veaghan:

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(Source: amazing-kayak-adventure)

feministlikeme:

This is why most women now hate men like Daniel Tosh and Todd Akin. This is why most women don’t find rape jokes funny. Every time we go out to a bar, this is our fear. Every time we decide to go dancing with our girls, this is why we don’t go to the bathroom alone. Every time we are approached by an unfamiliar male, we are hesitant and weary. Every time we invite a man over  alone, this is why we worry. This is why we walk quickly down the street when nightfall descends, and why we cross to the better lit side of the street. This is why our trust is so hard to earn, and even more difficult to keep. 

Here are the hard facts- 1 in every 3 women will be sexually assaulted over the course of their lifetimes- 1 every 2 minutes in the United States. To put that into more relatable numbers, we’re talking about 17.7 MILLION American women. That is 30% of the female population, and that is an unacceptable statistic. The fact that only 3% of the men committing these heinous crimes will be imprisoned is even more abhorrent, as well as unbelievable. No woman should be able to say they personally know multiple victims of sexual assault and rape, and I personally can. What’s even worse, is that 38% of rapes are committed by men who knew the victim- boyfriends, fathers, “good” friends, etc. 

You think these statistics are funny? You think the prevalent nature of this crime is humorous? If so, you need a healthy dose of reality. Do you think murder is funny? Or child abuse? There is nothing laughable about the invasive, permanently damaging violation of a woman. Rape does not just violate your physical body- it violates your sense of security, your ability to trust, your faith in humanity, your perception of self-worth, your potential to maintain relationships. We are 3x more likely to suffer from depression, 6x more likely to suffer from PTSD, 13x more likely to abuse alcohol, 26x more likely to abuse drugs, and 4x more likely to contemplate suicide. 

This is UNACCEPTABLE. We live in a rape culture where we as women are afraid to report our attackers, to the point that half of us never will. We are blamed for our victimization via the way we dress, the amount we drink, who we invite into our apartments. A provocative outfit is not an advertisement for assault. A drunken flirtation is not permission for a free pass. An offer to come upstairs is not an invitation to rape. We are disgraced for being victims, treated like we allowed this to happen, when drugs are used against us or we are physically overpowered. We are harassed, questioned about the authenticity of our suffering, and not prioritized in regards to rape kits that contain crucial evidence. There are 400,000-500,000 untested rape kits stored in  both police facilities and criminal labs throughout the United States. There is NO EXCUSE for why these kits are not given the 2nd highest priority, only trumped by murder.

Our country, our international community needs to realize that women are not machines for sexual pleasure, that we are not to be objectified or seen as a free meal sexually. We are not made for groping or grabbing. We are not to be blamed for our victimization, and we are not to be ignored when we develop the courage to come forward. We are not to be put on the back burner by the law enforcement officers that are sworn to protect us. We are not to be taught “don’t be raped,” but rather, “don’t rape.”

All facts/statistics from www.rainn.org, exempting rape kit information, found here.

kankirii:

littleredstriderhood:

hello everyone lets shut down a radio station

“In response to an email from a father who suspected his daughter was gay after discovering her kissing another girl, DJ Dominic Deiter declared on the air that “You should get one of your friends to screw your daughter straight.””

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/04/28/rape-away-the-gay/

here’s the petition, reblog this one as well

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/540/714/054/fire-wmms-cleveland-dj-dominic-dieter/

afternoonsnoozebutton:

Apologies in advance for the really serious post, but I think I’ve actually made my point pretty well in the text below and it’d mean a lot to me if you’d read it. Trigger warning for rape and sexual violence. 

I want to prove two things: 

1. Rape is a unique crime not comparable to being robbed or murdered. 
2. The unique nature of rape makes rape jokes especially heinous. 

This post is a sort-of response to a question I got this morning.  

Rape is a unique crime. 

Rape is not like murder or being robbed, rape is a type of torture - an exceptionally malicious act that has, at its core, no purpose except to inflict exceptional pain on you. It’s an act where the perpetrator not only wants to hurt you in a uniquely personal way, but enjoys the violation. Rape is so much more than just the act of sex - it destroys your bodily and sexual autonomy.

To rape is not merely to deny someone’s will, but to deny them their very personhood. The humiliation and shame experienced by rape victims is completely unique; they experience complete subjugation and the intimate loss of control of their own bodies.

A few weeks ago, I was mugged at gunpoint on North Carolina Ave. in Southeast DC. Now, if I’m ever back there, I’ll be much more apprehensive of my safety than I would’ve been before. This is pretty common - when you experience a violation, the area of the violation no longer feels safe. With rape, the area of violation is your own body. 

Jokes about rape are uniquely horrible. 

A recent joke that “comedian” Daniel Tosh made about how funny it would be if a girl was raped created a little bit of an internet shitstorm, forcing him to semi-apologize on Twitter. He followed up his apology with this Tweet: 

(Personally, I find dead baby jokes a little bit gross.) “How do you get 10 babies into a jar? Blender. How do you get them out? Nachos.” Dead baby jokes, though, operate on in an area entirely removed from reality - nobody who tells that joke is actually contemplating using a baby as hummus, and functionally 0% of people know anyone who’s ever thought about or attempted to eat a pulverized baby. 

Compare that to the prevalence of rape in the status quo. It’s estimated that 1 in 3 women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime. Now, if 1 in 3 babies was killed and eaten with tortilla chips, people would think of it not as a joke, but as a horribly serious reality. 

Murder jokes are less heinous for a similar reason. The national homicide rate is 4.8 per 100,000 people, meaning that the chance a given person hearing a murder joke will actually be killed is 00.0048%. The chance that you’ll actually trigger a terrible flashback from someone who’s been nearly murdered is damn low. 

What really makes the difference between murder jokes and rape jokes, though, is not just the statistics. Murder is something that is taken extremely seriously in our society. Report rates are pretty high, and victims of attempted murder don’t need to worry that they’ll be accused of “asking for it” or being told that what happened to them isn’t a big deal. To be clear, I’m not justifying jokes about homicide. 

Jokes about rape serve to make rape less serious. People who enjoy rape jokes commonly want to be told that rape isn’t a big deal, that it’s just sex, and that other people think so, too. A study of unreported acquaintance rapists done by Hinck and Thomas in 1999 found that “These individuals’ propensity to rape was significantly related not only to their acceptance of rape myths and of traditional ideas about male and female sexuality, but also to their belief that male sexual aggression is normal.” 

That doesn’t mean that anyone who’s ever laughed at a rape joke is a future rapist. What it does mean is that these jokes provide the ammunition that these people need to justify themselves and think, “Hey, rape is not that big of a deal. It’s funny. Look, they all think so, too.” 

Furthermore, the fact that rape isn’t taken seriously or that the blame is attributed to the woman keeps more women from coming forward, seeking justice for themselves, or even from getting counseling. After all, if rape isn’t that big of a deal, and if it was possibly their fault, there’s really no point. Every time a rape victim hears a rape joke, not only can the victim flash back to the rape and relive the experience in excruciating detail, but the victim also has to experience that mindfuck with the invalidation of suffering that comes with the levity of a joke. 

To sum up: 

• Rape is a type of torture, and rape victims experience severe psychological trauma that goes well beyond the physical damage.
• The prevalence of sexual assault makes it much more likely that either a rapist or a rape victim will hear a given joke about rape. 
• Rape jokes perpetuate our society’s fucked up belief that rape isn’t serious. 
• Rape jokes empower would-be rapists. 
• Rape jokes further harm the victims of rape. 

prismacolors:

[tw: mention of abuse, rape] Circle of 6 App - a free app that prevents violence before it happens

strangeasanjles:

inflateablefilth:

oldmanyellsatcloud:

aviantheatrics:

collababortion:

FINALLY AVAILABLE FOR ANDROID!!

I’m stoked about this app - it was created in response to a White House challenge to create an app to help prevent sexual violence.  It’s free. It’s available for iPhones and Androids. It could save you or someone you care about.

WHOA WOWOW WHAT A GOOD

IF YOU HAVE A SMARTPHONE THIS IS AMAZING I HAVE WANTED SOMETHING LIKE THIS FOREVER

For the linkphobic or lazy: It’s an app that lets you pre-select up to 6 of your contacts. It then has four buttons that automatically deploys a message to all of the selected numbers - a car icon that deploys a text saying “I need to get home now” that AUTOMATICALLY INCLUDES YOUR CURRENT GPS LOCATION AND A GOOGLEMAP TO WHEREVER YOU ARE, a phone icon that deploys a text reading “I need a distraction, please call me and pretend you need me”, an icon when you’re unsure or nervous about a relationship or sexual situation that sends you links to websites and resources and deploys an appropriate text, and the proverbial oh-shit button that automatically contacts two emergency contacts or hotlines of your choice

what a good app

And don’t forget: The fact that you have something that can near-instantly send a quick photograph or video to a secure e-mail server can in and of itself be a powerful weapon against multiple forms of violence before it even happens.

Your electronic eye can be a weapon in and of itself.

TW’d this cause it made me have weird feelings about my second rape because this could have saved me, I think. 

Just wow. This is amazing. Downloading as I type.

(Source: facebook.com)

mattreadsthings:

antiantifeminist:

yes good

YES GOOD MORE OF THIS

MORE ADS ACKNOWLEDGING MALE VICTIMS OF RAPE.

(Source: armenianqueen)

agvnotes:

These are the best GOP rape quotes I could find - but message me if you have more. Let’s hold these people accountable. 

1. Todd Akin: “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways of shutting that whole thing down” - mid 2012 Senate Campaign 

2. Claytie Williams: “If it’s inevitable, just relax and enjoy it” - mid 1990 Gubernatorial race in Texas 

3.  Chuck Winder: “I would hope that when a woman goes in to a physician with a rape issue, that physician will indeed ask her about perhaps her marriage, was this pregnancy caused by normal relations in a marriage or was it truly caused by a rape. I assume that’s part of the counseling that goes on.” - March 2012 

4.  Ken Buck: “A jury could very well conclude that this is a case of buyer’s remorse … It appears to me … you invited him over… the appearance is of consent.” - October 2010 

5. Rick Santorum: “I think the right approach is to accept this horribly created — in the sense of rape — but nevertheless a gift in a very broken way, the gift of human life, and accept what God has given to you… rape victims should make the best of a bad situation.” - January, 2012

PEOPLE: WE SHOULD ALL BE FURIOUS. WE SHOULD ALL GET PISSED OFF AND BE VOCAL ABOUT IT. WE SHOULD ALL VOTE. 

aboutmaleprivilege:

cheattowin:

I am over rape.

I am over rape culture, rape mentality, rape pages on Facebook.

I am over the thousands of people who signed those pages with their real names without shame.

I am over people demanding their right to rape pages, and calling it freedom of speech or justifying it as a joke.

I am over people not understanding that rape is not a joke and I am over being told I don’t have a sense of humor, and women don’t have a sense of humor, when most women I know (and I know a lot) are really fucking funny. We just don’t think that uninvited penises up our anus, or our vagina is a laugh riot.

I support Eve Ensler.  Occupy Rape.  End rape culture.

On February 14th 2013 there will be a global protest against violence and rape.

I refuse to watch as more than one billion women experience violence on the planet. I’m joining V-Day on 02.14.13 in a global strike to demand an end to the violence. ”

Please go to vday or One Billion Rising to find out more.
I will be performing in the streets of my city with the women of my circus on that day. Join the protest.

(All posts pertaining to this will be tagged #one billion rising on aboutmaleprivilege)