beyond reproductive freedom: violence against women and controlling our bodies

Not that victim blaming or lack of response to sexual assault claims are really that uncommon, but lately, it seems there have been quite a few instances of both. The variety of the following stories really illustrates the spectrum of how women's bodies and privacy are constantly being violated.
This widely publicized story of a doctor who, during surgery, put a temporary tattoo on a female patient below the underwear line has received a lot of response. Not surprisingly, the woman's choice to sue the doctor has been talked about very negatively. The general feeling is that she should suck it up and take a joke. Ah, another silly feminist, anti-humor rant, right? Except that during surgery on a herniated disk, you're on your stomach and there really is no reason for your doctor to have you turned over, let alone be pulling your panties down. Personally, if I were going into surgery where I was going to be put completely under and had a male doctor, I'd be slightly worried about what was going to happen, and something like this just proves that fear justified. One blogger has a really good analysis of how being nice and having a sense of humor does not necessarily equal complacency when it comes to defending autonomy over our own bodies.
Sexual assault on college campuses has long been a significant issue, especially at larger institutions with a large fraternity/sorority culture. While sometimes claims against perpetrators of said abuse is taken as a serious threat to not only the victim's well-being, but also to the well-being of an entire student body, often when the accused of if a certain importance to the college or university, it becomes a different story. Recently, the University of Iowa has come under heat for its potential cover-up of an assault on a female student by two football players. The student was encouraged not to report the incident to police and nothing was done about the incident by the school for three weeks. One of the accused was even allowed to move in down the hall from the victim. This kind of "celebrity" protection college athletes get for criminal behavior is a familiar story, and creates hostile and dangerous environments for all students on campuses. The woman at UW actually had enough courage and, it seems, family support to report her rape to the authorities, but was still refused justice due to the player's status as one of the football team's most valuable. This brings up another issue: once a woman who has been assaulted actually reports it, which is so often not the case, what happens to her, the evidence, and the accused?
Sarah Tofte wrote a very good column in Tuesday's Washington Post about rape kits and what happens to them after they are performed on women. While states are given federal grants to pay for these kits (they run about $800 each and are free for victims), often the money goes unspent and evidence is shelved, sometimes forever. So, first a woman goes through the emotional and physical pain of being assaulted. If she is able to go to the ER, she is still often refused a kit, and then sometimes, nothing is even done with the kit. I know that in West Virginia, ER workers used to have to obtain a prosecutor's permission before being able to do a rape kit. This is absurd, especially when you think about the fact that many assaults happen in the middle of night and on weekends. By the time someone could get a prosecutor to sign off, the evidence was gone or unusable. State law has changed and now the only thing needed to perform a rape kit when a victim comes to the ER is her consent. From my training as a rape crisis advocate, many ER workers don't know about this change, forget, or simply don't care. Often, the advocate has to step in and get the nurse to do a rape kit, which is so ridiculous.
It really is sad how much we have to fight to prove that it is we, and we only, who control our bodies. And when this autonomy is violated, why is it our fault? And why is it so hard to get someone to care, pay attention, and do something about the accused?