About That Cornell Thing
You men, you’d know, right?
Hi, you men out there!
Heard about that Cornell fraternity rape thing? Yeah, it seems to be getting some attention lately.
I know, I know, doesn’t affect you. You’ve never raped anybody, you don’t know anyone who ever raped anybody, you don’t know anybody who has ever been raped.
I mean, if somebody you know had been raped, you’d have heard about it, right? Makes sense.
I mean, you listen to the women in your life, right? Sure, of course you do.
So yeah, you’d know.
You’d know…
…why she had to take care of something somewhere else when that news item came on…
…why she was tired and went up to bed while you were watching that streaming show with the sex scene…
…why she got quiet when her family was talking about that vacation they went on a few years ago…
…why sometimes she needs to be held, and sometimes she can’t stand to have your arms around her…
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…why you haven’t seen that friend of hers in awhile, maybe they had a fight or something…
…why her grades went south, because of “those lousy profs” that semester…
…why she dresses rather conservatively “because that’s how I was brought up” although her sisters never do…
…why college wasn’t such a good idea after all, even though she loved it at first…
…why she can’t listen to that one song when it comes on the radio…
…why she drinks so much now, when she never did that in high school or college…
…why she freaked out when she saw her old boyfriend on the street the other day…
…why she prefers to get undressed in the dark…
…why she was excited about her class reunion until she saw the guest list…
…why after you ask her mom if everything is okay with her, her mom says, “She’s fine!” and changes the subject…
Nearly one in four women in the US experience rape. Nearly half (44%) experience some sort of sexual violence.
But yeah, you’d know, right?
You need to listen to what the women in your life are not saying out loud.
A nod to Linda Caroll, who got me thinking, as she does.
