Book Review: Rape is Rape
Rape is Rape: How Denial, Distortion, and Victim Blaming are Fueling a Hidden Acquaintance Rape Crisis by Jody Raphael
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
After reading this book, I truly know I’m not alone. The way I was treated after my rape by the police, my community, and my friends is, quite unfortunately, par for the course. In fact, some of the examples in this book show me just how much worse it could be. We live in a culture where rape victims are habitually not believed. Their rapists go on to rape rape rape some more. Police minimize the report, as the Dallas PD did with mine, treating the victim with indifference or, worse, blame and contempt. There were even cases where the women were charged with underage drinking or making a false police report because of the lack of physical evidence.
I applaud Jody for writing this book. It’s a brilliant piece of work that should be read by every person in America. It is imperative to realize just how prevalent rape is in this culture. We must, as a society, revoke rapists’ social license to operate and believe victims when they come forward. A woman is raped every 1-2 minutes in the USA, and few of them are believed. *We* perpetuate a society where women are not believed and rapists are protected by victim-blaming, making rape jokes, and minimizing assaults as “boys will be boys” or “he said she said” nonsense. “We weren’t there, how could we know what really happened?” “It’s probably just a case of love gone kapluey.” “She’s just hurt and lashing out.”
The myth that women often lie about rape has become so ingrained, the first thing anyone thinks is that she must be lying. The reality is false reports are between 2 and 8%.
Only 3% of rapists see even one day in jail.
Only 14% of cases ever go to trial.
Juries continue to release rapists based on “reasonable doubt,” which often is the rapists’ word that the encounter was consensual.
Read this disturbing book and face reality. Please. I understand all too well how horrific this all is, as I’ve lived it. Before I was raped, I never would’ve read this book because I didn’t want to face the reality of rape. It was too terrible to consider. Now, it’s my only reality.
Know that most rapes occur by people the victim knows. Over 85%.
Please. When you hear someone say they were raped, go against the cultural norm and believe them. Support them. Let’s turn this around.
Caught in the Cogs 