wrist" policy come from?
My outrage isn't felt alone. Women everywhere have to be in fear that they will be attacked because someone else felt like it. Because we are not valued as much as men are. Because in 2016, people still believe that it's perfectly acceptable to treat women with less value than men. This epidemic in the United States of treating women as expendable objects needs to stop.
Logically, it doesn't make sense anymore. We should be at the point where women are viewed as equals in every aspect of life to men. So, what's the issue? Personally, I think it's fear. I think it's selfish, unjustified fear. I believe that these small men feel the need to take control of women by conquering their bodies since they can no longer conquer their minds. Women no longer "need" a man to leave the home, to have a family, to have a roof over their heads. In 2016 women can be completely independent if they so choose; something that men have been able to enjoy since the very beginning.
And while we're here, men have been and will continue to be raped too. By other men and by women. Because instead of fighting ignorance with understanding, women are responding to this violence with more violence. Truly more proof that the genders are equal in every respect.
