Do you feel it?

Do you feel the heat racing through your body as if you’re trying to run away from being burned alive?

Your mind keeps running, it keeps replaying, it starts to run wild through a forest of caging negativity.

The emotional and bodily shock to your insides is a paradox that makes you feel sore to a point that you’re numb.

It’s almost like an electric shock through your whole body that doesn’t kill you physically, but tears down your insides.

After watching the entirety of the Netflix show “Unbelievable” (based on a true story), I started to sympathise with the main character’s emotions. ‘Marie Adler’ was brutally raped in her home. The rape on this programme was terrifying for anyone to watch due to the graphic images (reader discretion is advised). The young woman was tied down with shoe laces, head pushed into the bed with a cloth strapped around her mouth to prevent any screams. She was stripped naked and was, as a result, forced to be a sexual doll that broke down the essence of what it means to be a human being. The rapist was dresssed in all black, his face was hidden while his eyes were revealed. This heavy and utterly disturbing description of the rape was described to the police by Marie multiple times and even with the gory details that trickled out of her desperate mouth, she was still deemed “unbelievable.”

As a result, she was grossly charged with ‘false reporting’ and was taken to court. (If you haven’t watched it, it’s okay, I wont be sharing any other major details). Due to her background and uneasy foster care ride through childhood the police officers were quick to judge her. It’s fascinating that a woman’s credentials are assessed in order to see if they’re lying… women get raped, their truth is not something to assess!

The show within itself showcased how a working class, low income woman was disbelieved because she was seen as an attention seeker. The audience becomes trapped in her emotional state. The more she reacts to the rape in a dismissive way, the more the other characters assume she is lying. The audience becomes desperate for her to receive justice and possibly even pretend to be the ‘perfect victim’. The way in which the series evoked emotion off the audience was something I had never watched before. It allowed people to open their eyes to the possibility that women do not, in fact, lie about rape.

An extreme, violent, nasty rape was disbelieved. How are individuals supposed to even open up about purely simple rapes. Society locks out victims of sexual violence of any kind as though it could have been prevented. Constantly reaffirming that rape is not a dynamic of power imbalance, but of one’s choice to have sex. With this incessant need to prove the damn rape, the justice system, institutions, society in general completely bypass that an individuals body and mind was stripped of all autonomy. Justice is hardly ever served… and even if it is, the victim is still tainted and haunted by the crime.

Bluntly put, simple rapes are boring. No one cares. No one needs to care unless it happens to them. These enticing violent rapes are ones that society wants to know about, possibly wants to do something about. If the majority of men were subject to this sort of harassment… believe me, it would make HEADLINES. But no, it’s mainly women. So it’s just something they have to keep attempting to prevent, something they always have to be cautious of.  This is a woman’s life… a life of fear. A fear that is not taken seriously or believed before and after the crime is committed. F*ck societal expectations of rape. Let’s take this into our own hands.

You are more likely to know your rapist. Do we ever get taught this? The answer is no. It is important that we stop blaming victims for their own demise.

“BUT WOMEN LIE ABOUT RAPE ALL THE TIME!” Only 2% of rape claims are false. We are hooked onto this 2% because society tells us to do so. We are excessively told through films, books and programmes that women exaggerate the truth to attain sympathy and use the “rape card” to their advantage. But are films, books and programmes a depiction of real life? (If it wasn’t clear, the answer is no again. Also, these sorts of professions are heavily male… coincidence? I think not).

Ending with a thought, why is it that when we talk about other hideous crimes such as murder and armed robbery, we don’t question whether it happened? Do the police seek information to prove any other crime before it gets shipped through the justice system?

(I say shipped to demonstrate that cases are tossed onto a conveyer belt with the rest; turning events into numbers, facts, objective realities, rather than unpicking the fact that life, a word that solely encapsulates a subjective, emotional and blurry mess is not applicable to real life crimes.)

… believe victims of rape