n It’s so easy to say, when it hasn’t happened to you, that a woman should go to the police when she has been raped. Meredith Spencer was right to say that women need to understand that the horrible crime is never their fault, as understanding this may be the most difficult part of coping (“Not fuzzy pink pillows,” April 9, p.4).
But Spencer’s emphasis at the end of her column about going after the perpetrator could hurt. Such words imply that women who felt that going through the court system would be too emotionally difficult, too scarring, have done wrong and can easily make them feel ashamed once again, for something else this time. Don’t push women who have been through so much. It’s their decision, and it’s a difficult one.
Meghan Riling
CAS ’09