Post Feminism or Sexist Denial: Sexual Assault In America

By Nicole Ouimette

I run a blog on tumblr. A lot of the time I get the question, "So what exactly are you fighting for?" "Wait, women got the right to vote a while ago! Women have all the rights they need!" and of course my favorite, "Shut up feminist bitch, I'll put you back in the kitchen."

We live in a post feminist society just as much as we live in a post racial or post heterosexist one. Which is to say, we don't. Sure, women have received many beneficial "rights", rights that can be taken away with the introduction of any law or bill, but who is anyone to say that we have all the rights we need? It is another way of shutting us up and putting us down, so the powers that be can have full control over us. It's time to erase this thought that anyone has all the rights we need, because as long as we live in a patriarchal, capitalist society that will never hold true.

This will be a 5 part article dealing with the following inequalities: Sexual Violence, Economics, Domestic Violence, Mainstream Beauty Standards, and finally Politics.

Let's talk about sexual violence. Every 2 minutes someone in the U.S. is sexually assaulted.* 1 out of 6 American women will be the victim of attempted or completed rape in their lifetimes. *

I'm well aware that sexual assault/rape is not  a single gender issue. In fact it encompasses the gender spectrum, but let me be clear when I say that sexual assault/rape happens more often to those who are seen as female identified, than those who would identify as male nor any gender at all. "About 3% of American men -- or 1 in 33-- have experienced an attempted or completed rape in their lifetimes."*

Lifetime rate of rape /attempted rape for women by race:^1*

• All women: 17.6%
• White women: 17.7%
• Black women: 18.8%
• Asian Pacific Islander women: 6.8%
• American Indian/Alaskan women: 34.1%
• Mixed race women: 24.4%

The chart up above also shows the inequalities of race and rape. So, when you talk to me about how we live in a post feminist/post racial society I suggest looking deeper into the issues instead of simply denying privilege and oppression. It's a serious matter and should be treated as such. Rape should not be a punch line and when you regard it as such, it trivializes the crime, therefore rape is not taken seriously. Neither is sexism or racism.

Of course there is the issue of sexual assault/rape in adults, but we cannot forget how rampant it is in children as well:

15% of sexual assault and rape victims are under age 12.^3*

• 29% are age 12-17.
• 44% are under age 18.³
• 80% are under age 30.³
• 12-34 are the highest risk years.
• Girls ages 16-19 are 4 times more likely than the general population to be victims of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault.

What's even worse is that 93 percent of juvenile sexual assault victims know their attacker personally. So, is this a public or private issue? And what the hell does it have to do with feminism? 

LOTS!

When you have such high numbers in statistics such as these, it becomes a public issue. An issue that needs to be taken seriously, which it is not, seeing as sexual assault/rape is still occurring at high rates in this country. Feminism advocates the equality between genders, although it should be defined more as the belief to end all oppressions between gender lines, race, sexual orientation, etc. Feminism is for the abolishment of patriarchy, and although it never quite says so, capitalism as well. 

Without addressing patriarchy and intersectionalities, as well as privilege and oppression, I don't believe we can truly end sexual assault/rape. I believe we need to get to the root of the problems we face before we can claim "post feminism" or "post racial" or really "post any kind of oppressive structure". It's naive to do so, and blatantly ignorant to the problems facing millions of Americans today and every day. 


*Statistics taken from the RAINN website.