Skirts

These are all skirts that I own. They range in length from my ankles all the way up to about one third of the way down my thigh. I would like anyone who thinks that what a victim is wearing makes what happens to them their fault to draw me a line. Show me where it is that my rights stop being my own. Show me where I become an object instead of a person. Show me the line where a rapist loses all self-control and simply can’t resist me. Show me where it becomes my fault. Draw me a line. People are so quick to assume that sexual assault is the fault of the victim. They were too drunk, they were dressed too provocatively. They were teasing. They were asking for it. But I know far too many people who were wearing jeans and a tee shirt. People who are shy. People who didn’t have a single drop of alcohol. But even if I were drunk, naked, and flirting with someone it still does not give them the right to take advantage of me. Intimate assault is absolutely never the fault of the victim. It is always the attacker’s fault. And we are so naïve to think that something as simple as the length of a skirt invites people to objectify and sexualize others. Rape predates the mini skirt. It has never been about what a victim was wearing. It has always been about rapists who think they are entitled to other people’s bodies. Its about the fact that we have been raising children to believe that the way someone dresses shows what they are worth.