Myth: Any woman could prevent rape if she really wanted to. Women can’t be raped against their will.
Fact: A rape victim’s first concern is to survive in the moment. When faced with a violent attack against a person’s physical self, his or her body will respond in whatever way most likely guarantees survival even if it seem illogical to an outside observer. This response is often referred to as the Fight, Flight, or Freeze response. No one but the victim can say what he or she is or “should be” capable of during an attack.
Myth: Most of the time rape occurs because a woman is “asking for it.”
Fact: Nobody asks to be raped. Rape is a violent, humiliating, and degrading attack in which the victim often fears for his or her life. Sexual assault and rape are crimes where the perpetrator seeks power over a victim and forcibly takes it from that person. These are not crimes about sexual gratification. No person, regardless of their dress or actions, asks for or deserves to be raped.
Myth: Women frequently falsely report rape to “get back at” another person, put themselves in the spotlight, or push a political agenda.
Fact: Studies show that false reports of rape and sexual assault is no higher than that of other violent crimes. In fact sexual assault is the most under reported of violent crimes in the United States with an estimated of 63% of crimes going unreported according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s statistics.
Myth: Only women are victims of sexual assault.
Fact: Sexual assault is a universal crime. It can happen to anyone regardless of a person’s race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age, gender, sexual orientation, etc. Sexual assault can happen to anyone and effects everyone.
Myth: It’s not like she was hurt, Women should just be able to “get over it.”
Fact: Women have a 50% to 95% chance of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after experiencing a rape. Being a victim of sexual assault is a highly traumatic experience. Often attacks are violent and victims fear for their lives.
