Over Rape

One billion women on this planet have been violated. That’s one in seven people.

How many people do you know who’ve had their boundaries compromised, pushed, and broken? A lot more than you think.

It’s time people start listening to the statistics and take sexual violence seriously. It is not just a joke. It is not a laughing matter. It is not a simple misunderstanding. It is not an innocent lack of communication. And it is not ok. Not ever.

Eve Ensler puts it quite nicely in her recent column, Over It.

If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. We need to start standing up, defining our boundaries clearly and calling people on their bullshit, making them think twice about the insensitive, sexist comments they pretend to make in jest.

We all know too many people who have been affected by rape. But if we find the courage to call it what it is and stand up against those who don’t understand the many versions of “no,” we can change those statistics.