You hear about it every day: some poor girl gets raped. It makes you fear for your daughters, sisters, nieces, girlfriend, etc. When it comes to the girls in our lives we tell them, "cover up," or "Don't wear too much makeup," "Don’t draw attention to yourself," when in reality, we should be telling our sons, "Do not touch a woman unless she asks," and "No means no." Many men are often taught that girls are a game, a game to be won, and some guys take that very seriously. When it's taken too seriously, that's when things get scary. What's even worse is that after the act, often times these rapists get minimal to no time behind bars.

The most recent example brought to the media's attention is the case of Brock Turner, a swimmer at Stanford, who was found sexually assaulting an unconscious and intoxicated woman behind a trash can. He ended up only getting a six-month sentence, becoming a registered sex offender, and three years’ probation. He only got a six-month sentence for illegally putting his hands all over and inside another human without permission. He only got a six-month sentence for putting foreign objects into her body and scraping her bare skin on the pavement. He only got a six-month sentence for instilling permanent fear into her and giving her emotional scarring that may never heal. He only got a six-month sentence for ruining a woman's life. She wrote a letter to him that I would highly recommend you read revealing her experience. She not only addresses what he did to her but also the year following the incident. She points out how Turner may have admitted to the act but he shifts the blame to others like her, her sister, and the alcohol but refuses to admit to his own wrong doing. Turner's father even dismissed the act of assault as "20 minutes of action." If I were this boy’s father, I would have wanted my kid to do jail time to teach him a lesson, because apparently he thought that raping a girl was an acceptable act. Yet again, if I were this boy’s parent I would have been more than clear that it was never OK to begin with. Did you know that 94 percent of women who are raped experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms during the two weeks following the rape? And 33 percent of women who are raped contemplate suicide? Don't try and tell me that this "20 minutes of action" has no effect.

Brock Turner faced a max sentence of 14 years in prison but only got six-months because he is a young, white, male athlete that is "sacrificing" a swimmers scholarship at a prestigious university. It shouldn't matter your race, education, age, or ability, rape is rape. When favor is shown to certain people, it shows others that their actions aren't that bad, which only promotes rape culture. What makes this even worse is that he admitted to his actions. It wasn't a matter of "Did he do it?" but "Was it consensual?" More often than not, it isn't. It should be pretty clear when there are many witnesses of her intoxication. There were also two men, the Swedish cyclists who caught Brock in the act while she was unconscious. There was no question. It was unanimous. The whole jury knew he did it, the judge knew he did it and the world knew he did it but the judge decided that his act wasn't bad enough to warrant prison time. The judge said he was young and dumb and didn't deserve more time. I would like to point out, just as the victim does in her letter, if you are 19 and considered adult by the law, I would argue you can make smart decisions.

There are more cases like this. There have been many more that have gone under the radar of the media. According to RAINN, the national sexual assault hotline, one in six women have been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime. So many people go unpunished, and often unreported because the victims are afraid. If you need further proof of the major presence of rape and assault of women in this country then here is another example. I was in communications class one day and the professor asked the men in the room the last time they actually felt scared for their life. They said things like "a couple of months ago" or a "year ago" or maybe "a couple of weeks ago." She then turned to the women in the room and asked the same question and the response was boiled down to two, "this week" or the even worse one, "yesterday." Women constantly live in fear, some may call it paranoia but as a woman myself, it is not that. It is defense. Fear is what keeps us safe. It keeps us on our toes, glued to our phones, and in groups. The other day a friend of mine went to a party. She didn't go because she really wanted too, but because she was with a friend who wanted to go. You may think it was out of friendly obligation, but it was more than that. This is what she said to me, "I just didn't want her to get raped." To a guy this may have sounded like a joke, but girls know she was completely serious. This is the reality of so many women across the country today.

We need to have a no tolerance policy on rape and assault. There needs to be consequences for these actions. If you need help or would like to help someone else better understand consent, this video is an awesome one. It puts consent into very basic terms, in terms of tea. Consent needs to be taught with a large emphasis in schools. So much that people get tired of hearing it, but it needs to be drilled into everyone's brains. Rape is never okay.