I know I should be writing about what terrible things have been done in the past days, and what new hell Iran is planning for us, but I keep going back to the subject of rape, especially when I see these girls who were released dancing around the subject, endeavoring to explain the situation with metaphors or moments of silence, and not explaining the conclusion. They don’t describe the act itself so much as the humiliation around it, and that is the point. That they were dehumanized, and the social reaction they encountered afterward was/is a continuation of that humiliation. Not being believed, not being taken seriously, not being empowered to make what they had endured meaningful and transformational. To me, it is like high school boys laughing at the success of one of their boys to ‘conquer’ some girl, and then planning their next move on her. That is the second rape. Then, of course, the next shame is the fact that no one who knew the story would seriously date the victim. It would be a mark on their future as well as their relationship. It doesn’t matter that the victim was chosen randomly. it doesn’t matter that she would be happy to forget the incident and continue with the morality and ideals of relationship that she had before her demise. At best she is marked, at worst she is not believed.
And I’m talking about high school, not the whole world. The women and girls represent the entire country of Israel in many ways. Shamed, disbelieved, defaced, dehumanized. What you see is the guys bragging about how they overcame the sissies and have made them accessible to everyone – all the boys who wanted to humiliate the stuck-up jews in the past can now beat them up in the street and no one will stop them.
Am I wrong? Am I projecting? It doesn’t feel that way. Maybe it’s our fault for wearing tight skirts.