Rape.
A scary and vulgar word.
A word that is so profound to some.

A word that also comes with many excuses.

They were asking for it,
The way they dressed,
The way they acted.

They were flirting,
They practically begged for it,
They deserved it.

I was walking home when it happened,
When I was raped.
When everything changed.

I will always feel the affect.
I will find it difficult to trust,
I will find it difficult to live.

People assume that I wanted it.
They say I must have asked for it,
I should have known better.

How am I supposed to know better when I have been drugged?
When I have no clue what is actually going on?

I wake up and know what has happened, feel what happened.
I get the hell out of there and when I’m far away I break down.
I call my mother, or I go home and cry, or I keep walking and act like nothing happened.

Reporting it would only draw attention and problems.

Out of 1000 rapes 310 are reported
57 are  arrested
11 go to court
7 are given a penalty
6 are actually incarcerated
And 1 person is left to deal with the aftermath, no matter what happens to their attacker.

How are we to prevent raping when the justice system allows them to walk free?
When the justice system shames and scares victims away from doing what is right?
When the justice system is so fatally flawed?

Now a final question,
Am I a man or a woman?

People just assume that because I was raped, I must be a woman.
It can’t happen to me,
I should be strong enough to stop them.

How am I to stop them when they are superior?
When they are the strong one?

I wonder if people realize that the rate of rape among men and women are nearly equal with an astounding 1.27 million women and 1.267 million men raped annually?

I know what you’re thinking.
‘So what? Two guys. Can’t be that bad. It’s what they’re use to.”

Breaking news!!!
We are still emotionally and physically damaged,
We break ties with those close to us because we have lost all trust,
We suffer PTSD and suicidal thoughts and everything inbetween.

But people assume that ‘It’s only men who rape other men, right?”

Well that’s about as true as having an effective trial for survivors!

It was a woman who did this to me.
And to 46 percent of all other male victims.

Society opens up to most possibilities these days
Such as gay marriage, abortion, transgender people.
But God forbid a man open up about what happened to him when taken advantage of,
By a man or woman.

Rape culture is one of the biggest problems in our society.

Whether you are telling a woman that she wanted it,
Or telling a man that it can’t actually happen to him.

Do you want to have kids in a world where it can happen to them so easily?
And if it does, where they will be treated like garbage,

By the justice system and anyone around them?

Where people teach them that they did something wrong?

Fix the problem before your child is left fixing themselves.