(hell, yeah) Scarleteen

When people think that rape is about sex, they try to address it as if the problem is somebody’s just not getting enough sex or is being “led on”. For them, since rape is about sex, they start with the premise that this is all the fault of sexual drive, and try to address it either by satiating the sexual drive, blaming others for provoking the sexual drive, or trying to eliminate either the sexual drive or the behaviour, dress or persons they believe caused it. This type of thinking leads to victim blaming, shaming of sexuality (like homosexuality, which people attribute to male/male rape and pedophilia), laws that try to cover women up or control what we can wear, and all sorts of other things that miss the real point: we need to tell people that what they want does not give them any right, any justification, any excuse to force that on another person’s body or will…

It’s like if people trying to stop murders say “we should focus on making sure people don’t cheat so their partners don’t murder them”, not only does it ignore all the other reasons/excuses why people murder, it also ignores that murder is about somebody thinking they have the right to take your life because of how they feel/what they want.