You know, I love Helen Mirren, and when I read something like this, and I face-palm. It’s funny, because I happen to know a beautiful, successful woman who was raped pretty much in the way that Helen Mirren was raped, multiple times, and then turned around and said “it wasn’t a real sexual assault. I just forgot about it. It’s what I had to do.”
And I understand that perfectly. When you’re living in a society where women not only “bring it on themselves” but are furthermore forever tainted by even an implication of rape, this is what you do to cope and move on. You have to. It’s the only way.
But going on to decide who is or isn’t a rape victim? Who can or cannot press charges? No. Just no.
I don’t want to get armchair-y on you, but it seems like it’s just the pain talking. The idea that “I couldn’t press charges, so why does SHE get to?”
“She” gets to because we are trying to move on.
Please help us move on. We need your help. I need your help. The women and girls and yes, boys and men, being raped today – they all need your help. Not your judgment.
Natalia A. 