Rape Culture Is Real and It Sucks When I was a senior in college, I was trained as a mandated reporter and a workshop facilitator for a program that taught kids how to stay “safe, strong and free” from abuse. We went to grade schools in Champaign-Urbana and taught kids who were in kindergarten through fifth grade that they have a right to feel safe about their bodies. We also emphasized that their feelings about how someone touches them, including trusted adults, are ALWAYS valid. After each workshop, we invited them to come talk to us one-on-one about anything. I remember when a six-year-old divulged to me that her father touched her “down there.” I tried to keep my face from falling as she spoke to me. It was the first time I had to call my supervisor and draft a report. Thankfully, her father was already in jail for it—but unfortunately, that was more of the exception than the rule. I am judging us for needing such an important program, because we’re living in a world where the cycle of sexual abuse thrives and rape culture is considered a myth by too many.
