i think about rape a lot because i'm an abolitionist and i was raped in the classic Violently Raped By A Stranger way. when i talk about prison abolition with people i often get that push back of like "yeah sure but we still need prisons for rapists and for murders."
putting that guy in prison wouldn't have done anything for me or even for anyone else. rape doesn't stop because we put every rapist in a cage, because a rapist isn't a kind of person. and because everybody can rape and everyone might rape. rape also doesn't happen because of opportunity (not necessarily). it's like, rape happens because it is part of the processes that reconstruct the world we find ourselves in. rape is a force (one of many) that drives gender and racial subordination, which are needed for capitalism to work. rape happens because it has to.
black men and women are raped to reinforce racial hierarchies, women are raped to reinforce their subordination to men and to reconstruct the nuclear family, trans women are raped to dehumanize us. rape is a deterrent and rape is productive. we're raped because we are a threat.
when people say like "what about rapists?" i say there aren't any. i wasn't raped by a person, i was raped because it was necessary.
