What Did She Expect?

This argument comes around so often when it comes to women who are sexually assaulted, raped, or attacked.

What did she think would happen...

because of what she was wearing

because of where she was walking

because she was intoxicated

because she didn't say NO forcefully enough

because she was too aggressive when she turned him down

because she was out with male friend(s)

I remember the first time I was almost sexually assaulted. I was 13 years old. My younger brother and I were at home, and it was probably 4 or 5 in the afternoon. I went to take a shower, and he was upstairs in his room. Suddenly, the shower curtain was pulled back and there stood 4 guys from my neighborhood. When I tried to grab the curtain, one guy reached for me and in the struggle, he burned my forehead with the cigarette in his hand. I guess they thought I was home alone because when I yelled and they heard my brother coming, they bolted out the back door.

We called the police, of course. I knew every perpetrator's first and last names. An officer came and, after being told what happened, he casually said that there was really nothing they could do because my brother ran them off before they could do anything.

Let that sink in.

Because they didn't get the chance to assault or rape me, they got a pass. Oh well, thank you, officer; maybe next time I'll get "lucky" enough to be violated so you can do your job.

In the spirit of this logic, I propose that we enact a Law of Expectations. A man who rapes or sexually assaults someone should 'expect' to be castrated or violated similarly. And his attacker will not be held accountable because 'what did the rapist expect would happen when he put his member where it didn't belong'?

The fact is, if you aren't part of the solution, you are part of the problem.