Little Rachel Riding Hood, Page 6

PANEL 1

Rachel looks terrified in the dark forest as a shadowy wolf-like figure looms behind her.

RACHEL: "A stalker? A rapist?!"

PANEL 2

Rachel crouches in the forest, trying to calm herself. The moon is visible in the night sky.

RACHEL: "Calm down, now. You need a plan of action. What would MacGyver do?"

PANEL 3

Rachel whips around suddenly, her cloak flowing dramatically.

PANEL 4

Rachel swings her basket at a wolf creature.

SFX: CHUNK

The basket makes contact, sending items flying.

PANEL 5

Close-up dramatic shot of Rachel facing off with the wolf. The wolf has glowing eyes and looks dazed from being hit. Rachel has a determined, fierce expression.

Rachel always resorts to violence first. Sigh.

It is interesting being a female. Any time you walk alone past a man or some men at night or in a strange setting, you get tense, like you’re entering hostile territory where you could be attacked at any moment. And yet so many rapes are perpetrated by boyfriends and friends and family, not complete strangers. The world just does not allow us a moment to relax. That’s really shitty. Maybe we need signs that say things like “Friends don’t let friends force themselves on unwilling partners!” in high schools.

I remember hearing a story on the radio once where a law teacher mentioned how after he would cover rape and what it is legally defined as (i.e. any time someone has said “no” and the other person disregarded it), after class many girls and boys would come to him, eyes wide, deeply disturbed that they had been raped or had raped at one point in their lives.

There are many kinds of rape. None of them are consensual. No means no. Teach your sons and brothers. No one else will. Hold them accountable for their actions.

Comments (Archived)

  1. ElectricHarpsichord

    There’s an ongoing campaign called “Men Can Stop Rape”. They’ve got a lot of good resources, including these amazing posters: http://www.mencanstoprape.org/11-Posters.html

    • Rachel the Great

      Thanks, these are really great! Maybe I can post some up locally.

  2. ElectricHarpsichord

    Oh, there’s also “My Strength is Not for Hurting”: http://www.mystrength.org/ . They’ve also got great posters (that you can download for free!). My favorite one is “My strength is not for hurting. So when I wanted to and she didn’t, we didn’t.”