Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

Courageous Conversations

Challenges around changing the culture around how we treat each other

Some time ago before I left the country in late fall I received some comments from a gentleman who calls himself Marsh Middleton (it’s a pseudonym). What he had to say was important enough for me to ask permission to share them. He gave it. This was in response to my piece that was published a while back in Fearless She Wrote.

Here you go:

I, too, am a feminist by definition. There is not a single word you’ve written here that I disagree with.

I do take issue with some points that are often discussed in relation to rape. For example, I frequently hear that giving young women advice about protecting themselves from rape is “blaming the victim” and “supporting the rape culture.” And, “instead of telling a female college student not to go home with a man she just met for the first time in a bar, we should be telling men not to rape.”

Sure, in theory, a woman should be able to go home with a stranger without the fear of being raped. And in theory I should be able to stand on a street corner at 2 a.m. in the worst part of town, waving a wad of $100 bills, without the fear of being robbed. Unfortunately, neither of those is reality. I will continue to tell anyone who’ll listen that those are…