Katrina vanden Heuvel: Stopping Rape by Addressing Its Causes

Katrina vanden Heuvel: Stopping Rape by Addressing Its Causes

Katrina vanden Heuvel: Stopping Rape by Addressing Its Causes

The illogical argument that women should be armed to stop rape comes out of a right-wing political culture that doesn’t listen to women's voices.

Facebook
Twitter
Email
Flipboard
Pocket

Political analyst and TheGrio.com contributor Zerlina Maxwell’s recent comments on Fox News that rape solutions should focus on men’s behavior, not arming women, have inspired scurrilous attacks in right-wing media. Nation editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel appeared on The Ed Show with Maxwell, where she argued that the blowback illustrates the Republican Party’s disregard for women and for the issues that affect them most.

“This political culture fosters attacks like we’ve seen against Zerlina, and it’s hateful and repulsive,” vanden Heuvel said.

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in five women in the United States have been sexually assaulted, and three in ten assaults on women come from an intimate partner.

Alec Luhn

Read Katrina vanden Heuvel on drone strikes, big banks’ immunity from prosecution and how this government considers itself above the law.

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

Ad Policy
x