There is something about sexual violence that distorts responsibility. We immediately shift our focus to the victim. What was she wearing, drinking, doing? Why was she there in the first place (while disregarding that the ‘there’ in question might be her own home)? Why didn’t she say no, do something to stop it (never mind that she may have been incapacitated and unable to stop it; or that an absence of ‘no’ is not consent (an enthusiastic yes); that ‘no’ can take the shape of a flinch, a whimper, a stillness)? Even our language is passive: “she was raped” instead of “he raped her,” the perpetrator forever kept invisible in our speech and deliberations, and therefore shielded from accountability.
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