It's not uncommon nowadays to hear someone say, "Well, if she wasn't dressed like that," or "she was drunk and asked me," when you hear the unfortunate story of another girl victim of sexual assault or rape. Likewise, it is equally common for these crimes to go unreported, because victims feel they will not be believed or will be subjected to further shame and humiliation. This is due to the idea of ​​“rape culture,” a term coined in the 1970s during the second wave of feminism. This suggests that the reason these actions and concepts are so common is because they are things ingrained in our collective psyche from an early age. As a victim and survivor, I believe this needs to change. The only way this will happen, however, is if we as a country take a stand now and put an end to what further perpetuates it. According to an article that can be found on upworthy.com (Rape culture is alive and well in America because Of These 6 Things, by Rollie Williams) lists some of the reasons why this heinous crime has been able to continue, despite enormous strides accomplished over the last 100 years in favor of women's and men's rights. Williams suggests that the main source of the problem is that women, or men, who are raped often don't feel comfortable reporting the incident to the police. This could be due to fear of public shame, being accused of making something up, or any number of other reasons, but the fact remains that, on average, only 3% of rapists are sentenced to prison each year. Another terrifying point Williams makes is that rape rates on college campuses have changed almost nothing over the past 20 years, which also results in people not reporting it when it happens. He suggests that this might be because... middle of paper... that it's their fault when it happens, that they should expect it to happen if they want to work as equals to men, and that we are victims and just need to get used to it. It's obvious to understand why this is a problem, but fixing it is much easier said than done. To solve this problem, we need to start teaching our children differently than we were taught. We must teach our children that women are not toys or chattels, that they are not the property of men. We need to teach our daughters that they can say “no” when unwanted advances are made and that they can defend themselves. We need to show them both that this doesn't make them weak or useless when tragedies like these occur. Change will only happen when we implement it at a young age, children will grow as they are taught. Teach them the right way and American rape culture will finally cease to exist.