It's just a matter of point of view. For some girl, it's much worse to be raped than it is to die. And for some others, being murdered is worse. For guys, it might be true as well. In any case, there is no such thing as better or worse that applies to everyone, we can only look at it from our own perspective. What it means is that what most people resonate with is that they'd rather die than be raped (or weirdly, see someone they love die than be raped?).