Guest Blog: Real Talk About Rape

Below is a blog from one of my students. I let them write about any topic they wanted so I could assess their content. This student gave me permission to repost. It is a powerful statement about rape, so I'm keeping the student anonymous for their protection. I did not make any corrections because I'm not worried about sharing a "perfect" piece. If you are sensitive about rape, you may not want to read this post.

Reprinted with permission from my student. The student retains all rights to this work. 

These students are going to change our world.

     A man came into a class one day, to talk about the consequences if you break the law. He asked the class, “when should a minor be tried as an adult?” In seconds, hands started going up in the air and was spitting out answers. He wrote all of them on the board, except one. A girl, a victim probably, said “rape.” The man was so confused and did not take it in as consideration. “You mean violent rape? He said. “No, I mean rape, it is all the same.” as she responded. He looked to a boy who said “rape only if he used a weapon and hurt her.” And he took that inconsideration, because he did not deeply think that it is still rape, violent or not. She still said no.

     The thing people do not get, is that rape is rape. Violent or not, it was still rape. With a weapon or not, it was still rape. It does not matter if his violent needs was his hands, or his weapon was a knife, a gun, or his guilt, she still said no. Just like how it does not matter if a murder was “violent”--it was still murder. You can kill someone with drugs, cars, guns or fear, but that wouldn’t matter how you did it because it was still murder. If it was for your defense or not, it was still murder. Therefore, just because she was intoxicated, doesn’t mean you are allowed to consume her body for your sexual needs. Just because she said no, does not mean tie her down and make her follow your orders as her dominant. Just because she is showing her legs and her shoulders, does not mean she is asking for it. Girls and women all over live with the guilt and blame themselves for letting it happen, while the dominant’s heart is continues to throb and pound, and beat a thrusting rape into another family.   

     “There is no difference between being raped and going head first through a windshield except that afterward you are afraid, not of cars, but half the human race.” The rape joke is that, jokes are suppose to be funny, and rape is not a joke. Haha, you should’ve seen it coming. The “joke” is as wrong as it sounds. Because it is not a joke. It is not a joke to be face down, having your clothes stripped off by someone else’s hands and being consumed of your body that you probably saved for a special someone. You should have just said no, they said. It is not that hard to say no, they said. “They” because they never have been forced to be a submissive to a stranger, or maybe even to your best friend. There are teenage girls everywhere that is being taught that it is okay, especially for the younger girls who think they do not have a voice to speak, when they do. And it is wrong to support your son when he is being convicted of rape. Raping someone is not a sickness you can get, or a drunk thought and call it a mistake and then apologize, because “rape” is a choice you make. Violent or not, it is a choice you decided to make for yourself, just like how killing somebody is.

     "Rape: v. unlawful sexual activity and usually sexual intercourse carried out forcibly or under threat of injury against the will usually of a female or with a person who is beneath a certain age or incapable of valid consent—compare sexual assault, statutory rape" (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rape).