(Source: phallocentric)

festeringfemme:

peayeahknow:

zambiunicorn:

albinwonderland:

TRIGGER WARNING: DISCUSSION OF RAPE/VICTIM BLAMING IN RESPONSE TO JENNA MARBLES’ VIDEO ABOUT “SLUTS”

realhayleyghoover:

Once again, chescaleigh tells it like it is and saves the world.

(If you don’t already watch her, she makes awesome and super funny videos about race and gender and self-respect and everything worth discussing ever. Go.)

This woman is brave, amazing, and incredibly human. Let’s all go comment and send her lots of love, okay? Because there are already a hoard of victim-blaming arseholes in the comments.  It’s hard for women to share in this day and age, especially to discuss an experience as difficult as this, on a forum as open and unmoderated as youtube. So spread the positivity my darlings ♡

This made me cry :(

Her message is so true. I can’t even begin to explain the amount of victim-blaming that I felt (and believed) for well over a year after my assault.

this made me cry. this is my rape.

this is my fucking rape.

i appreciate this woman so, so much.

a letter to each of you.

projectunbreakable:

I’m sure you’ve seen it in the news today. The headlines are everywhere and my Twitter feed is decorated with rants from various people I follow: a man running for senate named Todd Akin used the term “legitimate rape” when asked about abortion legality. He has also used a modifier in the past, stating the phrase “forcible rape”. It is clear that the reality of “rape is rape” is lost on him.

Stepping away from the abortion debate, I wanted to address this because I know how upsetting it was to read that headline at first. My heart sunk. For ten seconds, I felt a mixture of anger and sadness and frustration, as if all of the work I put into this topic just continues to fade into the ignorance of others. It’s easy to settle into the feeling of never getting anywhere if you let yourself stay that way. But I’m not like that, and I don’t want anyone else to feel that way either. Maybe I’m hopelessly optimistic. But from my experience, that’s the only way I know how to try to change the world.

So this letter is for you, whoever you are. The survivor. The sister or brother or mother or father or friend of a survivor. The activist. The person who tirelessly answers the sexual assault hotline. The shelter volunteer. The police officer, the lawyer, the judge. The person who simply feels passionate about this. Although it may seem like the opposite, Mr. Akin’s words aren’t actually setting us back. In fact, with each ignorant comment made by someone, and each time it gets into the media outlets, the topic of rape and sexual assault is becoming less and less of a taboo. For every person like Mr. Akin who says something along those lines, there are thousands - millions - of others crying in outrage. And there are even more who are finally realizing the gravity of the issue.

We are getting there. The silence is ending. Please don’t lose hope.

With love, gratitude, and optimism,

Grace

Asking For It: 6%

It is estimated that only 6% of rapes and sexual assaults are actually reported, which is a frightfully low number. I have started a new project aiming to explore the reasons behind this, which started from the #ididnotreport hashtag on twitter - where survivors or rape/sexual abuse tell of their numerous reasons why they didn’t report it to anyone. This is the first series of images - numerous things that victims are told time and time again whenever they do actually report their abuse to someone - be it a friend, parent, family member, stranger or the authorities. We live in a society of rape culture where the victim is almost constantly blamed - told that they drank too much, wore too little, were out too late by themselves, flirted too much, are too “slutty”, are too “frigid”, are making a big deal out of “nothing”, the rapist was their partner so it obviously wasn’t rape because you can’t be raped by someone you’re in a relationship with. The things that victims constantly get told by the media, the people they know, rape “jokes”, songs, the authorities…they are painted on them so that they can never forget. To remind them that it is all “their fault” - if they hadn’t gone there/drank alcohol/wore that skirt/flirted etc, it wouldn’t have happened. Obviously.
 

I intend to expand on this series of photographs in the near future, and there is a lot more to come from this project, this is only the very starting point. My aim is to bring the idea of rape culture, slut-shaming, and victim-blaming to the attention of more people. To try and examine why 94% of rapes/assaults/abuse are never reported to the police, and to try and make that number decrease.

Linzi Clark