A brave French woman prevented her own rape and secured the attacker’s conviction by biting his tongue off. The attack happened in Toulouse in the south of France. The nineteen-year-old victim was followed home. When she got there, her twenty-four-year-old attacker followed her into the elevator and attacked her there.
The man was demanding to have sex with her, and he “violently” pulled her clothes down. She allowed him to kiss her, and when he went in for the kiss she bit off part of his tongue.
Emergency personnel arrived soon after. They told all hospitals to be looking for a man with his tongue torn up. The attacker was found at a local hospital and arrested. They matched his DNA to the blood at the crime scene.
Sexual assault is an issue around the world. Many still blame rape victims for their attacks. They say things like: “She was asking for it.” Here is a list of some of these victim-blaming things people say and do, some of which include blaming the woman’s clothing for the attack, or not believing that it was rape.
A photography exhibit by Katherine Cambareri, a student, shows what women were actually wearing when they were attacked. She aptly said:
“Sexual assault is about power and control. There’s no correlation to what a person was wearing.”
Unfortunately, some Republican politicians are perpetuating the idea that a woman’s sexual assault is her own fault. Failed presidential candidate, John Kasich, said that women shouldn’t go to parties where there is alcohol to prevent sexual assault.
Model, Amber Rose, has spoken out about victim blaming and is trying to raise awareness of the real meaning of consent. We need to stop blaming women for their assault, and we need to teach men not to see women as objects.
Here is a video of Amber Rose talking about consent (Warning: NSFW):
Featured image by Charlotte Cooper via Flickr, available under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
