TW: Rape culture
Today, I am a feminist because:
I am constantly reminded about the fact that I live in a rape culture. On a personal best college essays level, this happens whenever I get dressed in the morning, walk down the street alone, and experience any type of gender-based harassment. This also happens whenever I read the news or look at my Tumblr dashboard: stories about six men being freed from prison after gang-raping two twelve-year old girls, reports of anti-rape protestors being escorted out of a sports stadium by police while the rapists played basketball, and the fact that the FBI has not changed it’s definition of rape in eighty years, just to name a few.
I am tired of body policing. What someone wears, how much they weigh, and what they look like should not be justification for criticism. An individual’s identity is based on so much more than their physical appearance. Every body is a “beach body.”
I am continually astonished by the way in which the media and government’s scapegoating. Just this week, and Islam has, once again, been [falsely] represented as the reason for all terrorism. Of course, there are countless other examples that illustrate this same point: shifting the focus away from the true sources of inequality and oppression, such as capitalism, enables those who benefit from these systems to maintain their privilege.
