Maia Higgins
Mr. Dwyer
½ Black
15 May, 2023
Injustice
We claim to be a responsible society where injustices and violence are at the center of our values, why then have we never made any attempt to properly legislate the violence against women? If we truly made progress, then it wouldn’t be true that 66% of women in the United States have faced some form of sexual assault. If we have truly made progress, then why do 61% of women feel the need to carry pepper spray or a noise maker everywhere they go? If we have truly made any progress then women wouldn’t be afraid of living their lives, just because they are women. Sex crimes against women have been occurring for hundreds of years, always going unaddressed.
When girls are being raised and a boy hits them, and they run to their parents crying and say “Mommy! Daddy! He hit me!”, they’re told “he just likes you and doesn’t know how to tell you” or “boys will be boys”. Why is that an excuse? Boys will be boys, so excuse what they do, but because girls are girls they should know how to behave so they don’t get an excuse. There has always been a wall between men and women and how they can behave, and women are forced to live life with the expectations set for them. Girls are told they need to shave their legs, and if they don’t then they’re gross. Girls are told that they shouldn’t wear bikinis unless they have what a male would deem a “perfect body”. As Woody Allen once said, “Men learn to love the woman they are attracted to. Women learn to become attracted to the man they fall in love with”. And it doesn’t matter what societal man may say about how they don’t objectify about physical qualities like hair and they don’t pay attention to what a girl’s body looks like, they’re lying. Because if they were telling the truth then women wouldn’t be ashamed of their appearance. Men have created a standard of beauty that girls feel they need to fit into, but why should they? Despite public awareness three out of ten women have faced sexual assault from a man, furthermore five out of six females expressed that they have been verbally sexually abused. The problem with men judging women for not being “pretty enough” creates societal norms that lead some men to assault women because of the perception that the male is entitled to this abusive behavior. If we look back on the three out of ten women who are victims of sexual violence, possibly one, but likely none of their abusers will end up in jail. When a rape occurs and is reported there is a 50.8% likelihood that the abuser will be arrested, those arrested have about an 80% chance of prosecution, if prosecuted there is a 58% chance they will face jail time (Morris). In this day and age, these women are not only victims of sexual assault, they are victims of the justice system. They are unable to come forward to feel protected against their traumatizing abuse, because when victims come forward they are asked questions that make her appear to encourage the abuse, as if wearing an outfit that makes you feel confident and being kind to strangers are forms of consent. By placing the blame on the victim, all it does is hurt them more than they already have been, “…my rape was not my fault, that I should feel no shame, that – simple as it may sound – I hadn’t caused it. No one causes rape but rapists. No one causes rape but rapists. It was true. And it had not been obvious to me. And hearing it from someone else, a professional, someone who should know, helped me believe that soon I would believe it.” ―( Aspen Matis, Girl in the Woods: A Memoir).
“Should we treat women as independent agents, responsible for themselves? Of course. But being responsible has nothing to do with being raped. Women don’t get raped because they were drinking or took drugs. Women do not get raped because they weren’t careful enough. Women get raped because someone raped them.” (Valenti). In our society the focus of responsibility is often the victim themself rather than the abuser. People act like both the abuser and the victim made a choice that caused the assault to occur, de-escalating the brutal nature of the crime, heck, even our former president has been found guilty of sexual misconduct in a civil court. Society is more concerned with how it would affect the abuser’s future, even though he made the choice to hurt someone, than they are with the well-being of someone who has been violated. The rhetoric that the crime is an embarrassment, that the justice system doesn’t effectively prosecute many sexual abuse cases because of traditional standards is criminal in itself. One defending lawyer explained to the court “he (the abuser) has a bright future ahead of him, which would be ruined if he were convicted”. It seems that society writes the abuse off in order to protect the identity of man. Let’s face it, man’s identity needs a makeover. Admitting to someone that you are a victim of sexual assault is a challengingordeal. The justice system makes it a hundred times more difficult for the victim with assumptions of misbehavior. The most common reason victims risk their reputations as well as reliving the trauma is to make sure their assaulter will receive some sort of conviction, but they can’t be sure that will ever happen in many cases. In 2019 Forbes magazine published an article: Should Victims of Sexual Harassment be Allowed to Maintain Anonymity? Dartmouth College Says No. The author of the article, Kim Elesser, expressed frustration for the women who were told they were being unfair and a burden to the college, an opinion many showed support for. “The issue of anonymity in this case came up earlier this month when two more women wanted to join the class action against Dartmouth, but wanted to remain anonymous and use pseudonyms, Jane Doe 2 and Jane Doe 3. There was already one “Jane Doe” in the lawsuit, but now with three, Dartmouth called the situation unfair.” (Elesser). Elesser expressed understanding that a case would be easier to win with named witnesses and victims, but it is more than fair that these women didn’t feel safe as the school ignored complaints and reports dating back to 2002. The three Dartmouth professors accused of harassment, Todd Heatherton, William Kelley and Paul Whalen, either resigned or retired, making their employment records appear squeaky clean. “The lawsuit, Rapuano, et al vs. Trustees of Dartmouth College, states that, “Dartmouth College has knowingly permitted three of its prominent (and well-paid) professors to turn a human behavior research department into a 21st century Animal House. For well over a decade, female students in Dartmouth’s Department of Psychology and Brain Sciences have been treated as sex objects by tenured professors” (Elleser). The school was aware of some of the activities the professors hosted, and the misconduct that occurred at them. Though they are victims, women are often scared of coming forward because of insecurities and judgment by friends, family, and the world. In this case a respected institution attempted to bury the crimes.
“Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.” – (Hugo). Every victim is told that the ordeal and suffering will end, that everything will be okay. They are told that what they are currently facing won’t last forever and to remember the good parts of life because eventually you won’t be able to remember the horrible things that have happened. Imagine if that was the case and it was possible to move on that easily, but 94% of rape victims suffer from PTSD and 33% contemplate suicide, not to mention the 13% that do kill themselves. There are many emotional and psychological responses that victims of sexual assault may experience for unpredictable lengths of time. During healing, memories can lead to increased experiences of self-blame, shame, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and suicidal ideation. Many men that commit sexual assault end up passing on sexually transmitted diseases to their victims, and an estimated 32,000 women get pregnant as a result of their rape. In Toni Morrison’s, the Bluest Eye, the protagonist of the story Pecola Breedlove is raped by her father Cholly, which results in a pregnancy. By the end of the novel, it is made clear that Pecola and Cholly’s child didn’t make it and she was left the lone victim of assault. “She spent her days, her tendril, sap-green days, walking up and down, up and down, her head jerking to the beat of a drummer so distant only she could hear. Elbows bent, hands on shoulders, she flailed her arms like a bird in an eternal, grotesquely futile effort to fly. Beating the air, a winged but grounded bird, intent on the blue void it could not reach—could not even see—but which filled the valleys of her mind.” (Morrison), in the end the reader can see Pecola’s mental health deteriorating. Not only is she talking to herself as if someone was with her, she is making odd movements making her mental state apparent to those around her. Because of her assault and the events caused by it, Pecola is a shadow of her former self, deteriorated from sadness and loneliness.
“No one tells women that none of it is their fault. That the blame falls squarely on the awful men who do terrible things and the fucked-up society that raises them, molds them, makes excuses for them. People don’t want to admit that there are monsters in their midst, so the monsters continue to roam free and the cycle of violence and blame continues.” ― Riley Sager, Survive the Night. Sex crimes against women have been an issue for hundreds of years. Our society has experienced far too little progress in eliminating this startling impression. Society claims to have moved on and progressed. Tell that to the estimated 736 million females worldwide who have to live with their abuse. Women continue to be repeatedly hurt by men. It’s an issue that will likely continue if society continues to turn a blind eye to this injustice. We can not continue to ignore rapists and allow them to dance through life harmlessly while their victims have been knocked down and are unable to get back up.
Works Cited:
Elleser, Kim, Should Victims of Sexual Harassment be Allowed to Maintain Anonymity? Dartmouth College Says No. Forbes Magazine, 2019.
Matis, Aspen, Girl in the Woods: A Memoir, Mifflin, 2007
Morrison, Toni, The Bluest Eye, 1999. London, England: Vintage