The Leading Rape Myth

“Feminism has not prepared them for this,” states Camille Paglia in her essay “Rape: A Bigger Danger than Feminists Know.” The “them” in Paglia’s statement is referring to women, and she is discussing the topic of date rape. Susan Jacoby, on the other hand, writes in her article “Common Decency,” that feminism is not responsible for the rising cases of date rape, but that it is the men who are at fault. Paglia’s argument is insightful and accurate, but Jacoby’s writing is flawed and not well-researched. Paglia includes all rhetorical appeals and persuasive techniques, while Jacoby lacks in some departments of persuasiveness and fills the gap with logical fallacies. Comparing both of these papers will help the reader see why

In the article The Sad Truth About Marital Rape, by Jennifer Gerson Uffalussy written in July of 2015, the main issue relates to the hardships that Lindo Jong in “The Joy Luck Club” suffers through when she was living in China. Lindo Jong finds herself trapped in a loveless marriage dominated by her mother-in-law, in which she must endure to avoid bringing disgrace to her family. So instead of bringing shame to herself, she uses her cunning wits to escape the marriage. One of the particular hardships that Lindo Jong finds herself in, is the everyday fear of being raped by the man she has no love for. In the Non- Fiction article, it explains how Ivana Trump, the ex-wife of Donald Trump had this fear of Lindo’s come to life. Ivana Trump’s claim

Women are discriminated against because since religion is connected deeply to culture, it is only “normal” for them to be circumscribed for their own good. Rasheed finds modern Afghanistan women and their behaviors such as not wearing

Any involuntary, unwelcome, and nonconsensual sexual interaction or activity, including touching, kissing, and any type of sexual intercourse would be defined as sexual assault. It is not likely for one to be aware of the law governing sexual assault, until one is placed in a position that requires knowledge of it. (Constance Backhouse, 2016). Rape myths and stereotypes in the Canadian Court system and legislature will be ascertained in the following paper. First, rape myths will be discussed, moreover, it will be shown that regardless of the fluctuations in the Canadian law, sexual assault rates remain high, reporting and conviction rates remain low, and rape myths continue to operate. These rape myths are existing in Canadian universities and in the Canadian Court Houses. Many social constructions that are present in the Ewanchuk case are a result outcome because of the judiciary system and the university system. Furthermore, the rape myth and stereotypes in law and universities can relate to the social constructions of gender, race, masculinity/femininity, and heterosexuality. In this essay the focus will be directed to the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in R. v. Ewanchuk case, [199] 1 S.C.R. 330, and argue how the rape myths then are still present in today’s society despite feminist attempts to amend criminal laws to be more unbiased in resolving conflicts.

“Before the rape I felt good. My life was in order. I was getting ready to get married. Afterward everything changed. I kind of lost who I was as a person…

Through my reading of the article titled “Can she consent to sex after drinking” by Margaret Wente I identified two rape myths. As we know, rape myths are a set of beliefs about rape and sexual assault that feed into rape culture. These uneducated beliefs place the blame on rape victims rather than the perpetrators and attempt to blur the line between rape and consensual sex. In Wente’s article the rape myths I found are “As for those armies of would-be rapists lurking in every shadow – they’re your sons, your grandsons, your nephews and your brothers” and “If two young people get hammered and have drunken sex, he is responsible for his behaviour, but she’s not responsible for hers”. In the first rape myth the author uses a sense of sarcasm, what she is essentially say is that the people who you are calling rapist are in fact just your innocent friends and family. The author is assuming that people who commit acts of sexual violence are not people that we know. She uses this quote to make readers think that rapists are dark, devious, and unknown people. However, we know that in reality this is not the case, in approximately 80-90% of sexual assault cases the perpetrator is someone the victim knows. An overwhelming majority of rapes that occur on campuses are actually done so by the person the victim is dating or an acutance. Although the author tries to assume friends and family are not rapist, studies would argue to the contrary. In the second rape myth the author is

The first chapter explores questions of possible Islamic liberation and why, given the choice, women don’t remove their burqas. In response to that first query, the author advocates that freedom and liberation for a country should be based on its people’s desires and values instead of what Westerners believe is the best way of life. Unfortunately, a key finding in this chapter was that the United States took advantage of Afghan women’s situation by using their rescue from the Taliban-and-the-terrorists as a justification for the War on Terror. Westerners view head coverings like burqas/hijabs as restrictive, a symbol of the patriarchy. In fact, many Middle Eastern women describe burqas as ‘portable seclusion’ that enables them to move out of segregated living spaces. Veils are worn as fashion statements or to express piety/virtue or belonging to a household. This exact worrisome practice of colonial feminism focuses more on the religious and cultural practices that persecute women, rather than more destructive issues like poverty, illness, malnutrition, politics, or lack of

For years girls and women all around the world have been victims of rape culture and misogynistic views. Everywhere males are told that they are not in the wrong if a girl is dressed a certain way because she is “asking for it”. This is shown through public figures, social media and is even an issue in third world countries. Our society has deemed it socially acceptable to blame women for being rape victims if they aren’t dressed according to mankind’s standards.

“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)

As a result of past governments led by fundamentalist Muslims, Western feminists have taken the issue of the headscarf into their own hands. The feminist movement regarding Islamic head coverings began in response to their belief that Muslim women are being oppressed. Although many people have been convinced that all women are continually being forced to cover their bodies and faces, this belief is far from the truth. Throughout the worldwide Muslim population, a majority of Muslim women who wear any kind of head coverings do so out of their own will. There have been select governments that have enforced headscarves, but today women have the choice left to themselves. Even though many Muslim women have spoken out to Western feminists to ensure

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

Women are subject to inferior treatment in almost every aspect of life throughout the world, whether it be in the workforce, in the household, or even in the eyes of the court. However, one of the most prominent and shocking aspects that most individuals believe treat women as the inferior sex is through the eyes of religion. Many believe that the religion with the most extreme treatment of women is Islam. Though, the majority of religions today and throughout history have viewed women as the lesser sex, Islam is categorized as the religion with the top maltreatment of women, which is not true and the treatment of women varies with country. Unfortunately, Egypt has been named one of the worst countries for women, which happens to be a country with a high concentration of Islam population. Within the country many feminist have sprung up, most notably the radical Aliaa Magda Elmahdy.

But Mona Eltahawy and Kelly Sanja exchange similar views against this theory and question the awareness of people who support misogynistic actions. Misogyny in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is still a problem in today’s society. MENA women continue to fight for the right to live and be free, but their political, social, religious, and economic surroundings obstruct them from having complete gender equality. The first way Eltahawy establishes her argument is accounting for the false use of the hijab in the religious and political aspect.

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.

In this article we argue that the popular image of rape, a nonutilitarian act committed by a few “sick” men, is too limited a view of sexual violence because it excludes culture and social structure as pre-disposing factors. Our data come from interviews with 114 convicted, incarcerated rapists. Looking at rape from the perspective of rapists, we attempt to discover the function of sexual violence in their lives; what their behavior gained for them in a society seeming prone to rape. Our analysis reveals that a number of rapists used sexual violence as a method of revenge and/or punishment while others used it as a means of gaining access to unwilling or unavailable women. In some cases, rape was just a bonus added to burglary or robbery.