Keep in mind, this is absolutely irrelevant to the Texas rape case, because it doesn’t matter how this prepubescent child dressed, or any woman of any age who was raped for that matter. A person walking down the street naked should not be raped, for christ’s sake! This is common sense, everyone. But, seriously, it needs to be said: what the hell at pretending it’s even remotely odd that 11- or 12-year-old girls are dabbling in make up or wearing jeggings? When I was an 11-year-old girl - which was, mind you, almost 20 years ago - I definitely was wearing make up to school, and was dying my hair with a disgusting Sun In/peroxide/lemon juice concoction that turned my hair into a perfect little yellow haystack, and even owned a little pair of high heels. I definitely appeared “older,” if your idea of what a 6th grader looks like is Cindy fucking Brady! Dabbling in teenagerhood instead of, I dunno, playing with Transformers and Barbies or whatever these strange middle-aged men think 11 and 12 year olds are doing, when you are in middle school is not at all weird and the sooner our bizarre porn-obsessed but oddly puritanical culture realizes this, the better off we all are. And not just for reasons of grotesque “journalists” not blaming prepubescent girls for their gang rapes! For reasons as simple as, like, sex education being normalized or girls being treated with any amount of self agency or respect!

I don’t understand a culture that punishes women for the slight transgression of, like, forgetting to shave their vagina for a week but then drops their monocles and implies they deserve to be brutally raped if they fall in line and put on some mascara and a skirt.