Rape Culture Has Convinced Me to Find a New Job

In a world where 1/3 of women are sexually assaulted in their lifetimes, being a rideshare driver has always had its risks. I mean, after all, you are letting total strangers into your car late at night, but between my stun gun and the fact that the app tracks you, I haven't been too terribly worried.

Until this week. This week broke me.

This week I have been forced to re-live trauma from six years ago every single day.

This week I was virtually slammed with headlines chalking the act of gang rape up to simple "sexual misconduct." This week I witnessed people making absolutely abhorrent comments to women who were brave enough to step forward and re-live their trauma. I mean, shit, these women are bringing up the darkest chapters of their lives just to save us all from having a rapist on the Supreme Court. That's hardcore.

However, because of everything going on, I'm afraid of my job now.

Now listen, I'm no stranger to being hit on in my car. I'm a woman in my 20s (and I do a bang-up Australian accent, which tends to garner up some pretty good tips.) I know it's bound to happen, but there are times where it goes beyond a reasonable level of flirting. I've had men make very disturbing comments about my body, harass me for my real phone number and for dates, and I'll never forget the one time last Thanksgiving where a guy thought it was acceptable to put his hands on me. I do sometimes feel like a Hooter's girl on wheels. (Zero offense to Hooter's girls, they don't deserve it either, but job-wise they experience waaaay more harassment than most other jobs.)

So, even though those things have already happened to me, why am I just now becoming afraid? Allow me to explain:

We are at a pivotal moment in our country's history in which the President of The United States is aggressively and passionately denying THREE separate women's claims that Brett Kavanaugh is guilty of sexual assault on multiple accounts, in spite of the false accusation rate for sex crimes being about 2-8 percent.

This sends a clear message that it's okay. That you can officially and unabashedly get away with it. That you can sexually assault multiple people and still have the president's full and complete support to become a Justice of The Supreme Court. As of right now, 994 out of one thousand accused rapists never serve time, and I fear that that number is going to increase in the future.

It's not okay. It's scary, and I want it to stop.

I now know that if something were to happen to me (again,) it would be "my fault." My fault for driving at night. My job for letting strangers into my car. My fault for existing as a woman. My fault.

Just like it's Christine Ford's fault for drinking. Just like it's Debbie Ramirez's fault for drinking. Just like it's Julie Swetnick's fault for, guess what? Fucking drinking.

Fewer and fewer of us are going to report now. More and more of us are going to stay silent for fear of being poked and prodded only to have our rape kits collect dust for years. More and more of us are going to stay silent for fear of being treated like bugs under microscopes. More and more of us are going to stay silent for fear of the endless barrage of irrelevant questions ("What were you wearing?" or, more recently, "Why did you wait so long to say something?" etc.) This has been a glaring problem in our society for a long time, but it's about to get worse.

So now I feel that I need to find another job. I need to cut the money-making hours at a job that I have, that I'm for at, and for the most part, have LOVED for over a year because I don't feel safe.

I'm a person, not a headline.