men can stop rape? OF COURSE THEY FUCKING CAN

I stumbled upon a link to these posters, and loved them SO MUCH. While I'm all about taking self-defense classes (if it makes you feel safer) and making smart choices (although we're all entitled to act stupidly from time to time without horrendous repercussions), let's get one thing straight. Not only is rape not the fault of the individual it happens to, it is definitely not the fault of women as an aggregate group.

Rape is the fault of men. Period. End of sentence.

Not all men. But men as a group. You have the power to influence your friends, your sons, your younger brothers, hell, even to act right yourselves. And this is a deeply powerful form of influence, because according to Transforming a Rape Culture (my light summer reading), 99% of rapists are men.

Let me repeat myself. 99% of rapists are men.

So the title of this campaign, which I deeply admire and love for its actions and intent, is a little comical. Men can stop rape? Who else if not the ones doing the raping can stop it? We women can try, bit by bit, to teach ourselves about self-defense and going out in groups and reading those scary forwards female relatives always pass along about the horrible things that await us in the big scary world. We can work on educating future generations of men about how to treat women as full-fledged fucking human beings, and to counsel each other when rape happens to our friends, sisters, and loved ones. We can do what we can to staunch the bleeding of this eternal wound of the female consciousness.

Or men could stop raping. That would, indeed, also solve the problem.

Much love,
The Sheriff