In April 2013, a Canadian teen, Rehtaeh Parsons, committed suicide after alleged rape by four teenage boys and almost a year of bullying and slut-shaming (Newton, 2013). Parsons is only one example of many women who suffer from the same fate. And Parsons is also the reason why many women choose to suffer in silence. According to the national health institute of the United States of America, eighty to ninety percent of rape victims do not report it to the police (n.d). Many believe that rape is a sexual act and people with that belief often tend to judge the victims and make them a suspect to everyone including the police. Their private lives become public and they have to deal with guilt, shame, embarrassment and humiliation. This may explain why rape is not a highly reported crime. Rape is not a sexual act triggered by sexual desires, it is an act of aggression and the only way to deal with it is through …show more content…
Rape is a crime where one person forces another person to have sexual intercourse with them against their will. The offenders steal the victim’s sense of safety and stability. They steal away their trust to others and sometimes, they take away their souls. People would say, "She should not have worn revealing clothes. It is like she was asking to get raped!”, “He could not control himself! It's natural!" and "She lead him on!”. Those are excuses that are often used to justify rape, also known as rape myths. Lonsway and Fitzgerald define rape myths as “attitudes and beliefs that are generally false but are widely and persistently held to justify male sexual aggression” (as cited in Freymeyer, n.d). According to Lonsway and Fitzgerald, there are two purposes of rape myths: “to rationalize male sexual aggression against women” and “to displace blame from the suspect to the victim” (as cited in Freymeyer, n.d). And unfortunately, rape myths are very widespread today and are becoming the