One in five women will be raped at some point in their lives. As a woman, I’m so tired of hearing “maybe it wouldn’t have happened if she didn’t dress like a hoe,” Or “why didn’t she come out sooner? It’s been years.” Women are blamed every day for getting raped like it is their fault.

Women don’t come out right away because maybe they’re still traumatized over their situation or they get tired of people not believing them or criticizing them for being themselves. A woman should not get raped because of the clothes she wears, no matter how revealing they are.
Women that have been raped are generally looked at as more vulnerable or weak, which makes them easier targets. Being identified as an easy target is being too skinny, being unconscious from alcohol or drugs or being extremely young and they can’t defend themselves. Rape isn’t something a woman can control of so why make fun of a woman or women who have been raped?
“Rape is the most under-reported crime; 63 percent of sexual assaults are not reported to police,” according to The National Sexual Violence Resource Center. Rape is the most under-reported crime because of how bad victims are criticized, judged and blamed for their own rape, as if they asked to be raped. Think about growing up in the 50’s-90’s era, women didn’t come out as rape victims because of how scared they were due to being threatened, or still having nightmares about this event that changed their lives.

Now, it’s 2019 and women are still coming out from long ago because they’re no longer afraid of the what ifs and they’ve dealt with the situations and gotten their own help to keep going. These women are letting other girls know that they’re not alone in these types of situations.
To stop this issue from happening, we need to start coming together to take down rapists and support the victims if they come out about these situations instead of degrading, and blaming the victim, so other women/girls will come out about rape if they were raped. RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) is a program that can help walk you through what happened.

RAINN
About the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hot-line
Need Help- Call (800)656-HOPE to be connected with a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provided.
How can it help you? Call the hot-line if you need to talk about what happened
Local resources that can assist with your next steps toward healing and recovery
Referrals for long term support in your area
Information about the laws in your community
Basic information about medical concerns
Is it confidential? The National Sexual Assault Hot-line is a safe, confidential service. When you call the hot-line, only the first six numbers of the phone number are used to route the call, and your complete phone number is never stored in our system. Most states do have laws that require local staff to contact authorities in certain situations, like if there is a child or vulnerable adult who is in danger.