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A PSA: rape happens...a lot. (self.TwoXChromosomes)

submitted by Langlie

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[–]uhqoj 274 ポイント275 ポイント

I usually avoid anything rape-related on other major subreddits, but here I thought it was safe. Nope. I'm seriously disgusted with this thread. People are dismissing our experiences as women, in a frickin' women's sub, because they're 'anecdotal evidence'. They're citing their statistics (I know both sides are. shh. there there), getting all up in our shit about false rape accusations and totally derailing everything. This is not what we're here for, we don't need people to come here and tell us how our experiences don't count as actual scientific evidence, we're not exactly trying to portray it that way. We're sharing, we're telling the stories that make life seem scary to us. For support, to know that we're not alone in this big, bleak world of impersonal statistics and maybe to try and show people how it can feel to be a woman. To know so many people who have been raped, harassed, molested. To have had it happen to you, your friends, your family members.

There are just too many men here now. I didn't have a problem with it before, but now it seems every time I look in the comments it's full of people trying to invalidate what we have personally gone through. I am not a fucking statistic, I am a human being.

[–]garja -10 ポイント-9 ポイント

People are dismissing our experiences as women, in a frickin' women's sub, because they're 'anecdotal evidence'.

They're not being dismissed, they're being put into context. Relying on anecdotal evidence alone means dismissing the experiences of the vast majority of women. The experiences of a handful of Redditors are not more meaningful than those of the 8000 women that participated in the National Violence Against Women (2006) study, or the 5000 that participated in the Medical University of South Carolina (2007) study. Statistics try to reduce dismissiveness as much as possible, by gathering the experiences from as many varied people as possible, so that an accurate picture can be seen.

We're sharing, we're telling the stories that make life seem scary to us.

This is the problem. I'm aware that TwoX is a support network, and not a debating society. It really shouldn't be a default sub. Then this thread hits the front page as a "PSA" using the "6 out of 16" women figure, arguing that rape has gigantic prevalence and asserting anecdotal evidence as fact. It's plain misleading, and understandably controversial, and you have to expect some kind of response. The number is nowhere near 38% for the US in general, it seems to be nearer 18%:

(Firstly, according to a 2007 MUSC Study, estimates were at 18% for rape. According to a 2010 CDC study, estimates are at 18.3% for rape and attempted rape.))

(Secondly, the "1 in 4" statistic seems to come from One in Four USA which seems to cite (the citation is wrong, so we have to guess) a 2006 NVAW study that shows rape and attempted rape incidence at 17.6%, not 24%.))

I am not a fucking statistic, I am a human being.

This is such a problematic sentence, because the experiences of all humans are impossible to comprehend on a case-by-case basis. Statistics are essential to understanding the problems we face in society, and are the only way we can possibly empathise with the vast number of faces that make up our population all at once.

[–]uhqoj 26 ポイント27 ポイント

Firstly, thank you for doing exactly what I was complaining about. Really showed me.

We're not saying they're more meaningful than statistics. We're stating why some women fear men, our experiences with rape. In a way though, that is more meaningful than a statistic. Though they may not shed true light on just how many women are raped, it's a personal story, with a human behind it, as opposed to some abstract numbers that are pretty easy to disassociate from the living, breathing women around you. While statistics may be essential to understanding the problems we face in society, stories from real people are essential to understanding the emotion and reality behind those statistics.

When you pull apart somebody's original post into easily digestible nuggets, adding citations and facts and some kind of bizarre Reddit-debate format to it, what you are essentially doing is dehumanising and depersonalising a person's story or point of view. You even added statistics to my post, which was really kind of irrelevant. I didn't discuss the actual statistics, just the use of statistics. My opinion on their pace here. So what exactly was the point there? I'm not debating. Why are you, seeing as you apparently already know this isn't a debate society? Why not leave that kind of shit for CMV or wherever else it's appropriate, and where this kind of topic is discussed on a near daily basis?

I just really don't understand why all of this pseudo-intellectualism is being brought in to a personal topic. Yes, people may have stated incorrect or problematic numbers here and there. You know what's a better way of telling them that they are wrong? Maybe saying something in support of their actual point, and then kindly noting that "it's 18% not 36% though". Much more beneficial. We're talking about a horrific life event, we don't want sterile opposing opinions with people dissecting what we say.

[–]dauthik 5 ポイント6 ポイント

Ok I'm not sure you understand statistics but there's something called variance in samples, and it means it's not so unusual for 6 out of 16 to happen (about 2% if you want to do normal approximation which I'm sure someone was going to verify for me and make it seem like its a super rare occurrence.) No one asserted that it was some sort of national average.

Statistics are necessary but anecdotes are also necessary, you cannot understand someone through only numbers.

[–]lavenderblue 13 ポイント14 ポイント

Ok, so because it's one in five instead of one in four, it's ok? You realize that still means that ONE IN EVERY FIVE WOMEN IS RAPED, right? That still means that almost every woman knows someone who has been raped, if not raped herself. Jesus Christ.