By Kalima Y. Young

Musing #1: A world without rape is a world without men, right? They perpetuate it. 1 in 6 women have been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime. Somebody is doing it. Gotta be men, right?

Musing #2:  Oh, now I have to problematize men as a concept… should I change my statement to “a world without rape is a world without masculinity”? Most rapes are attempted by cisgender men, right? Cisgender men are masculine, right?

Musing #3:  But what about masculine women, and cisgender men who are not masculine? Let me fix it again. A world without rape is a world without patriarchy. Don’t tell me I am short sighted — rape culture is about controlling people and their power to operate in the world, and that’s all patriarchy is. Yep, a world without rape is a world without patriarchy. Done.

Musing #4:  Hold up. Without patriarchy we cannot sustain capitalism. If women are considered hysterical, irrational, and dependent, they cannot be truly productive members of a capitalist society. If they can’t be productive, dependent people deserve and should expect to be punished. So… a world without rape is world without capitalism.

Musing #5:  I like this. I think I am onto something. Rape culture and capitalism are co-constitutive. I feel smart. Something is missing though…

Musing #6: Wouldn’t a world without patriarchy be boring? What are movies, books, and art, going to be about? People being nice to one another? Gross. How is a movie or television show supposed to show a character’s development without him/her overcoming some kind of gender-based violence? Goodbye melodramas.

Musing #7: We as a species need melodrama to tell us how to exist in the world. Melodrama provides the fodder we need to concretize what we mean by innocence. Half of my DVD collection would be rendered moot without rape and rape culture. Our stories reflect and solidify our shared cultural values, ideologies,  and behavioral norms. Right now, these stories tell us that rape only happens to the most innocent of us, and is never committed by someone we know. These stories tell us that toxic behaviors are natural, and even sometimes sexy. These stories make rape a mechanical plot device — something that propels the hero/heroine to action. Melodramas tell us rape is something the innocent, victim-hero endures in order to “win”  in the end.

Musing #8: A world without rape is a world without gender norms. Depending on your gender, you should not be a victim, show vulnerability, talk back, fight back, be independent or show any kind of sexual agency. Gender norms put us in our place. Just like rape culture.

Musing #9:  A world without rape is a world where everyone’s bodily autonomy is respected from the moment they exit the womb until the moment they transition into stardust.

Musing #10:  A world without rape is a world where empathy is fully understood and embraced as a way of existing. It is a world where everyone has what he or she needs to thrive.  

In a world without rape:

                    I am a little Black girl.
                    I am safe in my own skin.
                    I am protected in the world by the systems that structure it.
                    My whimsy is seen as strength.
                    My righteousness is taken seriously.
                    My “no” is heard.
                    My world does not fall apart when I consent.
                    Nor does it crumble when I say “no.”
                    Family lore is no longer secrets. Family lore is a lesson.
                    I lay under the covers reading stories of whimsy without misogyny, patriarchy,
                    sexism,  classism, racism, heteronormativity and toxic masculinity drenching every page.
                    I learn to write those stories and make those movies for myself.  
                    This is my world without rape.

*This essay is part of our monthlong collaboration with FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture,  Rape Can & Must End*

Suggested Readings:

Derrick Weston Brown, Tafisha Edwards,  Teri Cross Davis, “Rape Can & Must End: Poems“, RaceBaitR, 2018

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Kalima Young is a lecturer in the Department of Electronic Media and Film at Towson University and a Ph.D. Candidate in American Studies at the University of MD College Park.  Her research explores the impact of race and gender-based trauma on Black identity and cultural production. A gender-rights activist and videographer, Ms. Young serves on the leadership team for FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture’s Monument Quilt Project and Rooted, a Black LGBTQ healing collective.

Her publications include: “We Will Survive: Race and Gender-Based Trauma as Cultural Truth-Telling”.  Feminist Perspectives on Orange Is the New Black: Thirteen Critical Essays. Eds. April Kalogeropoulos Householder and Adrienne Trier-Bieniek, NC: McFarland Publishers (2016); “Emancipating the Past, Spectacularizing the Present: Kara Walker, Slavery and Representations of Cultural Trauma.”  Powerlines Journal, 3.1 (2015); and “Changing America: The Emancipation Proclamation (1863) and the March on Washington (1963)” Powerlines Journal 2.1(2014).

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