Sometimes, a boy’s hand finds its way up a girl’s skirt and it is covered up with “boys will be boys.” Sometimes, girls take advantage of the fact that “girls are the only victims,” and do not stop when being asked to.

Somebody choosing to ignore your wishes does not have anything to do with you. It does not matter what you are wearing or not wearing. It does not matter how late at night it is or how early in the day it is. No matter what, it is never your fault.

According to www.NSVRC.org (National Sexual Violence Resource Center), 63% of rape crime is not reported. This is a high number. Maybe if victims were encouraged to speak about it, rather than being bombarded with questions like, “well, what were you wearing?” or “are you sure you said no?” this number would have a chance to go down.

Rape needs to stop being treated like a non-existing crime. Rape is assault. Rape is robbery. Rape is rape. The victim may never be able to be the same person they were before the crime was committed. That part of the person is dead. The victim may never be comfortable enough to let their guard down. Their trust has been robbed. The reoccurring pictures of the unwanted sexual contact will forever be imprinted on their minds. That person has been raped.

The amount of disrespect that goes around schools and social media regarding rape is too high. There exists an entire section of “rape jokes” that in no way considers how an actual victim would feel. Imagine if they were casually scrolling down their Twitter feed and saw a clip of Jason Momoa saying how he liked being on Game of Thrones because he “got to rape beautiful women.”

Rape is something that needs to be addressed because so far, it does not hold the attention it needs. Hopefully, victims can start feeling like the actual victim instead of the instigator.