The Honorable President

1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW,

Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr./Madam President,

I am Karla Amador, a resident of Miami Shores, FL, and I am writing to you regarding the horrendous increase of rape culture in the United States of America.

Rape Culture is an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual violence is normalized and excused in the media and popular culture. It is perpetuated through the use of misogynistic lyrics, the sexualization of women’s bodies, and the promotion of sexual violence through hip-hop music or video games, and the harassment of a victim of sexual violence. The culture being fostered among American society through the media and popular culture is vile.

This year, the case of Brock Turner made international headlines over the travesty of justice that occurred. Turner, a former student at Stanford University, who sexually assaulted an unconscious woman, received a prison sentence of only six months and whose father stated that serving the six years of prison, which the prosecution were recommending, was too much of "steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life". Turner ended up being released after only serving three months of his sentence due to good behavior. Receiving only six months of a prison sentence for raping a woman is a mockery of the judiciary system of the United States, whose role is to ensure equal protection for all, only reinforced the rape culture dominating the American society.

Besides the miscarriage of justice in the Brock Turner case, the stigma, and humiliation a sexual assault victim must suffer as a result of being assaulted is further perpetuated by the predominant rape culture in our society. Survivors of these heinous crimes are asked accusatory questions such as:

• What were you wearing?

• Were you drunk?

• Did you lead him or her on?

• Do you often have one night stands?

Asking these questions to a survivor of sexual assaults reinforce the ideology of the rape culture that it is the victims' fault for being assaulted and allows society to remove the responsibility of the perpetrator who is at fault.

I am imploring you that we must begin to change the mentality of victim blaming, desensitized to sexual violence, and the objectification of women's bodies steaming from the rape culture that has seeped into American society. We cannot remain idle while every 109 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted, and allow the continuation of the rape culture in the United States. Women deserve the right to wear what they please without having to fear about the chances of her being assaulted and then later being accused of asking for trouble due to what she was wearing. I am asking you to help remove the influence the rape culture has on American society.

Respectfully,

Karla Amador