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I am so tired.
I've been up now since 5:15 this morning, when Chris went out the door. I've been to jury duty, driven home, gone to my first BARCC training and came home again. I paged the Boyfriend and managed to chat about our days without letting my mind wander off our conversation. Now I am so exhausted I can hardly see straight, and yet I am sitting here typing a diary entry instead of going to bed.
Why?
Two reasons. One, my head is still processing everything that was discussed tonight. And two, my upstairs neighbors are rearranging their furniture again. I swear, if it's not the furniture, it's bowling in the hall, or practicing in case the entire cast of Stomp falls ill and they have to take over.
I will not miss them when it comes time for me to move out of here.
Some of the myths we talked about tonight, followed by the facts that are much less known:
Rape only happens to girls
Every 60 seconds, one woman in America is raped. Every hour, 78 women are raped. Every day, 68,000 women are raped. Every year, 630,000 women are raped. One in four girls will be raped before the age of 18. One in seven boys will be raped before the age of 18. In 1995, 32,130 American mailes ages 12 and older were victims of rape.
Only grown women with no morals get raped
Rape happens to all people. Teens 16-10 are 3.5 times more likely to be raped. Women between the ages of 18 and 24 are at the greatest risk for rape. One in 12 men over the age of 18 gets raped.
Rape only happens with strangers in dark alleys
80% of rapes happen at home. People the victim knows commit 65% of rapes. 28% of victims are raped by their partners, and half of those by their husbands. 35% of rapes are committed by an acquaintance of the victim, 11% by fathers and stepfathers, 5% by other relatives. 80% of all rape is intraracial (white men with white women, black men with black women, etc.).
It's not rape if you are married or have had sex with the person before.
It's rape if the person says no, either verbally or otherwise.
Only men rape
Women also rape, although men commit the majority of rapes.
Women are "damaged goods" if they have been raped.
Being violated by someone else does not determine your self worth.
Only gay men rape other men
The same ratio of homosexual and heterosexual men rape.
Rape is about sex, hormones and horniness
Rape is about power and control.
Some other sobering statistics: Only an estimated 5-20% of rapes are reported. Only 2% of all cases that are prosecuted result in a conviction. Of those men convicted, 60% are married men who have average sex lives with their wives. Only 5% of those convicted suffer some some kind of mental or clinical disorder.
No wonder my head is spinning.
The furniture move seems to have ceased. I'm going to try to get some sleep now.
Have a good night all, despite the scariness of my entry above.
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