No, They Weren’t Asking For It
Note: This story originally appeared on my blog on May 5, 2016.
I just got done reading the stomach-churning story about the eighteen-year-old intellectually disabled girl, Holli Jeffcoat, who had her throat slit and her uterus cut out after reporting that her stepfather raped and impregnated her. And I read that story after seeing an update to the story about ex-NFL star, Dana Stubblefield, who currently stands accused of sexually assaulting an intellectually disabled woman last year.
What is particularly horrifying about these incidents is their very mundanity; eighty-three percent of women with disabilities will be sexually assaulted during the course of their lifetimes. And most of those rapes will never be reported.
The horrible truth of the matter is that women with disabilities live under constant threat of sexual assault because all women live under constant threat of sexual assault. And all women have to contend with that because just about every culture in the world continues to ignore, minimize, deny, and even glorify the sexual violence directed at women.
And to make matters worse, women who do come forward to report their assaults are blamed for the crime that is perpetrated against them. How many times have you heard a rape apologist question an alleged victim’s sartorial choices, previous sexual/romantic involvements, or alcohol consumption after a rape accusation is made public?
Until we start placing the blame for sexual assaults squarely upon the shoulders of rapists, women like Holli Jeffcoat and Dana Stubblefield’s accuser will continue to bear the brunt of misogynistic sexual violence.
