Cosby, Virginia and Rape

The world's wrath and revulsion seem to be focused on Bill Cosby these days, as he goes in the public mind from "America's Dad" to an unofficial serial rape suspect.

Yet that's a cop-out for all of us. Whatever the truth of the accusations against Cosby - a wave of women have now stepped forward and said he drugged and raped them (mostly decades ago), but his lawyer denies the allegations - it's too easy for us to see this narrowly as a Cosby scandal of celebrity, power and sex. The larger problem is a culture that enables rape. The larger problem is us.

We collectively are still too passive about sexual violence in our midst, too willing to make excuses, too inclined to perceive shame in being raped. These are attitudes that facilitate violence by creating a protective blanket of silence and impunity. In that sense, we are all enablers.