When Monica Samuel was in high school, attitudes towards sexual violence and consent were very different. A decade ago, the term “rape culture,” though coined in the 1970s, was rarely heard in public or used by mainstream media. Sexual assault and rape survivors were often doubted and considered suspect.
“It was still about what you were wearing and how you were acting,” Samuel remembers. “There was a lot of victim blaming and shaming, and folks jumped to conclusions that you shouldn’t have worn a skirt.”
In recent years, however, that conversation has shifted.
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