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porcupine-girl:

rape culture is what teaches rapists that they aren’t rapists.

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See, to actually fight rape culture you need to say “Sex is always optional. You are never obligated to have sex.” You must always be concerned with consent, and that means you must accept that the answer may very well always be no.

Sex Positivity is Rape Culture in Disguise (via ninjabikeslut)

I agree with this quote but I really hate that sex positivity is being equated with the idea that sex is always good and you should always say yes to it. That’s not what the sex positive movement represents at all. Sex positivity is about respecting people’s choices and enthusiastic consent being a requirement of sex first and foremost.

(via misandry-mermaid)

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“Being touched by a stranger and told that I was beautiful didn’t make me feel more beautiful; it made me feel unimportant. It made me feel like what I wanted – to go from home to work with a quick stop at Starbucks on the way, without being harassed – didn’t matter. What mattered most was that this man had an opinion about me, so I had to hear it whether I wanted to or not. He wanted to touch me, so I was going to be touched, by a stranger, whether I wanted it or not.”

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Rejection

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In San Francisco last year, a man stabbed a woman in the face and arm after she didn’t respond positively to his sexually harassing her on the street. In Bradenton, Fla., a man shot a high school senior to death after she and her friends refused to perform oral sex at his request. In Chicago, a scared 15-year-old was hit by a car and died after she tried escaping from harassers on a bus. Again, in Chicago, a man grabbed a 19-year-old walking on a public thoroughfare, pulled her onto a gangway and assaulted her. In Savannah, Georgia, a woman was walking alone at night and three men approached her. She ignored them, but they pushed her to the ground and sexually assaulted her. In Manhattan, a 29-year-old pregnant woman was killed when men catcalling from a van drove onto the sidewalk and hit her and her friend. Last week, a runner in California — a woman — was stopped and asked, by a strange man in a car, if she wanted a ride. When she declined he ran her over twice.

Street Harassment: Is a Man Running Over a 14-Year Old Girl for Refusing Sex Serious Enough? | Soraya Chemaly

FUCK YOU if you think that street harassment is a “compliment” or “no big deal” or that it’s “irrational” of us to be afraid because “what’s actually gonna happen.” Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you some more.

(via brutereason)

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it ok to not be ready

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Warning: This piece contains material about sexual assault that may be upsetting to some readers.

Sexual assault wasn’t a problem on my radar until it happened to me. But two and a half years ago, I was assaulted over the course of two nights, in a foreign country, while involuntarily intoxicated. This led to chronic clinical insomnia, job loss, a suicide attempt, 16 months of severe clinical depression, and a year off from school with short stints of homelessness and alcoholism.

So, since then, I haven’t really had a choice but to think a tremendous amount about sexual assault and its consequences. I can’t, by any means, know what sexual assault is like from a woman’s perspective, but I’ve talked to dozens, if not hundreds, of female survivors/victims (different people prefer different terms, so I’ll use them interchangeably), and I share with them similar emotions and experiences.

After all that, I’ve realized that most of my male friends don’t really have much of a handle on how serious, widespread, and complex sexual assault is. I didn’t, either. So I’m writing this with the aim of helping men, in particular, grasp certain nuances about sexual assault, which will help prevent them, you, anyone from unintentionally behaving in a manner that promotes assault or re-victimizes survivors.

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So in case people are wondering in Canada poking holes in condoms or otherwise tampering with birth control has now been classified as sexual assault because it coerces the conditions by which consent is obtained.

A man in Nova Scotia poked holes in the condoms hoping to get his girlfriend pregnant so she would be forced to stay with him. She did become pregnant and had an abortion and filed charges. The supreme court of Canada upheld the ruling today unanimously. This is a big step forward to helping get rid of rape culture.

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It doesn't matter what you think about the pop music machine or the supposed authenticity of bands like One Direction who comes out of televised talent shows. Harry Styles is a young man with incredible visibility and he is adamant that women deserve to be respected and valued. Relationships with women are not a game. Girls are not disposable playthings. We are not commodities. We are not accessories to a man's life. We don't exist to satisfy their desires. Harry Styles doesn't engage with misogynistic questions and he refuses to just go along with the bullshit that's thrown at him. He's taken his platform and transformed it into a space that protests the objectification of women, and the most important part is that he is not self-congratulatory about it. Way to be, Harry Styles. 

I really like Harry Styles: the way he treats women. A lot of the time, the way it’s portrayed is that I only see women in a sexual way. But I grew up with just my mum and sister, so I respect women a lot.

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34% of trans women who had attempted to access shelters were denied entry outright. Of the respondents who did manage to access a shelter, 25% were evicted after it became known that they were trans. 55% were harassed by shelter staff or residents, and 29% of trans women were physically assaulted. 26% were sexually assaulted at shelters. Overall, 47% were treated so poorly that they chose to leave the shelter.

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One of the BEST YouTube comments

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Nooooooooooooo 

A man's "sexual freedom" does not come at the expense of a woman's autonomy. 

There are no words. 

"If a woman has [the right to abortion], why shouldn’t a man be free to use his superior strength to force himself on a woman? At least the rapist’s pursuit of sexual freedom doesn’t result in anyone’s death."

-Something Maine lawmaker Lawrence Lockman actually said

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This past weekend, a group of activists blanketed the National Mall with a monument to rape survivors made out of 100 quilts.