JANET BLOOMFIELD: I am now officially sick of rape culture bullsh*t.
“Yeah!” my other friend chimed in, “That happens a lot. Like girls dressing all slutty then getting drunk at frat parties…” . . .
How is it that rape culture zealots can, on one hand, insist that any woman who reports a sexual assault must be believed with no questions asked, but women who appear to have some knowledge of false accusations of rape are to be shouted down and not believed for one second? Do you trust young women to give honest accounts of their own experiences, or do you not? Or is the case that you only choose to believe what matches your pre-conceived ideas? . . .
In a few sentences, my friends had epitomized slut and victim shaming. In that moment, I felt enraged that my female friends had perpetuated rape culture.
Or, you know, they critiqued it in a way not consistent with your particular ideological stance, which is apparently forbidden? Refusing to toe the party line makes them stupid and incapable of understanding?