Cultural Beliefs Of Rape Culture

Last week, the White House released a short, celebrity packed, 60-second public service announcement (PSA) on the topic of sexual assault. 1 is 2 Many addressed those who are in control of preventing sexual assault as its intended audience was those who can put a stop to sexual violence: the perpetrators or would-be offenders. Although this one minute announcement completed the task of bringing sexual assault to the forefront of discussion, it failed to encompass the central issues concerning the culture of sexual assault: societal misperceptions, the victims, and the justice system. Sexual assault is a phenomenon that has been around for centuries; the culture of sexual assault is rooted in both legal practices and societal perceptions.

Sexual assault is not just a crime against an individual, it affects families, the community, and society as a whole. In recent years, our society has shifted to one of rape culture and rape myth. Rape myths are erroneous, stereotypical, and prejudicial beliefs about rape victims and reasons of sexual assault. Rape myths can impact survivors of assault, as well as the behavior and effectiveness of family, friends, medical and social services, and law enforcement (Rape Victim Advocates, 2016). Rape impacts our society by attacking the cohesion and mutual protection that makes a society. When we allow such crimes to go without the most vigorous and vigilant investigation and punishment, we allow for whole segments of society to be diminished, we are sending the message that society is okay with rape (Abbey,

In feminist theory, rape culture is a setting in which rape is pervasive and normalized due to societal attitudes about gender and sexuality. The sociology of rape culture is studied academically by feminists. There is disagreement over what defines a rape culture and as to whether any given societies meet the criteria to be considered a rape culture. The notion of rape culture has been used to describe and explain behavior within social groups, including prison rape, and in conflict areas where war rape is used as psychological warfare. Entire societies have been alleged to be rape cultures.

(US Department of Justice- Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2014). While the numbers are startling, what is most alarming, is that it took eighty years for the government to change a definition that was wrong from the beginning. Moreover, this attitude of ignorance and apathy towards rape victims has trickled down and can be seen in the attitudes of the American population. While many feminists have suggested that rape is a tool used by a patriarchal society to maintain a status quo, and rape myths are tools used to justify this violence against women, what I believe is that rape myths are more pervasive than this explanation. Rape myths and their acceptance is in fact a part of the status quo, determined by the gender role construct reflected in current American society, Without a radical change in views towards gender roles rape myths will continue to be widely accepted, and victims will

The term ‘rape culture’ was coined by feminists in the United States in 1970. The term itself was designed to illustrate the ways in which society blamed victims of sexual assault, and how the normalization of male sexual violence was acceptable. Rape culture can stem from the acceptance of rape as a daily occurrence, manifested as a male prerogative. There is a hesitation by the authorities to go against the patriarchal cultural norms, hence linking nonconsensual sex to the cultural disposition of society. The patriarchal perspective of rape culture, embedded with gender inequality and misogyny are passed through generations which ultimately leads to the extensive institutional and social acceptance of rape. Actions which advocate sexist ideals are utilized to justify and validate normative misogynistic perceptions. Rape culture sexualizes violence inflicted upon women, as it serves as a continuum of a society which views a women’s body to be sexually available by default, deriving from the overall domination and objectification of a female. The underlying cause of rape culture is localized as it based upon the social aspects of culture. For example, countries with a prolific ‘war culture’ tend to emphasize violence and masculinity, and therefore rape is viewed as a normal facet of society. I intend to parallel the element of rape culture to the enforcement of social rules and the conditioning of gender roles. I plan on analyzing the notion that within the encompassment of

1. Behavior is falcultative so it responds to the environment and also evolutionary explanations for evolved adaptations does not mean it is justified.

In this essay I will examine the conflict of rape culture, the social normalization of rape and abuse. I see a connection between rape culture and patriarchy, although rape culture is a relatively new social topic it has been prevalent throughout history.

Each and everyday Americans sit back and watch the daily news and hear anchorman's broadcast news and politics around the world. It is very rare that you hear them discuss rape,the victim and rapist. Rape is becoming more common and most members of society are not taking action. Society members who are aware of the sexual harassment going on, such as teenagers, need to take action to inform the unaware members of society. Informing the uneducated generations about the rape culture will hopefully make them open their eyes, and can provide help towards the victims who suffer. Helping people understand rape will more than likely help the victims get the treatments they need to recover, and the rapists get harsher punishments. Rape, the societal

Rape culture is something else mentioned in the documentary and how in America, it means that boys are taught at very young age that to be a man, they must suppress their emotions and become dominant while being superior to women. This perpetuates a toxic messaging in our culture has devastating effects that also contributes to violence in our culture, as well as our rape culture. This can be seen by the documentary addressing the bro code and how even if there is a rape one does not say anything to not go against the group. This even happens when men see that something is wrong and how society has put pressure on them not to go against each other. Another contributor to rape culture is that men are taught to be womanizers and that sexual conquest

Whether it is believable or not, rape culture exists in our everyday life, our society, our schools, our colleges, in our country, and anywhere on Earth. It is a problem that has always been around, but it just was not given a name. Rape culture is defined as, “A society or environment whose prevailing social attitudes have the effect of normalizing or trivializing sexual assault and abuse.” (“Rape) An example of how this would play out in our society, for those who do not believe that it exists, would be if a male got raped and no one believed him because men can not be raped, or if a young male comes forward and people tell him, “You should be happy you scored while you’re so

In class this semester, we’ve spent a particularly long time defining and addressing the problems associated with rape culture. Rape culture can be defined as “a culture in which dominant cultural ideologies, media images, social practices, and societal institutions support and condone sexual abuse by normalizing, trivializing and eroticizing male violence against women and blaming victims for their own abuse” (Huffington Post). Rape culture can be as simple as a T.V. commercial or as complex as a rapist blaming the victim for “asking for it” and everything in between. Rape culture is something that effects everyone; not just women, but men too. I’m really glad that we were given the opportunity to spread the word throughout the community;

Rape culture is a society or environment whose prevailing social attitudes have the effect of normalizing or trivializing sexual assault and abuse. Too many times both men and women unintentionally participate in rape culture by their actions, words and comments online. To the common person the phrase rape culture is a term coined to make men look bad or to make rape seem like it happens far more often than it does. As a society we think rape culture is an absurd concept because many people take it as, we all don’t commonly engage in sexual violence together as a whole. When I think of the phrase rape culture, I believe that the society we live in blames the victims and normalizes and makes excuses for males who commit sexual violent crimes against women. Society tends to blame the woman for being sexually assaulted therefore, the cases go unreported and the perpetrator gets off and can go on to rape his next victim. In today's society women are shamed for reporting sexual assault by both peers and the public so many women don't go to law enforcement because they are scared no one will believe their allegations. Many times, the woman is blamed for being too promiscuous towards the male or she had too many drinks so that's why she was taken advantage of that night. The society as a whole need to get out of the that mindset because no matter what a woman was doing or how many drinks she had that, gives no man the right to violate her in any way. Accusing someone in a high

Most people would agree that as you grow up you learn by seeing, feeling ,touching , smelling, and hearing . Albert Bandura supports this by a theory he created called the Social Learning Theory (McLeod, 2011). Social Learning Theory is a theory that explains that behavior is learned by your social environment, interactions and observations of others. With this theory I would say it supports opinion in which I would say that rape is not something somebody just decides one day to do. I believe that rape is learned throughout time. There are many social and even media factors that sometimes may come off with the intention that rape is acceptable. In some media factors they may even perceive that being forcibly raped is pleasurable. Movies tend to do it often and sometimes movies don 't realize that what people see on television can sometimes influence people to see these acts as a norm. For instance the fact that a college kid is in a frat and he 's in a party there is a good percentage that he would reenact what television had stereotype frats boys to do. Television would label the frat boys as potential rapist and the human mind would consider that when you take on that role as a frat boy. One of the biggest media factors all the way from television to the internet that for so many years that perceive rape as acceptable is pornography.

According to the Department of Justice the low estimate of women raped every year in America is 300,000. Somehow this is not a problem to America, but this is a problem for too many people. The number of rapes for the rest of time should be zero. Despite the fact that this can cause physical harm and emotional trauma, America does not consider rape culture to be real. America needs to change their way of thinking and diminish rape culture by teaching people not to rape, making all people accountable for their actions, and supporting those who are brave enough to come forward with their stories.

Substance abuse also played a part in fraternity rape culture. Often, alcohol was supplied deliberately to women to make them less inhibited or blackout drunk, allowing the men to perform sexual acts with less resistance (Jozkowski). The alcohol interfered with the brain’s functioning, resulted in poor judgement, and caused a woman to be overly flirtatious (“Alcohol’s Effect on the Body”). If a woman acted this way, a fraternity member interpreted this as consent for sex. The alcohol could be used to confuse or incapacitate women making it impossible for her to consent to sexual acts. The fraternity brothers neglected to recognize that legal and ethical sexual behavior requires cognizant consent from all parties involved. Another method to incapacitate women, involved perpetrators secretly slipping date rape drugs into drinks, (“Date Rape Drugs”). Rohypnol, commonly known as roofies, caused judgement loss, unconsciousness, hallucinations, and drowsiness (“Date Rape Drugs”). Although roofies were the most commonly used drugs, they were gradually being replaced by drugs less likely to discolor or cloud beverages (“Date Rape Drugs”). Other drugs commonly used included Gamma Hydroxybutyric Acid and Ketamine (“Date Rape Drugs”). Gamma Hydroxybutyric acid comes in a liquid form that is odorless and colorless; therefore, undetectable to the target (“Date Rape Drugs”). In situations with date rape drugs, the victim’s ability to consent or even maintain consciousness was robbed