Let talk about rape.

The very concept is truly reprehensible, and trying to define it is equally as loathsome. So, what exactly is it? What does the word really mean? The answers are far and wide exceedingly unclear to a majority of people. Most categorize this disgraceful violation as being an individual that has been attacked and forced into sexual intercourse. So, in a vast world of gray, is there only a black or white that constitutes or “qualifies” as rape?

You wake up feeling awkwardly disgusted and completely confused, and you know something's not right. Your start asking yourself, "Was that a dream?" "Did I let something happen?" Bits and pieces continue to replay in your mind and consume your thoughts adding to an unwaveringly horrible feeling that you've been violated. Did he? NO, absolutely not. Nothing could possibly have happened because I know I said no. Please let that have been a dream. There’s no way he would do that. He’s not that kind of guy.

This miserably confusing scenario happens — more than anyone would like to admit. Welcome to the overly populated, heavily underestimated gray area. A place where even the victims themselves question if their violation was valid or not. They know they don’t feel right about what happened to them, even if they can only hazily recall in between the "no's" and the “I don’t want this."

The word is coercion, and it means to continually try to convince someone that they want something when they obviously don’t. Coercion, in any state of mind, is not acceptable but even more so in an altered state. If you know that in the light of day, under normal circumstances, that you would have never consented to any such acts, then why on earth would you in an altered state? The state where even if the initial intent was there, or if someone is under the influence or even physically exhausted and passed out, their body belongs to them — period. The end. Everything stops the moment the word "no" comes up, and if it doesn't, it is a violation. If someone is clearly saying "no" and still being coerced, they are being violated. No means no means no!