One of the (many) weird things about the transgender bathroom laws…
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*TRIGGER WARNING: SEXUAL VIOLENCE*
Women are raped by men they meet in bars or at frat parties or at work events and told they shouldn’t have been drinking.
They’re raped in the military and told they shouldn’t have enlisted.
They’re raped or assaulted or harassed at their jobs and forced to quit or pressured to remain silent.
They’re raped at night and told they shouldn’t have been out so late, and they’re raped during the day and told they should have learned how to defend themselves.
They’re raped in skirts and told they should have worn something more modest, and they’re raped in modest clothing (or with so-called “modest looks”) and told that couldn’t have happened because no man would rape them even if they wanted to.
They’re raped in churches and literally told it was God’s plan.
They’re raped by family members and friends and classmates and coworkers and authority figures — people they’re told to trust and shamed for not trusting — and when they open up about that loss of trust, they are met with disbelief and incredulity and shock over what might happen to that person’s reputation. They are guilt-tripped over what might happen to his family, his career, his longterm welfare.
When women are raped or assaulted or harassed, they are nearly always told what they could have done to prevent it, what they did they wrong, and why they should feel shame.
What I find strange about these nationwide efforts to prevent transgender women from using women’s restrooms — based on the fear that it would lead to sexual violence — is that it’s the only particular instance in our society that women aren’t blamed (to whatever degree) for their own rape, regardless of the absence of evidence that this is a thing.
Women and girls are literally raped by boys and men everywhere else, in every corner of the globe, in every conceivable circumstance, and told they’re somehow at fault, but transgender women taking a shit are suddenly the preeminent threat to the safety of women everywhere.
We are supposed to believe that men are “posing as women” to commit sexual violence in bathrooms despite the fact that it’s clearly easier for men to rape women in any other circumstance.
What a strange, strange world we live in.
