Roxane Gay Rape Summary

One in six American women, and one in thirty-three men are murdered by serial killers. The government has announced an even more horrifying fact: One in nine underage girls were killed as well. Society has rushed to arms to imprison the killers and attempt to recover from this horrible tragedy -- wait. I apologize; this is the wrong crime. These are the statistics for rape according to RAINN (Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network). The public immediately takes on a different outlook. Rape is much less damaging than murder, right? After all, surely the victims deserved it. They were drinking or dressed wrong. If they didn’t want to be raped they shouldn’t have been walking alone at night. It must have been the victim’s fault. There are countless websites and classes which teach women how not to be raped; they shouldn’t drink, shouldn’t take public transportation, and should return to their homes and lock their doors by nightfall. If the victims had only followed these rules, they would have been safe.

“The Longest War” by Rebecca Solnit convinces readers that the violence against women are in the content of the United States and the world. Solnit presented information that is regarding violence and rape statistical and personal views of gender and the inequality of male violence toward comparing women’s violence to men or women. She uses numerical facts ad provides statements of how this affects the way women perceive their surroundings. Solnit clearly makes a strong frequency and violence of rape by listing the details of rape and violence eight times within the first paragraph of the text. She uses many examples of how rape is a gendered issue and how many victims that fall prey to violence which lends us toward an engaging need to

In the riveting documentary Audrie & Daisy, husband and wife director team Bonnie Cohen and Jon Shenk retrace the events leading up to the harrowing sexual assaults of three teenage girls; Audrie Pott, Daisy Coleman, and Paige Parkhurst, and expose the agonizing after effects and exploitation of the assaults. Subsequent interviews with family members, friends and law enforcement officials give important details about the aftermath of the events, and introduce viewers to possibly the biggest villain of all, Sherriff Darren White of Maryville, Missouri. Throughout the documentary White appears smug when he states that “as County Sheriff, “the buck stops here” (Darren White), and when asked about the crimes committed by Maryville’s football star, he rebuts with “was there a crime?” (Darren White). As the film moves through the twists and turns of the cases, the settings, conflicts, and tragedies are enhanced by the use of montage, long and subjective shots, close-ups and personal sketches that submerge the audience into the victim’s point of view. At the conclusion of the film, the viewer is left to decide what constitutes sexual assault and rape, and if society and law enforcement are to blame for today’s ‘rape culture’ acceptance and the continued victimization of young girls. It also reveals how much can be hidden from parents, and how disconnected they can become from their children in a social media world.

A very real, and very common, problem in America is rape—more so the lack of knowledge about rape. This causes many problems for victims of sexual assault. In Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, the story of Melinda directly reflects the world today because most kids are not properly educated about rape and many teens in Melinda’s position can’t find a voice to tell their story.

This national best seller can relate to the opinions expressed by Peggy Reeves Sanday in The Socio-Cultural Context of Rape. Sandy investigates the characteristics of a rape-prone, and rape-free society. Jon Krakauer was interviewed by NPR books, where he stated, “The upshot was most rapists walked away without any punishment, any accountability” (NPR 1). The response from Krakauer correlates to Sanday’s research in The Socio-Cultural Context of Rape. Reeves Sanday writings examine, “When men discovered that they could rape, they proceeded to do it” (Reeves Sanday

Have you ever witnessed something that was so absurd yet convincingly real? If you have, the Onion, a satirical news organization, may help recreate that feeling with some of their videos and articles. Published in 2011 on the Onion’s website and on YouTube, the video “College Basketball Star Heroically Overcomes Tragic Rape He Committed” satirizes how lightly people who commit rape are punished, and their crime even forgotten about. The video, employs the use of clever satire to convince the audience unfamiliar with the Onion that the report is real, while having implicit meanings and messages about rape culture in the United States. While the video still speaks

Rape has always been a problem, specifically in colleges across the US. There is also large amounts of misinformation and ideas surrounding rape. Author Jon Krakauer, who did not know much on the topic of rape before his time spent in Missoula; uncovered proof of the true seriousness of this problem. His nonfiction book set in Missoula Montana, tells the hard story of the awful experiences rape victims are forced to go through in this college town in order for justice. He uses investigative narrative to lay out a story that both informative and sensitive towards the victims. Even though he is only focusing on a few victims placed in one college town it is obvious these issues have a much larger

“Rape is as American as apple pie,” says blogger Jessica Valenti. She and other feminists describe our society as a “rape culture” where violence against women is almost invisible. According to feminists, films, magazines, fashion, books, music, and humor cooperate in conveying the message that women are there to be used, abused and exploited.(Kitchens, 2015)

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,

Carol Logan Patitu’s article focuses on incidents of date rape and how they are increasing, especially on college campuses. As with any issue of this magnitude, there are bound to be differing attitudes toward the rape victims. The author portrays her writing from both sides. One side being sympathetic to the rape victims and the opposing side, giving no sympathy but believing they are crying out for attention. By providing charts and examples along with real life situations, Patitu is able to keep the relationship between the reader and the test subjects relevant. But I will be focusing on the first part, where Patitu talks about the sympathy that is given. In the contradicting piece, I chose Robin Wilson’s article about the national campaign against rape cultures on college campuses. This campaign brought attention to sexual violence, and to victims (typically women) who have long described being ignored. But others think the movement has gone too far, labeling some innocent students as rapists, which is where Wilson revolves her article around. The opening statement of this paper is ‘College men accused of rape say the scales are tipped against them’. It explains how women target men and people tend to take the side of the women over the men, even if the man is innocent. Wilson as tells how she feels the movement against rape has gone too far and people need to step back, because, men in college are losing their chances at a triumphant future.

Ali Owens wrote this article to convince readers that rape culture is a very real and harmful thing that silences victims and allows criminals to run free. Victims around the world are silenced because of a society that chooses to blame them for the acts committed against them. Today, rape culture is evident in how the police and society treat the situation. Owens provides examples of rape culture through scenarios that women often find themselves in and uses imagery to allow readers to feel as if they are watching them unfold. A woman hesitates to call an Uber and is accused of “unfairly judging men,” but then, political leaders, such as Donald Trump, tweet about the inevitable sexual assault in the military because “they put women and men together.” A woman is scared

Jean Kilbourne’s Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt divulges the multifaceted social watering hole we call the media. Topics in this short essay include the cultural abuse, sexual objectification of women, and the role men play in this stacked deck. There are multiple instances in which the media shames women for being sexual beings or for simply standing up against injustice. A large portion of our society believes it is solely up to the woman to protect herself from the poor choices of men, but it is important to note that a woman cannot rape herself.

In the riveting documentary Audrie & Daisy, husband and wife director team Bonnie Cohen and Jon Shenk retrace the events leading up to the harrowing sexual assaults of three teenaged girls; Audrie Pott, Daisy Coleman, and Paige Parkhurst, and expose the agonizing after effects and exploitation of the assaults. Subsequent interviews with family members, friends and law enforcement officials give important details about the aftermath of the events, and introduce viewers to possibly the biggest villain of all, Sherriff Darren White of Maryville, Missouri. Throughout the documentary White appears smug while he states that “as County Sheriff, “the buck stops here” (Darren White), and when asked about the crimes committed by Maryville’s football star, he rebuts with “was there a crime?” (Darren White) As the film moves through the twists and turns of the cases, the settings, conflicts, and tragedies are enhanced by the use of montage, long and subjective shots, close-ups and personal sketches that submerge the audience into the victim’s point of view. At the conclusion of the film, the viewer is left to decide what constitutes sexual assault and rape, and if society and law enforcement are to blame for the today’s ‘rape culture’ acceptance and the continued victimization of young girls. It also reveals how much can be hidden from parents, and how disconnected parents become from their children in a social media world.

Patricia Lockwood’s The Rape Joke is a risky composition- not because it discloses information about Lockwood’s personal rape experience, but because it does so from a comedic stance, ridiculing the unfortunate event and the events leading up to and after it. While the creation of the poem was prompted due to the sexual assault she experienced, the content and subject are not centered around the incident or the assaulter but around rape culture and the sociological concept of victim blaming, from both society and oneself. There is no such thing as a rape joke-the joke is the incredulous ways society has guided people to respond to it.

     Webster’s Dictionary describes rape as the crime of forcing another person to submit to sex acts, especially sexual intercourse. Rape is a crime in which most women cannot defend themselves. The fear of rape plagues every woman at some point or another in her life. The traumatic effects of rape vary from mild to severe, from psychological to physical. This paper will evaluate rape, as well as the effects it has on women, the theory behind male dominance and patriarchy, and differences in demographics.