VICTIM GAZING AND OCCLUSION

HOW CULTURE VEILS A RAPE DILEMMA

Warning: This article presents topics that may be triggering for victims of sexual assault, violence, or harassment.

It’s fair fact these days to acknowledge we live in a culture deeply marred by sexual victimization. It’s part of college life. Rape is happening in the military, prisons, and other correctional facilities. You’ll find it at scout camp, in boarding schools, even at church. But if you aren’t a person of color, a woman, gay, lesbian, queer, trans, underaged, or another frequent target of sexual assault and harrassment, it may be easy to remain numb to the concern. If it hasn’t happened to you, you’re actually part of a shrinking population of Americans.

Many of us have no way of not looking at it. It’s in a lot of reality television and openly discussed in politics. It’s there whether you’re looking for anything “sexual” or not, but yes, i…