Rape Needs No Redefinition
This isn't just about abortion funding. This isn't just about pro-life values. This is about how women are valued in our society.
The GOP has gone too far. There are no levels of rape. There is no rape continuum that defines one type of rape as worse than another. To fathom that there is a kind of rape that is more forcible than another is ludicrous at best, callous at worst. Rape is, by definition, forcible. Macmillain dictionary defines rape as "the crime of forcing someone to have sex by using violence." Rape is a forcible assault and violation that has nothing to do with sex and everything to do with power. Rape is a raw, crude act of violence that leaves its victims wretching and writhing with a lifetime of pain.
The GOP clearly not only needs a lesson in language, it needs a reality check. I just so happen to have some data from RAINN, the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network to illuminate the statistics of this crime.
- 1 in 6 women will be raped in their lifetime. So look at your Facebook friends. One in six has been raped.
- Sixty percent of rapes are not reported to the police. This is why you don't know about all your friends who have been raped.
- Seventy-three percent of rape victims know their rapists. As harsh as it sounds, this means that out of all those Facebook friends, chances are that someone in there is a rapist.
Rapists are not sporting a 5:00 shadow and a dirty black leather jacket while wielding a knife. They are not lurking in the alleys or bushes. Rapists are not strangers who are just out for a screw. Rapists are violent criminals whose power and anger manifest themselves through sex and rage. Rapists live among us. Rape victims live among us. One in six of the women in John Boehner's life has been a victim of rape.
But rape is not about the statistics. I felt a visceral reaction to this shameful news because I know this is about people, not numbers. Take a look at the blog Violence UnSilenced. Read about victims' experiences in their own words. Their accounts and experiences are chilling.
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