Reputation

 TW: mentions of sexual assault and rape

He kept on asking her. She kept saying no. And because no is apparently not an answer, he grabbed her wrist. She pulled away, and he yells "B*tch!". Because saying no is wrong. Why would she say "no" to him, a person she doesn't like, doesn't know? 

She opened up about her experience. She talked about how he assaulted her, and what did she get? A slap on the cheek. A reputation. A name. Sl*t. because even though she didn't ask for it, she fought against it, its still her fault right? And she shouldn't have talked about it because "what will they think of you?". Why is it never "what will they think of him?".

She thought she was being careful. How wrong of her. How Naive. She trusted him. And yet, he took advantage of her. If you're not safe from people you trust, if you're not safe from people you don't trust, who are you safe from? She wasn't cautious enough, she was too trusting. What about "he was wrong?" "he stepped over the line"?

She got married. Her mistake. Because he took away her voice. Was she just his Property now? Could she never say "no" now? Is it the 'duty of the wife' or is it just a controlling husband? His hand over her mouth, her thoughts were never heard again.

She enjoyed wearing what she wanted. What she felt confident in. Until she was assaulted for it. Until she was raped for wearing clothes that were "too revealing". "She was asking for it", "She was being Promiscuous". No, she wasn't. She was existing, as a woman, comfortable in her own skin. 

“You asked for it” “Cover-up, you’ve embarrassed us enough” “Boys will be boys”.....sound familiar? Well, if it doesn't, trust us when we say, you are luckier than every other female who has experienced one of her worst nightmares and then been blamed for going through it. 

When it comes to sexual assault, many a time our society puts the victims on trial. It isn’t just her demeanour that’s attacked but it's her lifestyle, her choices and any other excuse they can find. Everyone knows who’s really to blame BUT WAIT! He’s a boy, it’s his tendency or he had too much to drink so let’s just keep it under wraps. Being raped or sexually assaulted is an incident that can scar her forever; something that can leave a part of her feeling torn apart regardless of how long it might have been since the traumatising occurrence. Yet, our society finds ways to make her feel ashamed, make her believe she was guilty. “Sl*t!”.“Shut up wh*re!”; just a few examples of extremities people resort to rather than accepting that it was him who was at fault; that she was WRONGED not IN THE WRONG. She’s scarred, but the attacker is living it up; she’s numb but her attacker is perceived as a star; she’s clinging to her sanity with tears streaming down her face but her attacker is untouched and living proudly. The assault doesn't stop; it just turns into shameful eyes to her face and whispers behind her back.

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