THE EDITOR:
I am aghast by the number of rape cases so far reported in 2015. While it is impressive that we have been murder-free for the first two months of the year, the rapists have being going about their brutish business without serious comment from the authorities.
So far this year ten females have been brutally ravaged. To be more precise, there have been no less than ten reported rapes. Which is not to say only ten women have been sexually debauched, almost without comment. As if to show further contempt for their victims and the also victimized society, in the penultimate incident the rapist climaxed his attack by urinating on his victim. In the last incident, the survivor, a teenager, fought off her attacker but now has to live with fear and possible recriminations. Fear that the thug is still within the area and that there is imminent danger posed to her and her family; and recriminations from a rape culture which permeates our society.
Rape culture is the social licence given rapists by those who make excuses for sexual predators and blame the victims for their own rapes. In a rape culture, women identify threatened violence that ranges from sexual comments to sexual assault, touching and actual rape.
A rape culture considers normal physical and emotional terrorism against women. Rape culture includes jokes, TV, music, advertising, legal jargon, laws, words and imagery that make violence against women and sexual coercion seem so normal that people believe rape is inevitable. Rather than viewing the culture of rape as a most serious problem that should not be tolerated, people in a rape culture think about the persistence of rape as “just the way things are.”
I believe that while it is helpful to point out the systemic barriers to addressing the problem, it is imperative to not misplace the simple reality: Rape is caused by the conscious decision of a small percentage of the community to commit a violent crime. And that while understanding the concept of rape culture can be really useful in guiding efforts to stop rape by focusing on the ways that rapists exploit the culture to evade justice, it takes a concerted effort of various parties to implement immediate stop-gap measures, as well as long-term plans to put an end to this abominable act. I am therefore calling on the relevant authorities to please form a task force to target this abhorrent and relentless attack by the sons of Saint Lucia on the daughters of Saint Lucia.
— Laura Jn. Pierre