Her Skirt was too Short

Her skirt was too short. 
Her father is not in the picture. 
She is not married. 
She did not walk down a well-lit street. 
She drank too much.
She trusted too much.

Riddled with statistics and studies, The Washington Post has chosen to further perpetuate rape culture in their recent article, “One Way to End Violence Against Women? Married dads.” I failed to make it to the end of the piece before my frustrations forced me to begin this post. In these instances statistics do not matter, color coordinated charts are irrelevant.

I cannot begin to fathom why someone would so ardently believe that it is okay to publish a post detailing the perceived faults of women who have been abused. Believing it is a woman’s fault for the abuse. Believing that a woman’s relationship status is a major component of why she was abused.

Why is it ever acceptable to blame the victim?
Why am I still asking this question?

When an abuser chooses someone to victimize I am supremely confident that they are not questioning whether or not she is married. They do not factor in whether she lives with her biological father.

I simply imagine an abuser sitting in a room right now, laughing manically. They have just gotten away with the most heinous crime and we are sitting here discussing what the woman did wrong.

excerpt from The Washington Post

According to The Washington Post, in order to feel safe, women must rely on men as a protectant from men.

But the thing is women, can’t do this alone. Though women stand in solidarity proclaiming that we must end rape culture, we rely on others for assistance.
We rely on men to teach other men how to respect women.
We rely on family and friends for support.
And most importantly, we rely on society to not disregard the actions of abusive men.