All of us girls have heard our parents warnings, "Don't walk home alone at night." "Don't wear anything too revealing, you don't want to give boys the wrong impression." "Be careful."

These expressions are drilled into our head from the time we're born, we begin to fear walking alone, taking public transport alone, we begin to fear living our life to the fullest. It's strange we as a society force these ideas into girls heads instead of addressing the real problem, the people who think it's okay to rape or sexually assault another person.

It's FINALLY been addressed in the news just recently, as women and men have been accusing high profile men of sexual assault. It's almost every day a new person steps forward and recounts their assault.

After actor Kevin Spacey was accused of sexually assaulting a young boy, he was dropped from all of his current movie and TV show projects. It's a start, holding men accountable for their actions. Yet, change needs to be created from the beginning. "Boys will be boys" is not an excuse anymore and frankly it never should have been.

Us as Americans have created something called a "rape culture". It basically means that we as a society have come to accept and normalize sexual assault and harassment, a society that has become accustomed to it.

I can't believe we allowed it to get this far. To the point where women are taught the best ways to avoid rape, it's reinforcing the rape culture: it's normal to teach a 10-year-old girl what is okay to wear so she isn't sexualized.

Our behavior as a society allows it to continue.

Recently, on social media, the hashtag #metoo has been trending. The idea of this hashtag is to bring attention to how many people have been victims of rape, sexual harassment or assault. Scrolling through my feed, the amount of posts I saw of it was insane, to think all of these people I know personally have been victims of this rape culture.

1 in every 6 women will be raped or sexually assaulted in her lifetime. 1 in every 4 women in college will be raped. The numbers are too high to ignore this growing problem. It's about time men are held accountable for their actions and women are no longer taught ways "not to get raped."