Stabbed in the Back

By Jay Klunk

The silhouette represents the victims of rape as a whole. Whether they reported their assault or not, they more often than not become a nameless, faceless statistic. The knives in the back represent victim blaming and how society essentially stabs them in the back. Within each knife is a slur/name that is usually associated with prostitutes but often gets transferred to rape victims and women in general.

The quotes in the bubbles are phrases or ideas that have been associated with rape, the first two as a whole and the bottom one with one case in particular. "You cannot thread a moving needle" is a phrase coined by English gynecologist, Lawson Tait (who helped England's police with many cases including Jack the Ripper). What it means is that if the victim put up enough resistance, then the offender should not have been able to penetrate them. The next one is referring to English common law, which transferred over to the United States when it was colonized and was not fully removed from all 50 states until 1998 (specifically in Mississippi). What it means is that statutory rape was not considered rape if the victim was not a virgin. The last quote at the bottom is referring to the gang rape of Recy Taylor. One of the offenders offered Taylor's husband $600 (one hundred for each of the offenders) for them to just forget that it ever happened.

Resources:

Eichelberger, E. (2017, June 25). Men Defining Rape: A History. Retrieved from https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/08/men-defining-rape-history/Material related to the case of Recy Taylor, an African American woman who was raped by six white teenagers in her hometown of Abbeville, Alabama. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://digital.archives.alabama.gov/cdm/ref/collection/voices/id/13938/