TO THE EDITOR:
After reading this week’s letter to the editor in the DTH about how the “Rape-Free Zone” T-shirts send a misguided message, I decided that I might have to reply to the contrary.
Taking some wording from the Project Dinah Facebook events page, a “Rape-Free Zone” is a community effort to demand an end to sexual violence.
On that note, it is not the individual donning the T-shirt that makes up the “Zone”; it is the collection of people, a mix of survivors and allies, who sport their neon green shirts to make a bold statement that there are many people in our community who are committed to creating a safer environment.
Furthermore, the pledge on the back of the shirt is not superfluous because rape is a crime of control, power, and inequity, and one that many individuals shape their daily behaviors around out of the fear of becoming victims.
Taking a stand against sexual violence, as the pledge states, is directly connected to beginning “the real practice of equality and freedom.”
If a group of male students on this campus took the phrase on the shirts lightly enough to joke, “Oh darn, we can’t rape her. She’s a rape-free zone,” then it is clear that we have a real need for members of our community to start speaking out.
The “Rape-Free Zone” T-shirts speak to all peers, survivors, allies and perpetrators: here at UNC, we are taking a stand, and our message will not be silenced, or misguided.
Jessica Cabrera ’15
Sociology and women’s studies
