The New York Times article about how to fend off a rapist really struck me. It's interesting to me that there are four "levels" of rapists, and there are different ways to fend them off. In my opinion this is definitely good knowledge, but there is no way I am going to go through the different levels and decide which tactic I need to take to fend off my attacker. Being raped is such a scary thing, that the first response is to do whatever it takes to escape - the one thing this article says NOT to do.
It's a hard thing to learn because it might be detrimental to teach escape mechanisms to young girls, because then they'd just walk around afraid that they're going to have to put them to use. On the other hand, it may be detrimental to not teach these things at all because then when a woman is in the scenario, she has no idea what to do.
One way to do this, is to help everyone understand the things we are not willing to talk about. Make the acts of rape explicitly known to boys and girls alike, so that maybe the reaction to rape would be the same as it is to other serious crimes. Rape is just a topic no one likes to think about, and that's the problem. It needs to be taught young that it is not okay on any level. It shouldn't be brushed off, and it shouldn't be taught to only girls - but rather taught to everyone.
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