Clicky link: "I Was Raped: Wear Your Voice Out."

Apparently it's now a good idea to wear a t-shirt which bears the words (printed in small text on the breasts, funnily enough) "I was raped". From the article itself:

Why wear a shirt that says “I Was Raped”?

• Because wearing it lets others know that they aren’t alone.
• Because wearing it invites conversation about a silenced experience that so many women and men share.
• Because rape is a crime that someone did to you, against your will.
• Because, as Maya Angelou says, “I can be changed by what happens to me, but I refuse to be reduced by it.”
• Because you shouldn’t be ashamed that you were raped; the perpetrator should be ashamed.
• Because being public shatters the very silence that enables rape to be so common.
• Because naming what has happened is the first step toward changing the reality of rape.
• Because legal redress is rarely served, so it’s crucial to find our own justice and acknowledgment.
~ Jennifer Baumgardner, “I Was Raped” project, 2008

That, to me, is a brand new breed of bullshit. Let me go point-by-point on this one.

First of all, yes, people KNOW they aren't alone in being raped. It sort of happens ALL THE TIME.

Second, they don't necessarily want to talk about it to some random fuck sitting next to them on the crosstown bus, do they? Especially if they aren't even ready to tell their family or their friends. Rape shouldn't "invite conversation" - it's not a dinner experience or a ten-minute dating course, it's fucking rape. What's wrong with this world?

Yeah. It's a crime. Are we going to wear shirts that say "I was carjacked" or "I was kidnapped" or "Somebody took all my shit when I left my back door unlocked once" on them, too, now? Being the victim of a crime is no reason to put it on a shirt.

Refuse to be reduced by it all you want. That's great. But don't act like it's something you're PROUD of, for Christ's sake!

You shouldn't be ashamed, but you shouldn't advertise it. It's not a feature that comes with a phone, it's rape. Nobody else going about their lives separately from you wants to look at your problems printed on your chest.

Regardless of what you may think, displaying your abuse does not stop rape. This isn't a Disney movie, kids, it's the real world, and in the real world, nobody who wants to rape someone gives a bag of fucks what you think or what happened to you. Your history isn't going to make them stop and think, "oh dear, what a horrid person I am, bless my paws and whiskers."

It doesn't need to be named. It HAS a name. "Rape!" That's a name!

And lastly... how does wearing a shirt which says you were raped even BEGIN to represent justice in any way? It's not justice, it's you carrying around a reminder of your past physical abuse with you. Why the hell would you want to do that? How do you make that decision, anyway? "OH, today, I think I'll wear the top that lets everyone who walks past me know that someone had forced intercourse with me someplace. My emotional baggage matches my shoes!"


Christ's sake, people, have a little self-respect for once. All this shirt makes you look like is an attention-whore or a pity-monger... or both. The first thing I'm going to think when I see it is, "liar."