We are all familiar with the concept of rape culture. The silent tolerance of a guy grabbing a girl's butt at a party to get a laugh out of his friends. The infamous "boys will be boys" response to blatant objectification of women. The all-too-familiar idea that a girl was "asking for it" when she had too much to drink or dressed "too provocatively" at a fraternity party that led to unwanted male attention, or worse. Being on a college campus, I am conscious of this problem with people my age, but what I wasn't expecting to hear was rape culture spreading to an entirely different age group: The first-grade playground.

While spending another night babysitting my favorite six-year-old girl and doing our usual coloring routine, I started asking her about school. I did the usual "how are you liking school" and "what did you learn today," getting the typical response you'd expect from any first grader.

I then went on to ask her what her favorite class was, when she shocked me by nearly shouting "NOT recess." Surprised at this resounding statement, I asked her why. Her response made me feel sick.

She said, "Well, I like playing and running around, but I am just so sick of the boys chasing me." When I asked her what she meant, she said "Well, they're always trying to grab me or kiss me, and they won't let me go play hopscotch."

This is coming from a girl who I have to beg to come inside after playing, climbing, and running for hours. The time that she is supposed to be getting her energy out and taking a break during school is being dominated by boys that ignore her requests for them to leave her alone, and instead think that it is acceptable for her to be a type of play-thing for them to harass whenever they please.

Rape culture is not a "college thing." It is not a hormone problem. It is a culture problem, condoned and almost encouraged by the lack of discipline for a boy's disrespect toward women. It has almost become an everyday occurrence, so much so that it took a six-year-old to remind me that these things are not okay, and we cannot continue to sit around and shrug the problem away by saying that "boys will be boys."

Being born a specific gender does not excuse you from being a decent human being, so lets stop acting like it does. I know that many boys are not like this, and if anything this article is a call for the men who AREN'T like this to stand up to their friends or acquaintances who are.

We need to make rape culture a topic that is talked about, because until we expose it for the problem that it truly is, we are not going to change. Until we make it known to men who say they're "just being funny" or the parents that say their son will "grow out of it" that this is a serious problem, they will continue to think that their actions are acceptable.

"Rape culture" is a scary-sounding name, but that is because it is a scary problem. The sooner we can accept that it is an epidemic, the sooner we can search for a cure.