Testing Every Single Rape Kit On File Is a Vital Step In Ending the Patriarchy

Part four: Recent revelations and the efforts to keep them hidden are proof that bad men in power will protect other bad men.

Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat: men rule the world.

Everything that exists, everything that happens, and most importantly, everything that doesn’t happen, is because of men. Thats not a slogan. It isn’t ideology. It’s a basic, observable, provable fact. Governments, courts, police departments, corporations, religious institutions, all overwhelmingly male-dominated, all built by men, all maintained by men.

Even the progress women have fought tooth and nail for hasn’t meaningfully disrupted that reality. In many cases, the women who do break through are pressured to overcorrect, to lead like men, to prove they’re “tough enough” for systems that were never designed to protect anyone vulnerable in the first place.

So when you see tens of thousands, no, hundreds of thousands, of rape kits sitting in police evidence rooms collecting dust, understand this clearly:

That is the fault of men.

And it’s the fault of men twice over.

First, because a man raped someone. Second, because men currently run the system that refuses to punish them properly.

There is no national emergency declaration about rape kits. There is no universal mandate to test them within any time frame. There is no sustained outrage from men in power. There isn’t even much talkabout it.

And if you’re wondering why, you don’t need to look far.

Turn on the news. Look at what’s happening with the Epstein files right now. Look at the frantic efforts to delay, redact, minimize, and black out information that could implicate powerful men. Theres your first clue.

Because rape kits don’t just hold DNA.

They hold truth, and truth is dangerous to men who rely on silence and time to allow them to continue their crimes.

The second clue is the deliberate destruction and omission of meaningful sex education in our schools. That’s not an accident. It isn’t incompetence. It’s strategy.

Children who don’t know what consent is can’t know when it’s been violated.

Children who don’t have language for abuse can’t identify it, much less report it.

Children who are scared and confused are easier to manipulate.

And children are supposed to be our

Predators depend on ignorance. And entire political movements are built around preserving it.

Which brings us to France and the Pelicot trials, and to Gisèle Pelicot, whose husband, Dominique, drugged her and facilitated her rape by 51 different men over years.

The French media has referred to these men as “Mr. Everyman,” because they had no criminal records, no obvious red flags. They were men from all walks of life. Husbands. Fathers. Brothers. Workers. Neighbors. Men who blended in perfectly.

And that’s exactly the point.

The most dangerous lie patriarchy tells is that monsters look like monsters. That rape is committed by strangers in dark alleys instead of by men who go home afterward and kiss their wives and tuck the kids in bed before kissing them goodnight.

The Pelicot case shatters that lie. And it’s precisely why every single rape kit on file must be tested.

Because rape kits don’t care how “normal” a man seems. They don’t care about his reputation. They don’t care about his job, his church, his family, or his excuses.

They expose patterns.

They connect crimes.

They reveal serial predators who depend on the male assumption that women are isolated, unreliable, disposable, or even complicit.

And here’s the part that really makes powerful men uncomfortable:

Some of those men are police officers.

Which is why any serious effort to end rape culture must include mandatory, verified DNA and fingerprint submission for all law enforcement officers, accessible through a nationwide database. No exceptions.

Active officers. Former officers. Fired officers. Retired officers. Anyone who has ever held law enforcement authority should be required to participate.

This isn’t anti-police. It’s pro-accountability.

If officers aren’t committing sexual violence, they have nothing to fear. If they are, the badge should not protect them, nor should they have access to the very kits that would implicate them.

The fact that this idea is controversial tells you everything you need to know about who they’re protecting.

Because the patriarchy does not protect women.

It protects men, especially violent ones, from any meaningful consequences.

Untested rape kits aren’t a bureaucratic failure. They’re a moral choice. A declaration that women’s pain is inconvenient, that justice can wait, and that powerful men are more important than the truth.

Now, testing every single rape kit won’t end the patriarchy overnight. But it will do something the patriarchy cannot survive long-term:

It will make men accountable.

It will drag predators into the light.

It will replace silence with evidence.

And that’s why it’s resisted so fiercely, and why it must be taught against with absolute severity.

And if anyone still thinks this is abstract, if anyone believes the failure to test rape kits is just “underfunding” or “bureaucratic backlog”, then they need to learn the name John David Norman.

Norman was not hiding in the shadows.

He was a known child sex trafficker operating openly in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He ran an organized trafficking ring targeting homeless and runaway boys, advertising his operation under the fake cover of a “youth service” foundation. He networked with other predators. He moved children across state lines. He left paper trails. Victims reported him. And he was caught. Multiple times.

And the government let him continue.

Over and over again.

Norman was arrested. Released. Allowed to relocate. Allowed to rebrand. Allowed to keep operating. Law enforcement agencies knew who he was. Courts knew what he was doing. And instead of dismantling his network, they treated him like a simple inconvenience, a problem to be shuffled elsewhere.

That is not failure.

That is permission.

Norman’s crimes didn’t persist because evidence didn’t exist. They persisted because the men in power chose not to act on it. Why? Because exposing him would have meant exposing other, powerful men. Because following the truth all the way through would have made those powerful men uncomfortable.

Sound familiar? Thats because that is how Jeffery Epstein operated. Lots of powerful people knew for years what was going on, yet he never really paid for his crimes. Even when he finally ended up in a cell, the patriarchy allowed him to die before he could stand trial and reveal too much, and how he died it can’t explain, and will never have to. Because men are in charge.

This is exactly why untested rape kits are so dangerous.

Because predators like John Norman, Jeffery Epstein, and Dominique Pelicot do not operate alone. They rely on systems. They rely on silence. They rely on other, powerful men to protect them. They rely on the assumption that no one will connect the dots.

Rape kits are those dots.

They are time-stamped, location-anchored proof that patterns exist. They can show repeat offenses. They can expose networks. They can reveal that “isolated incidents” are anything but.

And when those kits go untested, the state isn’t neutral. It’s complicit.

Which is why testing them quietly, behind closed doors, is no longer enough.

If we are serious, truly serious, about ending sexual violence, especially against children, then rape kits must be tested publicly.

Not theatrically.

Not vindictively.

But transparently, in real time, with full documentation.

Every kit logged. Every test recorded. Every match announced. Names included. Positions included. Badges, titles, offices, churches, corporations, everything included.

Front-page news, because secrecy is the oxygen predators breathe.

John David Norman, Jeffery Epstein, and Dominique Pelicot survived to abuse for as long as they did because their crimes were treated as embarrassing, inconvenient, or too disruptive to fully expose. Because institutions prioritized stability over women and children. Because these men trusted that silence would protect them. And it did.

Public testing removes that protection.

It tells every predator in every position of authority: You will not be shielded. You will not be quietly transferred. You will not be allowed to disappear.

More importantly, it tells survivors: Your evidence matters. Your truth will not be buried. You are important.

And it tells the next John David Norman, Jeffery Epstein, Dominique Pelicot, and the man who is operating right now, under a different name, with better lawyers and institutional cover, that the era of protection is over.

Some “men” will say this is too extreme. Because there’s always an excuse.

What’s actually extreme is allowing tens of thousands of rape kits to sit untested while children are abused, women are silenced, and predators are quietly protected by the very systems meant to stop them.

Testing every single rape kit publicly won’t erase past harm.

But it will do something patriarchy has never voluntarily done:

It will choose truth over power.

It will choose children over institutions.

It will choose accountability over comfort.

And that is why it terrifies the men who benefit most from silence, and why it must happen now.