Thinkprogress Gets It All Wrong on Rape

By Joelle Casteix
Worthy Adversary
May 7, 2013

http://theworthyadversary.com/1874-thinkprogress-gets-it-all-wrong-on-rape

Note to ThinkProgress blogger Tara Culp-Ressler: You got it all wrong. A RAPIST is the one who makes the victim feel worthless, dirty and filthy. Not the victim’s educational background. And using Elizabeth Smart? That’s pretty low … Are you blaming her and her faith for how she feels about the crimes committed against her?

It doesn’t matter if the victim is a prostitute or a Mormon, or if she received abstinence education or was schooled in a free-love philosophy. She will feel ashamed. She will feel violated. She will feel dirty and disgusted.

Why? Because rape is not about sex, as Culp-Ressler and ThinkProgress are insinuating here. Rape is a crime of power. By making the shame a victim feels afterward attributable to her education on sexuality, Culp-Ressler is embracing a philosophy similar (but far less intense and fatal than) Honor Killings, where rape victims are killed because they have been sexually “ruined.”

Again – Rape is not about the sex!

Shame on Culp-Ressler for trying to place the blame on how a victim was raised. It’s just as hurtful and damaging to victims as asinine comments about “legitimate rape.”

Let’s place the blame where it belongs.

Note: Before I am called any names – I am NOT a fan of abstinence education. Nor do I practice any religious faith.