Flix Gab

In the past week, women across the world have been sharing their experiences with sexual assault, rape and harassment. The recent wave of sharing was fueled largely by Dr. Christine Blasey-Ford's testimony against the Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

On Thursday, Blasey-Ford stood before the Senate Judiciary Committee and shared the time Kavanaugh attempted to rape her in high school. Through all of this, she remained incredibly composed and focused.

Later in the hearing, Kavanaugh defensively sputtered about how much he loves beer, calendars, and how he's definitely not guilty.

Seeing Blasey-Ford relive her trauma on a national stage triggered painful memories for sexual assault survivors across the country. Many women saw themselves in Blasey-Ford, particularly as she faces a sadly predictable barrage of victim-blaming backlash.

In response to the outpouring of assault stories, the comedian Mara Quint shared her own anecdotes of all the times she wasn't raped. Most of these situations involved alcohol and flirting, two factors that largely get women blamed for their assault. However, as Quint points out, despite her vulnerability she was not assaulted because these men knew better.

So much of the victim-blaming conversation around rape points fingers at women for doing basic activities like drinking, flirting, staying out late, or what they wear. The notion of women "asking for it" is still sadly very active in the pubic psyche. Quint's thread places responsibility for assault back where it should be: on the men who enact it. As she points out, men who aren't predators have no issue deciphering consent.

All of the men in her anecdotes double-checked to make sure if Quint said "yes," and when they realized that wasn't the case, they immediately stopped advances.

She then went on to share that she has experienced assault, and the main difference between those experiences and other drunk nights are the fact that men who assault don't care about consent. No amount of sobriety, dress codes, or limitation of women's activities will change the fact that men are responsible for their own actions.

Quint's anecdotes inspired other women to share similar situations where they could have been in danger if the men were predators.

A handful of men also chimed in with times they've looked out for drunk women at parties.

Moral of the story: when someone is sexually assaulted, it's not their fault, it's the fault of the predator. People know the meaning of consent, even when drunk, it's just a matter of whether they practice it.