by Joanne on Apr 24th, 2008
The fear that some deranged stranger, a criminal high on tik or booze, or even someone I know, could hurt me or my children – my daughters or my small son – in such an intimate way, that someone can choose to rob any child of her virginity, her dignity, her health and her life, is terrifying. As we research and build up answers to some of the questions we’re presenting on this blog, we’ll look at ways we can prevent rape – it won’t all be doom and gloom. But before we can tackle that range of questions we have to face the problem, the act, the aftermath, head on.
Not only is rape perpetrated by damaged criminals, but by our own educated sons, who may rape if they are brought up to “expect” sex, if they believe they can demand or “take” sex as their masculine right. We have to face the truth, that rape is terrifying – a psychological murder in a sense – and then mobilise ourselves as mothers, fathers, teachers, as neighbours, as a community, to take a stand against the accepted “culture of violence”. We have to face the fact that we may contribute in some way by ignoring fighting, bullying, the playing of violent games, or condoning the way we treat our daughters differently from our sons. A rapist could be the guy next door – why does he feel so inadequate, or even disempowered?
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