Check out any comment section or Instagram feed on sexual violence, and you will no doubt see the same statistic again and again…

’99% of r*pists are men’.

And it’s true.

But what the statistic doesn’t tell you, is how we define ‘r*pe’.

R*pe, by both UK law, and academia, is the forced penetration, with a penis.

And so, if you don’t have a penis, nothing you do, or could ever do, will ever constitute as ‘r*pe*’.

Yes –

In the UK, and many other countries, it is legally impossible for a woman to commit such a crime, or for her to be captured within such “99%” statistics either.

And it’s not just the men who are erased, the law precludes women from being considered r*pists against other women, and even children too.

Nobody ever mentions that, or even seems to know such a thing, let alone doing something to change the law, so all victims are recognised as legitimate and important.

No.

Instead, people will parrot the same “99%” catch phrase, erasing the very people who they claim to care about and fight for.

So who will help change the law?

Who will do the work to understand these gendered definitions; what they hide and the misleading statistics they lead to?

What do you think?

~

* FYI in the UK some women can be found guilty of ‘r*pe’ but only if they act as an accomplice to another man who commits the crime, where they are found guilty of ‘joint venture’.

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2025-11-11