While it's important for all women to take precautionary measures to avoid attacks, not enough men are being trained not to rape in the first place, Christiana Mbakwe writes in a piece at XOJane that tackles rape culture in America.
Like many woman, I've bought into the fallacy that by adhering to a list of rules, I can potentially inoculate myself against being violated or at least diminish the chances.
Except statistics say the opposite. They indicate it's likely a woman will know her attacker. Approximately two out of three rapes were committed by someone familiar to the victim. Avoiding strange people doesn't help. Over 50% of all rape/sexual assaults reportedly occurred within one mile of the victim's home or at their home. Avoiding strange places doesn't help either; because it's likely you'll be attacked in a familiar environment.
I spoke to my girlfriends and they'd all been given some variant of the "Here are things you can do to avoid being assaulted" talk. I did a poll of the men in my life. Some of them had been given the "no means no" talk, however not enough of them had been taught about sexual violence against women and its implications. It's apparent that while girls around the world are being told to avoid violence, not enough boys are being taught not to incite and inflict it.
Read Christiana Mbakwe's entire piece at XOJane.
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