“We still don’t know how to talk about Pennsatucky: The reality of rural sexual assault and how class plays out in “Orange Is the New Black””
“Recent analyses of rural sexual assault in Pennsylvania — where 60 percent of its counties are rural and home to about one-third of the state’s population — using data from the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape and the Pennsylvania Office of Children, Youth and Families found that rates of rape and child sexual assault were significantly higher in rural counties than in urban ones. They also found that the eight highest rates of rape were in rural counties, and included the three most rural counties in the state.
Nationwide, experts believe the available numbers on rural sexual assault underestimate the problem. A 2003 report from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center found that in rural areas, the numbers of those who seek crisis services far exceed the number of reported rapes. The NSVRC hypothesizes that underreporting, a major factor in all states, is especially pronounced in rural areas because of the low population density, which means victims probably know or have significant relationships with their attackers…
I suspect that stereotypes about poor rural whites and Appalachians contribute to our tendency to view Pennsatucky as an irresponsible woman who has brought sexual destruction upon herself, or as an unfortunate product of a brutally impoverished culture — or both — rather than reading her rapes as emblematic of an important feminist and humanitarian issue. Women in rural places are at an especially high risk for rape and sexual assault due to structural, not personal, factors.”
Related: “What’s killing poor white women?”
