Rape culture has been growing like a wildfire in California during the driest summer. Left and right women and men are victims of sexual assault, and our society is doing absolutely NOTHING about it. All over the country, this is happening every day of every hour and people don’t want to speak up because they have seen the news lately. Every time there is a pretty rock solid case against the rapist, nothing happens to them but a small slap on the wrist. This has been happening a lot more lately than one should be comfortable with. Soon there won’t be a safe place for people to go about these serious and life changing situations.

Every year 288,820 people ages 12 and older are victims of rape or sexual assault. 791 people a day. 33 people every hour. One person every two minutes. That means that somebody’s son or daughter is getting abused every two minutes. The little boy or girl they saw grow up with a twinkle in their eye, will no longer have that twinkle, that spunk, they will be broken and used. It isn’t something that just goes away in a couple of days; it isn’t a temporary tattoo that can be scrubbed off. No matter how many times you try to forget, it will always be in your mind, permanently there for you to see every single day for the rest of your life. It is something that changes you forever no matter how hard you try to forget it.

In the news lately, there has been story after story about somebody getting raped on a college campus or at some social event where alcohol is involved, and the defendants use that as their way of getting out of their punishment. “They consented to it, they just don’t remember,” or “They were begging for it in the beginning” are some of the statements that are made against the plaintiff, and that is all that has to be said for it all to be okay. In recent news, a hacker from the group Anonymous exposed two young men for raping a girl. They posted the video of them bragging about it along with the pictures that they took. The two boys were sentenced to time in juvenile detention; one served two years and the other just one, the hacker who exposed them, he faces SIXTEEN years. Sixteen years for helping an under aged girl get the justice she deserved.

Our society has consistently pushed rapes and sexual abuse to the side like it was nothing to worry about. We have judges telling women to “…just keep their legs closed,” and men saying, “…they asked for it by wearing that clothing,” and the comments and statements only get worse from there. If a woman or a man says “Don’t touch me,” or says that it isn’t okay to touch them or do anything to them, don’t do it. No means no, no matter what you want, if that person doesn’t want it then guess what, you better move on buddy. For every 1,000 people that are raped, 994 perpetrators will walk free. That means out of the 288,820 rapes every year only 1,728 lead to convictions. So, 287, 092 men and women have to go along with their lives without any justice.

“Looking back on it now, I wish I would have stepped forward about it, but back then I knew deep down in my head that nothing would come of it. I invited him over and didn’t tell him to leave. I begged him to stop; I had tears running down my face, but he kept telling me, ‘Come on you know you are having fun. You know you like it. Don’t be that girl who changes her mind when you are the one who started this whole thing.’ I hear those words in my head every time I go to lay my head down at night. I still have nightmares that he found out my new number and figured out where I moved to and comes back for me. It happened two years ago, but it feels like just yesterday. I don’t trust guys anymore and going out with my friends to bars or parties isn’t something I enjoy anymore. I see his face in everywhere I go, and I hate it. Even from a distance, he is still running my life. I let him win.” -Anonymous

In the great words of Lady Gaga, “You won’t know how it feels, ‘til it happens to you.” One who hasn’t been through such a traumatic experience could never imagine what it feels like to be in that situation. So from now on, why don’t we listen to the facts a little bit more. Instead of worrying about ruining the rapist’s life, why don’t we think about the person who got raped and how their life will never be the same. Why don’t we practice what we preach and use the justice system for justice instead of some joke for people to make fun of?

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