Ah, so women ARE property??

Rape’s not something where you just go, “Well, get over it” or “Believe in love and peace, my child, and it’ll all be over.” Well, fuck you, that isn’t the answer. It’s a great thought, OK, but you can go and stick crystals up your butt and get on with it. I’m all for love and peace, but that’s not the side I work on. If somebody would talk about it, or worse, joke about it, I would be ready to kill. That’s not healing. It was a very long time after that before I was able to be with anyone again. And it has never been the same as it was before.

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I’m not going to use this space to berate Republicans in Congress for their reprehensible attempt to redefine rape in order that fewer federal funds would be used to terminate pregnancies resulting from rape. That would be too easy, and more than enough voices have been raised in fury and condemnation. It’s disgusting, it’s reprehensible, and it’s inhuman…and I’ll leave it at that. My purpose is merely to ask a very simple question: How is it that, in this day and age, there are still men out there (and women who would cooperate in their own subjugation) willing to legally define women as vessels, second class citizens unworthy of being allowed to control their bodies?

There are still far too many men who fervently believe that a woman who is raped has to have been asking for it in some shape, manner, or form. Perhaps it’s just that so many men still can’t wrap their head around the idea that having a penis does not ipso facto grant them dominion over the distaff half of the population. Or maybe it’s just that the idea of “women as property” is still deeply ingrained in so many segments of our society. Whatever the reason, isn’t it time for all of us to work towards a world in which sexual violence is an aberration, rather than the all-too-frequent trauma that it is for so many women? Far too many women suffer and die at the hands of men (some of whom profess to “love” them) every year…and yet how little attention is focused on this problem? If we can raise money to cure diseases, build schools, and fill food banks, why is it that so little money and effort is devoted to ending (or at least reducing the incidence of) rape and sexual violence against women?

Perhaps it’s because a significant portion of the male population still feels threatened by female sexuality and the idea that women should be free agents with the freedom to control their sexuality and reproductive functions. Imagine that, eh? Here we are, in the 21st century, and there are still men in leadership positions who’ve managed to convince themselves that women should rightfully remain the property of men. Then again, freedom is something that should really be fully embraced only by wealthy and Conservative White Men….