NO BLURRED LINES

On 3 November 2017 I was raped. Your writer ( The provocateur, 29 Jan) asks why women don’t just leave if they are in a situation they don’t like. I have asked myself this too, but if someone doesn’t stop when you ask, or when you beg, how do you know they will let you leave without turning more violent? If you are frozen in fear, how do you make the jump to running? I’ve read that women are more likely to disbelieve other women’s accounts of being raped, as they don’t want to think they could be in that situation, that they’re smarter. Your writer expresses a view that is dangerous and makes victims of sexual assault feel more guilty. When I called the rape crisis helpline, the counsellor told me it was not a crime to go out, to go on dates, to have a drink or to go and stay at the house of someone who’d made you trust them. Sexual assault is a crime. Don’t give a platform to writers who wish to blur the lines. Name withheld