MUSE
this is MY body [ Trigger Warning: This article is a personal piece which deals with extremely sensitive topics and issues surrounding consent, sexual assault, and rape. Reader discretion is advised and please read at your own risk. ]
Image by Anthony Shraba on Unsplash
Being a woman, in my experience, means constant control and pressure surrounding the authority of our bodies. Whether it’s from the clothes we wear, to who owns and has the right to our reproductive organs, it seems as though the patriarchy always has ownership of what is rightfully ours. If our clothes are too ‘revealing’ then we’re ‘asking for it’ or we should not be allowed to have abortions because it is our duty to save a ‘life’. We are expected to have sex with men because that’s the role we are supposed to fulfil and if we do not we are being a ‘prude’ but if you have too much sex to fulfil your own needs you are a ‘slut’. And eventually when they do not wish to listen to our ‘no’ our right is completely taken away, and results in sexual assault. Rape is how our bodies get taken away from us, violated and disrespected. In January 2013, An Overview of Sexual Offending in England and Wales was released by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Home Office which revealed that approximately 85,000 women and 12,000 men (aged 16-59) experience rape, attempted rape, or assault by penetration in England and Wales alone every year. That is roughly 11 sexual offences every hour. Yet only around 15% of those who experience sexual violence report it to the police. This under-reporting statistic alone shows not only the physical control the perpetrator has over their survivors of assault, but also the mental control. They are too scared to report, too scared to remember.
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