Small Peculiar

I am seeing this over and over, from people who really ought to know better, and it drives me up the wall. You are validating child rapists and normalizing child rape when you use language like this.

Of course, it would be great if people condemned rape of any kind, including the rape of adults. But if we’re going to make a big song and dance of condemning the rape of children specifically, can we not undermine that condemnation by using mealy-mouthed language when we do it? I ask this both as an editor and as a person who has to exist in the world as a woman.