Rape
...and pavement shining from yellow streetlights that carve out a path from the parking lot to the back door of my building. Living on campus at Towson I should've owned mace, but I clutched my car key instead, pointed outward ready to stab the eye of anyone deciding to come out of the dark after me. The brisk walk up the hill seems to take half an hour. Finally under the bright lights of the overhang I swipe my card quickly to get inside. The door bolt locks behind me with a loud click. I'm safe.
This is the typical scenario were one would assume a rape to take place. When people think about rape, they usually think of a stranger with a knife hiding in the bushes. He waits for a woman to walk by and then attacks. However this is far from the truth. The majority of victims are raped by individuals they know or who are acquaintances. This type of rape is known as "acquaintance rape." Eighty percent of all rapes are, in fact, acquaintance rapes. (CallRape) One kind of acquaintance rape is called "date rape," in which a man and a woman go out on a date together and forces her to have sex when she does not want to. Date rapes typically occur when a woman is alone with a man. If a woman goes to a man's room or apartment, or even get into his car alone, she is vulnerable. Date rapes can also occur when others are relatively close by; for example, they can happen in an upstairs bedroom while fifty people attend a party on the first floor. Most girls don't think to reach for mace or car keys in these situations. They don't think about easy escape routes or who's within shouting distance. We shouldn't have to. Unfortunately it is an issue that needs to be discussed. Awareness is the most effective weapon women have against this horrible and often unreported crime.
Many of the attitudes, beliefs, and mistaken ideas about rape have been with us for...
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