Culture : The Disequences And Effects Of Rape Culture

Almost two-thirds of sexual assault is committed by someone known to the victim. Yet rape and sexual assault are one of the least reported crime in the united states with only 39% of attacks being reported to the police each year. Rape culture has been present throughout history in the entire world and sadly it continues to exist. Rape culture needs to be talked about more openly, so victims are not afraid to accuse their rapist or attacker. Communities should come together to create a culture of care and stop shaming men, women, and children into victim blaming. Educating society about what is right and wrong while offering victims support can potentially prevent rapes from occurring and putting the sick people who committed the crime into prison.

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.

In the United States individuals of both genders are being sexually violated, yet way too often their offenders often get off scot free or with very little punishment. Rape culture exists because we don't believe it does. The first step to ending such culture is to name the real problem, which is victim-blaming. We treat victims like they’re responsible, which would be obscenely different for any other criminal charge. When a sexual assault is reported on the news the first questions the media asks are about the victim’s sobriety, clothes, or sexuality. The right question is, “What made the attacker think this was acceptable?” Changing a mind set that has been engraved in us for centuries is going to be strenous, yet not impossible. It starts

“Rape is called the most underreported violent crime in America. In a large national survey of American women, only 16% of the rapes, approximately one out of every six, had ever been reported to the police.” (aardvarc.org) Another issue that goes along with rape culture is the fact that it is not reported very often. This is usually, from my knowledge of volunteering at a rape crisis center, because the victim is embarrassed, is scared of retaliation from the rapist, or is emotionally traumatized by the experience. This causes an issue for the victim as well as other members of society. When a rape is not reported the rapist is left free to assault someone else, or even the victim again. To say that only one out of every six victim’s reports being raped leaves five rapists enabled to assault others.

One out of every six women in America will be a victim of rape or sexual assault. From a young age, females are taught many ways to minimize the chance of being raped, whereas males are rarely ever taught not to rape. Women are told not to walk the streets alone at night, to cover any drinks they may have, and to always have someone know where they are. They have to make sure their clothing isn’t too provocative because it could unleash unwanted male attention. Even though, women take many precautions to avoid rape, the statistics are still high. Rape is one of the most brutal attacks and unfortunately the act is becoming one of the most normalized acts of violence in the United States. This creates a culture that disregards not only women’s rights but their safety as well.

Although the term Rape culture wasn’t coined until the 1970’s the practices associated with the term have been used to mistreat women for several centuries. Rape culture refers to the several aspects of culture such as art, science, and history that tolerates the sexual assault of women; people often mistake rape culture as something that is only seen through music or in the past, but the act of using vituperating language towards women and telling sexual explicit jokes are examples of rape culture. The political, social, and philosophical practices of the American society contributes to the oppression of women in the form of rape culture; although rape culture is deeply rooted in our society it could be diminished by enforcing stricter rape

In class today, we discussed a topic of rape culture in society which is a taboo subject in American custom that is often brushed under the rug because of the sensitivity towards the topic. Individual tend to shy away from rape culture conversations because they do not like to believe that it is happening, and by remaining ignorant to the situation it continues and grows. Rape culture can also be tied into human sex trafficking which has been national epidemic in recent years. In class, I learned more about the statistics to rape culture which is that 1 in 3 women are likely to be a victim of rape or sexual assault, 1 in 3 girls are likely to be a victim of rape or sexual assault, and 1 in 9 boys would be likely to be a victim of rape or assault.

In Roxane Gay’s article, “The Careless Language of Sexual Violence,” she breaks down rape in the perspective of our society nowadays. Gay states that our world today does not take the act of rape as an important issue to pay attention to by saying, “the idea that male aggression and violence towards women is acceptable and often inevitable.” Also, that in many cases the idea of victim blaming plays a big role in the way our society looks at the subject; saying that the individual that was raped is in the wrong and the rapist is not at fault. In the article, Gay states that we live in a “rape culture,” meaning that the way the world is today is to view violence towards women as something that is not an important

Merril Smith’s Encycolpedia of Rape defines the term “rape culture” as “one in which rape and other sexual violence against women . . . [is] both prevalent and considered the norm” (174). Rape is not a new subject in today’s society, its origins reaching far back into history. What causes rape, though? Is it the primal drive of men to exhibit dominance over all women, or do the women share the blame because of the way they dress, act, or do their makeup? Modern American culture would place the blame on the woman who “provoked” the attack; however, a woman should not have to park closer to the building she is entering, nor should she have to carry protection just in case a sexual predator decides that she is his next victim. Men are just as

As defined by southernct.edu, rape culture is “an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual violence is normalized and excused in the media and pop culture.” Some examples of common rape culture ideals are: blaming the victim, refusing to take rape accusations seriously, and defending sayings such as “boys will be boys” and “she was asking for it.” Today, the media is a large platform for this kind of behavior, many people have begun to accept these ideals.

If someone was asked, would you approve of rape? Usually, the answer would be no without any hesitation, but what people do not seem to realize is that people say yes to rape all the time due its promotion through rape culture that is everywhere in our society. The concept of rape culture is not new, but the term itself is and over the most recent years the definition of rape culture has gradually evolved, that there is not one specific definition for the term anymore. Women and men alike have started to research and discuss concepts revolving around rape culture using a variety of definitions that fit the concept of rape culture. Several of the information gathered from a variety of research has been very interesting and eye opening to the

Rape culture is defined as “an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual violence against women is normalized and excused in the media and popular culture” (according to Marshall University). Rape culture includes a society where blaming the victim, telling sexual jokes, believing that men don’t get raped, etc. is tolerated. It is a society where it is normalized to tell females to avoid getting raped instead of telling males not to rape. Some don’t genuinely know what rape culture is and they don’t get why it is a problem. Everyone should be aware of what rape culture is but these people are not at fault. Rape and the culture that society has initiated it to be is rarely spoken of or not expressed correctly. It is important for children and adults to understand the severity of what rape is. In the United States of America alone a person is sexually assaulted.

Rape culture is an expression that was conceived by feminists in the 70s. It was intended to reveal the ways that society condemned sexual assaulted victims. There are movements, campaigns, feminists, and activist trying to change that but they can't do it by themselves. Amber Amour is a feminists that has her own website with other women that talk about rape culture. The website, stoprapeeducate.org, teaches about rape culture itself, 'consent and healthy boundaries'. They enlighten the masses through creative expression such as chalk art that has positive messages on them in New York City (see page ). The 'Stop Rape. Educate.' Campaigns purpose is "to end sexual violence against women,

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 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