Grab Her By The P***y!

It’s 2017, yet rape culture is so normalised. Here’s how you hit back — and how to find help.

- Natalie Joy Lee

In July 2015, Emily Doe was sexually assaulted. International news detailed how the 23-year old American had attended a fraternity party at Stanford University, and was later fingered while she was unconscious by then 19-year-old Brock Turner behind a dumpster. Shockingly, Brock defended himself, saying they were both drunk, and that because she remembered nothing from that night, she could not prove she didn’t consent to the act.

Sadly, the headline-grabbing “Grab her by the p***y”-type assaults don’t just happen overseas. It happens all the time here, too. Closer to home, CLEO reader Caroline * wrote in to tell us how she was raped two years ago on her 26th birthday.

CLOSER THAN YOU THINK

Caroline knew him as her fiancé’s cousin, and so it was quite common to see Gordon * at family gatherings. They were on friendly terms, and Caroline thought he was a decent guy until the married man repeatedly hit on her on the dance floor at Zouk, whispering “I can satisfy you in bed since you don’t have anyone” — even with his wife in the vicinity. Since it was her birthday and she had eight glasses of wine (nearly three times her usual limit), she shrugged it off and ignored him. A few of them then shuttled to Gordon’s house, and Caroline tagged along.

When they arrived, she went to one of the rooms and slept. The door was locked, but the intruder entered stealthily through the toilet of a co-joined room. Gordon pounced, smothered her mouth, then tugged her underwear down. She repeatedly asked him to stop but he sexually penetrated her with his finger, then proceeded to rape her hard and fast like a maniac.”