Standard Rape Culture

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.

Crimes have been occurring throughout history since the beginning of time, criminal mishaps extend back to Cain murdering his brother Abel. However, over time new crimes more severe than murder have come about that have ripped the moral fabric of an individual’s whole being. Date rape, a topic that has been widely discussed in America has been occurring more and more frequently. Many individuals know little others know infinite amounts on the topic, yet there are still many misconceptions about the topic. In America date rape has become a growing epidemic on the rise, affecting men and women, causing physical damage, intense emotional effects, death and long-lasting effects on victims.

Rape culture is everywhere. Advertisements, dress codes, and articles objectify women everyday. Women are taught their whole life that “boys will be boys’ and we need to dress accordingly so we do not distract them. One in four college women report surviving attempted or

Not a day goes by where we don’t see or hear about a story of sexual assault; whether it be on the news, someone we know personally, or a story we see on social media. Sexual assault is any unwanted sexual act against a person or without a person’s consent. Sexual assault refers to any sexual, physical, verbal or visual act that is forced upon a person. “Every 107 seconds, another American is sexually assaulted. This is an average of 293,000 victims each year” (Statistics). The culture in the United States can be defined as a rape culture. Emilie Buchwald, author of Transforming a Rape Culture, defines rape culture as “a complex set of beliefs that encourage male sexual aggression and supports violence against women. It is a society where violence is seen as sexy and sexuality as violent… In a rape culture both men and women assume that sexual violence is a fact of life” (What is Rape Culture?). Examples of living in a rape culture include things like blaming the victim and teaching women to avoid getting raped rather than teaching men not to rape. Factors that play a role in creating a rape culture is the gap between men and women, gender roles, and the porn industry.

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

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

How many people have to get raped before the United States takes action? “1 out of four female students will be the victim of a rape or attempted sexual assault.” (The Hunting Ground) As this new culture progresses in the world our generation has to incorporate discipline and a new way of thinking to contribute to the new and improved mindset. Another thought being that, the view of sexual assault as well as rape is the victim's fault must be discontinued. We must discover ways that will revive our subtlety to the subjects.

In a society where rape culture is normal, and people are taught from a young age not to go out on their own at night and to be cautious of the people around them rather than being taught not to rape or to oversexualize and objectify normal body parts, rape is a commonly trending news topic. A new common stressor has been added to subsequent intimate relationships: the trauma of rape or other forms of sexual assault. In a study of violence against women in North America, Robinson (2003) found that over forty percent of women have or will experience violence in their life including but not limited to rape. This trend is likely to be attributed to a fight for power. People holding positions of power over someone might take advantage of that control they have, leading to

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.

“In the minds of many high school boys, rape isn 't always wrong. A Patriot Ledger survey of 527 high school students conducted for this series found that 7 percent of boys said it was OK to force a girl to have sex on a date” (Eschbacher).The media needs to redefine and differently represent rape because it is portrayed as being too hard to define, the media has begun stereotyping the victims and rapists alike, and rape is not being reported because students are afraid of the stigma created by the media. Rape culture, or the media’s portrayal of rape is ridiculously inaccurate and overly pigeonholed. Rape needs to be redefined, as evidence by the staggering statistic stated. In the following paragraphs, the reasoning behind the thesis stated will be explained.

In today’s society, rape continues to be an issue that doesn’t receive nearly enough attention. The frequency of sexual assault and the emphasis on seeing that danger exists with strangers are not discussed enough in our society. The rate of sexual assault has been increasing in the last 20 years, making it a huge problem that plagues our society. According to the book Missoula, “Using data gathered in 2011, the CDC study estimated that across all age groups, 19.3 percent of American women ‘have been raped in their lifetimes’” (Krakauer: 2015). This is an astonishing number; 1 out of 5 women have been sexually assaulted, and if the problem doesn’t decrease, more women will have to face the unimaginable during their lifetime. An understanding of who is committing these acts of sexual assault is a major issue that receives little attention.

Rape myths are an extremely active concept in society. Over time, the same rape myths have been recurrently applied when the concept of sexual assault arises. In John Hamlin’s (2001) study he defines rape myths as prejudicial outlooks on sexual assault which effectively downplay its severity and discredits the complainant. Hamlin states that “[rape] myths exist for many historic reasons which include inherited structural conditions, gender role expectations, and the fundamental exercise of power in a patriarchal society” (Hamlin, 2001). Rape myths are put on display in the Supreme Court case of R. v. Ewanchuk (1999), as the case revolves around several assumptions and misconceptions regarding sexual assault. This paper will illustrate how rape myths are extremely negative by analyzing the Ewanchuk case along with R. v. Ghomeshi (2016), racism in societal assumptions regarding women who are raped, and the notion of masculinity.

The act of unlawful sexual assault, rape, has been detrimental to the growing population of the United States. Unlike its consequences, rape’s causes are varied among each offender and victim. Considering that statistically males are found to rape more often than females, their consequences in court do no justice to the female victim. A rising issue today consulting rape deals with the fact that males tend to get away with rape with little or no punishment. Rape in the united states is an immoral act and should be taken more seriously because of the true value of consent, the justice that is failed to be served to the victim, and the dehumanization of the person at whole.

Within the United states the National Sexual violation and resource center has conducted in-depth statistics pertaining to sexual violence. These Statistics indicate that one in five woman will be raped within their life time(NSVRC). If this isn’t evident enough that that our society is having a major problem, then compare it to one in 71 men are raped at some point in their life(NSVRC). Although many of us believe that within our own sanctuaries at home and at work that they

Rape culture is defined as society’s normalization of sexual assault and abuse (Roebuck and Komanduri). Acceptance of rape culture is prevalent in American society. Throughout a lifetime, 1 in 5 women will experience some type of sexual assault in the United States (Giraldi and Monk-Turner). Widespread of