preview

Rape Culture And RAPE Myths

Decent Essays

RAPE CULTURE AND RAPE MYTHS
The system of what is considered as rape culture, it promotes the normalisation and trivialisation of rape, and encourages the ideology that male sexual aggression is seen as the norm (Olfman, 2009: p. 9). The concept of rape culture includes misogynistic languages and the objectification of an individuals’ body and promoting sexual violence, that is creating a society that does not consider a person’s rights and safety (Attenborough, 2014: p. 183). Furthermore, rape culture consists of victim blaming, sexual harassment, trivialising rape, the false reports of rape and its statistics, the history, mental states, and publicly scrutinising how the victims’ dresses, the connection amongst the male role of dominance …show more content…

Brownmiller (1975) suggested that women can be a target of rape regardless of how she dresses, the shape and size of her body, and her background of who she is. Also, any man can be a rapist, although in previous years, it was thought that men who were mentally ill or evil were rapists. Also, rape is not only caused by strangers, but people who are closest to the victim can rape (Brownmiller, 1975; Chasteen, 1982). More so, rape can happen amongst men and women; thus, rape is inevitable and society believes within the rape myths that there are certain types of women should be raped. For instance, a woman who is assumed to be initiating the individual that she wants to have sex, or a woman who is careless enough to not take care of herself (Whatley and Riggio, 1993: p. 502). Hence, this creates an ideology of victim-blaming, and Brownmiller’s (1975) ideas are trying to expose these rape myths in relation to …show more content…

and the U.S. Rape culture is easily identifiable on campus as it is a public institution where individuals live, work and study. According to academic professors, Crystal Mills and Barbara Granoff (1992), the main factor that contributes to CSA is the use of date rape (Mills and Granoff, 1992: p. 504). Victims do not report their assault to the colleges and universities’, because the institution will try and suppress the bad news from going public and saving its reputation; in addition, victims do not want to risk being stigmatised within the campus environment (Anderson and Doherty, 2008: p. 13). Subsequently, there is an issue of what is considered rape such as, what actions can be accounted for rape? Or how can you distinguish a real victim? Thus, this can be reflected upon the way society’s view within culture, politics and social conditions. For instance, if the victim did not struggle against the rape, they may not be viewed as a rape victim, and upon investigation of the incident, their emotional responses will be reported and this will decide whether the victim is being truthful or lying about being raped (Anderson and Doherty, 2008: p. 5). Meanwhile, the administration officials of the colleges and universities would have questioned the victim’s accounts, and this can lead to

Get Access