Rachel+S.+H’s+2015+OpEd+Article



I, Rachel Horiuchi, as a female agree to abide with the relinquishment of my personal freedoms in this patriarchal society regardless of my consent. I agree to abide by the degrading oversexualization of body. I agree to abide by the obligations of satisfying men as an object of pleasure. I agree to abide by the discrimination of my sex as a scapegoat for immature men that are not capable of respecting women.

If I am wearing a skirt and raped by a 40 year old man, it is my fault.

If I am tipsy and raped by a 40 year old man who, as an adult, should be mature enough to know the wrongs and how to safely get me home, it is my fault.

If I am banned from [|Haven Middle School] for wearing an article of clothing so provocative as to manipulating the behavior of boys, it is my fault. Therefore I should be commanded to dress more “appropriately” around boys who believe their immaturity is excusable.

If I am called on the streets and beaten by a man for not knowing “how to take a compliment,” it is my fault.

If I am emotionally, verbally, or physically abused by a man I reject for not knowing “how to take a compliment,” it is my fault.

If I am emotionally, verbally, or physically abused for wearing too much makeup, too little makeup, it is my fault.

If I am emotionally, verbally, or physically abused for being too thin or too fat, for having to big or too small of a “rack,” it is my fault.

If I am uncomfortable with how the bodies of women are used as a commercial product and for advertising success and called an “overreactive bitch,” it is my fault.

If I am degraded as an athlete for stepping out of the expected domestic roles of my gender, it is my fault.

If I am degraded as a human being because of my gender, it is my fault. Because a women who lives confidently, independently, and against the idea of being a necessity for men is an arrogant bitch.