When Vodka Equals Consent

A sixteen year old girl was raped while intoxicated and possibly after being drugged. She was spit upon and profanities was sketched across her back after she passed out. Two of her attackers were acquitted, one was put on probation and the fourth has fled the country. A young graduate student’s body was found in Brooklyn after being raped, with a sock stuffed down her throat and packaging tape wrapped around her head, as one blogger said, to preserve the horror on her face. So, my question is why aren’t we rioting in the streets? Obviously, I am not advocating that women take their rage to the streets and become violent with innocent bystanders, nor am I suggesting that women start hating or blaming men for what has been done. What I am suggesting is that our society’s daughters, mothers and sisters are being terrorized, beaten, dehumanized and treated as receptacles. And why? Because they are women. Because they are seen as fragile, vulnerable creatures. Because they are causing sexual feelings to arise in men just by their mere existence. Because they were out late drinking. Because if they were men, this wouldn’t have happened.