I was planning to write about something fun and science-tastic this week, but the news was full of the Steubenville Rape case. I found it hard to pay attention to much else. Instead of a light and fluffy Weekend Wrap-up, I felt the need to post this instead.

There has been a lot of talk about Rape Culture, and what that is. Many people don’t seem to think this is something we need to talk about, but I think it is vitally important. This is the best info-graphic I’ve seen so far. I hope it answers some questions, and outrages people enough to make some change happen.

As a female shaped person, a survivor, a feminist, a parent of a boy, and a person of the world, I feel that the best time to change our attitude is now. For the first time in memory, I have seen women and men get outraged—publicly—about rape. It seems like now is the time to take this initiative and run with it. If we are going to make our world safer for each other, we need to talk about this. We need to have open communication, we need to change our opinions that women are objects, we need to remember that consent is key. With out EXPRESS verbal consent, there should be no sex acts: no matter the mix of parts involved. Women aren’t the only people that get raped, men aren’t the only rapists. We need to remember that words can hurt just as much as actions, and we need to allow people to live their lives without fear.

I found a number of really good blogs to check out, written by women and men. If you are interested, click the links and share with everyone you know. This change starts with us.  

• Ask Moxie has an amazing letter to her sons that everyone should read. 
• Henry Rollins wrote about his thoughts on the matter, he’s pretty awesome.
• Mia McKenzie, of Black Girl Dangerous wrote a very important blog on putting rapists in cages, and if it really is the most effective way of justice. I applaud her opinion, and encourage other people to think about these hard issues.
• From The Belle Jar. I Am Not Your Wife, Sister, or Daughter. I Am A Person.
• And something for the people who are tired of hearing about Rape Culture.

Finally, I’ll close with a science tie in. Elise Andrew is the creator of I Fucking Love Science (one of my favorite Facebook pages) and recently joined Twitter. The response she got was a perfect example of why we need to change our cultural opinion of women. 

Thank you for reading about this difficult topic. I hope that I can inspire someone to change for the better. We all need to work on being more compassionate, myself included, let’s start today.