I Sometimes Wonder What the Hell Is Wrong With People
[center][big]Rape is Natural … really?!?[/big][/center]
Well, this is actually my second attempt at writing this story. The first didn't meet EP's community guidelines and my appeal was unsuccessful. However, EPKimi told me to resubmit so here I am. I suspect the reason the first story was rejected was that I quoted extensively from the EP conversation that prompted me to write this story in the first place. Therefore I've removed most of those quotes and replaced them with a link to where you can find the original conversation (for as long as EP allows such filth to stay in place).
So what is all this about you ask? Well, I met someone on EP a few weeks ago by the name of Pywacket. His views on life could not be more different than mine, which, if you know me, means I wanted to understand him better. He posted a story describing a hypothetical future proof (in the form of a news article) that God does not exist. In his story, he asks Christians, “What will you do then?” So I responded, as I often do on this subject. If you want to read the original story by Mr Pywacket and all the story comments in context, go here: <a href="http://www.experienceproject.com/stories/Believe-In-God/5627569" target="ep_blank">EP Link</a>
What followed was 179 pages worth of comments filled with hatred and venom and false claims and just unbelievable animosity toward anyone, especially me, that professed any faith in the Christian God. That’s fine. I run into attitudes like this every day here on campus; I’m used to it. But then Mr Pywacket started digging through my profile and for some reason latched onto my story from 2012 about my ex-boyfriend trying to force me to have sex.
He took excerpts from my 2012 story and its comments and started including them in his responses. Yup, in our discussion on whether or not God existed and whether or not Christianity was a vile and wicked faith, he started sprinkling in disgusting references to that day. I allowed myself to get way too involved in that conversation and I have since pulled out of the conversation completely. However, I need to draw attention to one aspect of it, because I have heard this same attitude toward sexual assault here on campus as well and it concerns me.
There is actually a school of thought out there that we are all just animals anyway and rape is part of the natural order. Yup, you read that right. I have heard these words uttered in person by guys standing in front of me. Of course, in person, such people profess that they would never do such a thing and that societal constructs prohibiting such behavior are mostly a good thing, but that it is none-the-less part of the natural order. Yup. I’ve had these conversations with guys. It’s scary.
It’s scary because it accepts that sexual assault is inevitable and natural and simply part of being the animal that we all are. I don’t want to put words in Mr Pywacket's mouth, so here are a couple of excerpts:
-- “If you weren't such an ignorant religious fanatic you would understand that a hard-wired biological imperative millions of years in the making, and passed down through the evolution of the species was driving his thoughts, his speech, and his actions. And there isn't a damn thing wrong with it. Your body is 'designed' through evolution to be raped and survive it.”
-- “Nature rewards female for being raped.”
-- “Not that long ago, he would have ignored your protests and simply overpowered you, as men have done for 200,000 years. And you would have gotten over it, and wanted him to do it again and again and again.”
-- “Had he accomplished the rape, you would have been all upset because of your beliefs, but you would also have the memory of how good it felt.”
Yes, folks, you read that right:
-- my body was designed through evolution to be raped,
-- nature rewards me for it,
-- if my ex-boyfriend had been successful I’d have wanted it (rape) again and again,
-- and I would have been left with fond memories
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In my original story I stopped about here intending to let you, the reader, draw your own conclusions and to hopefully start a dialog. However, I’ve since had another week of interaction with Mr Pywacket. In this extra fun-filled week, he has expressed some observations specifically about childhood sexual assault. He gets offended when I call them opinions or beliefs or even conclusions. They are simply his observations of fact. These next quotes (below) come from comments he made on my story about my love for my girlfriend: <a href="http://www.experienceproject.com/stories/Want-To-Find-My-Soulmate/5672914" target="ep_blank">EP Link</a>
The story comments drifted far from anything remotely related to the original post and it bothers me that a story like this is ruined by this type of crap. I am very close to violating one of my personal standards here on EP and just going and deleting all his comments on that story. For now, they are there. So here you go, Mr Pywacket on the topic of childhood sexual abuse:
-- “So the millions of girls who had sex with adults and DIDN'T have your experience are all lying? The millions who did NOT have health problems? The millions who loved the sex? The millions who looked forward to it? All wrong?”
-- “I have told you to go to Pandora's and read what the experts have to say. About the girls who had sex starting when they were very very young ... and loved it. And didn't want it to stop. Little girls who instigated it. Initiated it. Yes, they even knew they shouldn't be doing it. But they wanted to. And they did it for years. And never got caught.”
(These comments were directed to some else, not me, who had survived childhood sexual abuse.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So where does this leave us? How do we respond to attitudes like this? And when I say “we”, I am not referring to “Christians” or to “Humanists”; I am referring to any of us that believe in a just society. I am referring to any of us that believes we all, as human beings, have a right to feel secure in our surroundings.
I currently live on a fairly well known, northeastern USA university campus. My school goes to great lengths to ensure that we all know how to be safe because there is an unacceptable level of sexual violence on American campuses, but that doesn’t even compare to what is happening around the world.
-- We are now one year out from the kidnapping and sexual enslavement of the 200+ school girls in Nigeria by Boko Haram. I hope you’ve tweeted the hash tag: #BringBackOurGirls. I did. Many times. And will continue to.
-- When ISIS stormed Yazidi Iraq, many of the men were forcibly converted to Islam but the girls were sold into sexual slavery to be raped again and again. I wonder how many of them have fond memories of their rapes as Mr Pywacket would have us believe.
I am posting this simply to raise awareness and spur discussion. I think Mr Pywacket’s perspective on and attitude toward rape is dangerous. If he were an isolated voice, then I wouldn't give it another thought, but, as I stated above, I hear this attitude here on campus. I think it is partially behind the problem we have on American university campuses now. Sexual assault is treated by some as inevitable or excusable or simply part of the human condition. Treating it as such lessens the strength of the “society constructs prohibiting such behavior” and essentially encourages it. Yup, this is just my opinion and I have no data to back it up, but I do believe attitudes like Pywacket’s to be very dangerous.
[sep][sep][sep]
[b]About me: [/b]https://similarworlds.com/sarabee1995/info
Well, this is actually my second attempt at writing this story. The first didn't meet EP's community guidelines and my appeal was unsuccessful. However, EPKimi told me to resubmit so here I am. I suspect the reason the first story was rejected was that I quoted extensively from the EP conversation that prompted me to write this story in the first place. Therefore I've removed most of those quotes and replaced them with a link to where you can find the original conversation (for as long as EP allows such filth to stay in place).
So what is all this about you ask? Well, I met someone on EP a few weeks ago by the name of Pywacket. His views on life could not be more different than mine, which, if you know me, means I wanted to understand him better. He posted a story describing a hypothetical future proof (in the form of a news article) that God does not exist. In his story, he asks Christians, “What will you do then?” So I responded, as I often do on this subject. If you want to read the original story by Mr Pywacket and all the story comments in context, go here: <a href="http://www.experienceproject.com/stories/Believe-In-God/5627569" target="ep_blank">EP Link</a>
What followed was 179 pages worth of comments filled with hatred and venom and false claims and just unbelievable animosity toward anyone, especially me, that professed any faith in the Christian God. That’s fine. I run into attitudes like this every day here on campus; I’m used to it. But then Mr Pywacket started digging through my profile and for some reason latched onto my story from 2012 about my ex-boyfriend trying to force me to have sex.
He took excerpts from my 2012 story and its comments and started including them in his responses. Yup, in our discussion on whether or not God existed and whether or not Christianity was a vile and wicked faith, he started sprinkling in disgusting references to that day. I allowed myself to get way too involved in that conversation and I have since pulled out of the conversation completely. However, I need to draw attention to one aspect of it, because I have heard this same attitude toward sexual assault here on campus as well and it concerns me.
There is actually a school of thought out there that we are all just animals anyway and rape is part of the natural order. Yup, you read that right. I have heard these words uttered in person by guys standing in front of me. Of course, in person, such people profess that they would never do such a thing and that societal constructs prohibiting such behavior are mostly a good thing, but that it is none-the-less part of the natural order. Yup. I’ve had these conversations with guys. It’s scary.
It’s scary because it accepts that sexual assault is inevitable and natural and simply part of being the animal that we all are. I don’t want to put words in Mr Pywacket's mouth, so here are a couple of excerpts:
-- “If you weren't such an ignorant religious fanatic you would understand that a hard-wired biological imperative millions of years in the making, and passed down through the evolution of the species was driving his thoughts, his speech, and his actions. And there isn't a damn thing wrong with it. Your body is 'designed' through evolution to be raped and survive it.”
-- “Nature rewards female for being raped.”
-- “Not that long ago, he would have ignored your protests and simply overpowered you, as men have done for 200,000 years. And you would have gotten over it, and wanted him to do it again and again and again.”
-- “Had he accomplished the rape, you would have been all upset because of your beliefs, but you would also have the memory of how good it felt.”
Yes, folks, you read that right:
-- my body was designed through evolution to be raped,
-- nature rewards me for it,
-- if my ex-boyfriend had been successful I’d have wanted it (rape) again and again,
-- and I would have been left with fond memories
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In my original story I stopped about here intending to let you, the reader, draw your own conclusions and to hopefully start a dialog. However, I’ve since had another week of interaction with Mr Pywacket. In this extra fun-filled week, he has expressed some observations specifically about childhood sexual assault. He gets offended when I call them opinions or beliefs or even conclusions. They are simply his observations of fact. These next quotes (below) come from comments he made on my story about my love for my girlfriend: <a href="http://www.experienceproject.com/stories/Want-To-Find-My-Soulmate/5672914" target="ep_blank">EP Link</a>
The story comments drifted far from anything remotely related to the original post and it bothers me that a story like this is ruined by this type of crap. I am very close to violating one of my personal standards here on EP and just going and deleting all his comments on that story. For now, they are there. So here you go, Mr Pywacket on the topic of childhood sexual abuse:
-- “So the millions of girls who had sex with adults and DIDN'T have your experience are all lying? The millions who did NOT have health problems? The millions who loved the sex? The millions who looked forward to it? All wrong?”
-- “I have told you to go to Pandora's and read what the experts have to say. About the girls who had sex starting when they were very very young ... and loved it. And didn't want it to stop. Little girls who instigated it. Initiated it. Yes, they even knew they shouldn't be doing it. But they wanted to. And they did it for years. And never got caught.”
(These comments were directed to some else, not me, who had survived childhood sexual abuse.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So where does this leave us? How do we respond to attitudes like this? And when I say “we”, I am not referring to “Christians” or to “Humanists”; I am referring to any of us that believe in a just society. I am referring to any of us that believes we all, as human beings, have a right to feel secure in our surroundings.
I currently live on a fairly well known, northeastern USA university campus. My school goes to great lengths to ensure that we all know how to be safe because there is an unacceptable level of sexual violence on American campuses, but that doesn’t even compare to what is happening around the world.
-- We are now one year out from the kidnapping and sexual enslavement of the 200+ school girls in Nigeria by Boko Haram. I hope you’ve tweeted the hash tag: #BringBackOurGirls. I did. Many times. And will continue to.
-- When ISIS stormed Yazidi Iraq, many of the men were forcibly converted to Islam but the girls were sold into sexual slavery to be raped again and again. I wonder how many of them have fond memories of their rapes as Mr Pywacket would have us believe.
I am posting this simply to raise awareness and spur discussion. I think Mr Pywacket’s perspective on and attitude toward rape is dangerous. If he were an isolated voice, then I wouldn't give it another thought, but, as I stated above, I hear this attitude here on campus. I think it is partially behind the problem we have on American university campuses now. Sexual assault is treated by some as inevitable or excusable or simply part of the human condition. Treating it as such lessens the strength of the “society constructs prohibiting such behavior” and essentially encourages it. Yup, this is just my opinion and I have no data to back it up, but I do believe attitudes like Pywacket’s to be very dangerous.
[sep][sep][sep]
[b]About me: [/b]https://similarworlds.com/sarabee1995/info
26-30, F
