There is No Correct Way to Respond to Sexual Assault, and Violence Against Women is Never Ok
We need to stop blaming women, forever
I recently read a disturbing, infuriating article about a woman’s experience of long term sexual assault over the course of several years.
I felt like I had experienced many of the smaller, microaggression type assaults that she had, but been “lucky” to have never had a serious or violent assault in my life.
But the more she wrote of various “minor” things paralyzing her will to fight back (my words, not hers), the more angry and upset I became. Because all of that small stuff is what gets us in the end. It conditions us.
Women are always on the defense, yet also expected to have myriad creative ways to avoid triggering the violent expression of the physical harm a man can do to a woman.
When I was younger it was all about stranger danger. Don’t walk home alone, have your keys in your hands if you do. Always be vigilant, because you are born a woman.
But after a certain point, we can only do so much.
In recent years in New York City men have taken to punching women in the face in broad daylight in the street with alarming increase. Terrifying.
