M.

Mainhood

What is rape culture?

Within feminism, rape culture is a concept that links rape and sexual violence to the culture of a society, in which prevalent attitudes and practices normalize, excuse, tolerate, and even condone rape (Wikipedia). Rape culture is perpetuated through the use of misogynistic language, the objectification of womens bodies, and the glamorization of sexual violence, thereby creating a society that disregards womens rights and safety (Marshal University). The term itself originated during the second wave feminist movement in the 1970s, though the first use of the word is debated.

Making rape a compliment is a part of rape culture.

Rape being used as a champion term is a part of rape culture.

Video gamers lingo has changed the term rape into a good thing to rape someone is to beat them. To humiliate them. To conquer them. Which is exactly what rape is but what it isnt is a good thing. Raping someone is not something you should strive to do. As a (unfortunately unsourced) source said: "Rape isnt about uncontrollable sexual desire. You only have to listen in on a Call of Duty game to see that. When that kid crows, I raped you!, hes not calling the other guy sexy; hes saying he defeated him, dominated him, humiliated him. Thats what rape is about, and that should scare you. Or as I heard first-hand the other day on the bus on campus: Virginia! Dude, were gonna rape them, are you kidding me?

Recently, our new favourite insult-generator, Richard, left this comment, designed to cut me down to size: No one wants to rape you, Shakes. Sorry to inform youRichard, who also likes to tell me how ugly, fat, and grotesque I am, implies in his latest comment that no one wants to rape [me] because rape is only something that happens to attractive womena sentiment I've seen expressed before by other men who inform women they are not attractive enough by suggesting they're not rapable. Appallingly, I've seen men go out of their way to physically intimidate a woman on the subway (or bus, or in a parking garage, etc.) only to scoff, Don't flatter yourself if she reacts with the fright he desires. He's pretending that rape is about sexual attraction, though he knows it's about control and humiliation (Shakesville).

This contributes to rape culture. Acting like raping someone else is a good thing. Championing the term. Turning it from something disgusting and inhumane to something you want to do to others. Using the term to describe anything other than the horrible and repulsive act of violating another persons human rights is problematic so stop.

VICTIM-BLAMING

is a part of rape culture

Victim-blaming is perhaps the worst part of rape culture. When we stop blaming rapists and start blaming the victim for what they were wearing, how they were acting, whether or not they previously gave consent thats when we stop seeing rape as a bad thing and turn it into straight up consequence. It doesnt seem that hard to understand that the only reason rape happens is because of rapists. But, for whatever reason, people cant seem to understand that they trivialize rape as being the victims problem, which is the main problem.

Turning women into objects contributes to rape culture.

Diminished capacity

consent

Unfortunately, there are still a lot of people out there that think that diminished capacity (i.e., influence of alcohol and/or drugs) means that a person can still consent to having sex. Heres the facts; if someone is high or drunk, they cannot consent*.
*This does not mean one cannot consent to sex after a couple of drinks this means if someone is drunk. If you think they may be drunk, dont do it. Dont risk it. Dont rape. Consent has to be directly laid out. Consent has to be consent.

Rape Jokes are a part of rape culture.

Rape jokes are, unfortunately, still considered by the general public funny many people dont even notice when a rape joke has been said. Its something we need to be careful about, because, as an article on The Good Men Project (unfortunately taken down, so I cant be sure who wrote the article) said:
I dont know if rape jokes encourage rape culture. I dont care. You still shouldnt tell them. Statistically, if you have told a rape joke to a group of more than five people, one of the people you told it to was a rape survivor, possibly of multiple rapes. They will not necessarily disclose this to you; rape apologism is endemic in society and most rape survivors are cautious about whom they tell. Some may even be too ashamed of their rape to admit it to anyone, or because of rape-minimizing narratives like men cant be raped and I consented to oral, so I couldnt have been raped may not admit it even to themselves. The fact remains: if youve told dozens of rape jokes in your life, then you have almost certainly told a joke that minimizes or trivializes rape in front of a survivor. And if you put as your Facebook status I totally raped at Halo today for your two hundred Facebook friends to see, statistically, you have just reminded thirty-three people of one of the worst experiences of their entire lives. To describe how well you did at a video game. Good job!

How are these even funny?

Rape jokes cont.

One of my friends made a rape joke the other day to be fair, it didnt sound like a rape joke. Nevertheless, it talked about some sort of forced sex, or something of the sort the thing is, when I told him this was a rape joke and shouldnt be said, he told me I was the one who made it a rape joke. Because I pointed it out. Beware when you start pointing out these things, people will take offense to it. Be ready for that.

Many comedians make rape jokes (because ha ha theyre so funny) but one that I feel like talking about is Bo Burnham because hes different, and he could even be called a feminist. HOWEVER, in his first album Words Words Words he makes a couple of rape jokes, the first one in the song Words Words Words: cry like a child would, you raped my childhood/just stroll in, roll in your pole into Rolie Polie Olies colon which one person dissects as The second half states that someone raped Bos childhood, but that could also be taken as he was raped as a child. Then in the second line he states that Rolie Polie Olie (A character from a childrens TV show) is being raped. The second line states that someone walked in, and put their penis into Rolie Polie Olies colon. This means that Rolie Polie Olie was his childhood. Regardless of this reasoning, this is the trivialization of rape. Dont trivialize rape. Later on in the same show, he does a piece about Charlie Brown getting molested, again making rape into a joke and trivializing it. To be perfectly fair, in his next show, what., in his song From Gods Perspective, there are the lyrics: You shouldn't abstain from rape just 'cause you think that I want you to/You shouldn't rape 'cause rape is a fucked up thing to do/Pretty obvious, just don't fucking rape people, didn't think I had to write that one down for you. Though it far and doesnt clear him for his earlier jokes, its nice to know that unlike some comedians, he blasts rape as it should be done. But comedians in general seem to love to use rape jokes and thats a trend that needs to stop. One thing you can do to help this is stop laughing at rape jokes. Stop acting like theres nothing wrong with it. Call out comedians, and people, when they make rape jokes. Dont just let it be.

The small number of rape kits that are actually processed lends to rape culture.
The big story in the news: one hundred (one hundred) serial rapists identified after Detroit gets around to its backlog of unprocessed rape kits. In 2009, 11,000 rape kits were found abandoned, and as of March 17, 2014, 1600 of them have been processed, leading the city to find Detroit has identified about 100 serial rapists and ten convicted rapists. Those perpetrators have moved on from Michigan to commit similar crimes in 23 other states. Nationwide, about 400,000 rape kits have been untested, and Sarah Tofte, the director of policy and advocacy for Joyful Heart, explained to ThinkProgress, Theyre making subjective judgments about whether theyre likely to get a conviction, what this rape looks like, whether the victim is credible, and what the victims worth to society isUltimately, its about, does this victim deserve justice? In other words, if we didnt live in a rape culture in which all but the most perfect victims are doubted, you can bet your ass there wouldnt be such a backlogThe stats from Detroit are similar to those in other cities and states that have tackled their backlogs: Once New York City processed its 17,000-kit backlog in 2001, the arrest rate for rape cases jumped from 40 percent to 70 percent. After working through 2,000 untested kits, Ohio has found nearly 200 matches with DNA in a criminal database.

The small percentage of rapes reported lends to rape culture.

Sixty percent of sexual assault cases are never reported to the police and only three percent of rapists spend any time at all in jail. This without doubt is influenced by the stigmas surrounding rape victim-blaming being one of the biggest of them. Many people figure men cant be raped, or that rape is only rape if its between a heterosexual couple even fewer queer rapes are reported. Also, earlier consent does not equal consent. If someone rescinds on their consent to sex, that is not consent. If someone consents to a certain type of sex (i.e., oral sex), that does not mean they consent to any type of sex (i.e., penetration). This leads to many rapes not being reported, and the fewer reported, the fewer convicted. Of course, even amongst those that are reported, not nearly so many rapists are arrested and fewer are convicted. This is a result of rape culture. When we change rape culture, we can change these stats. Stop the stigma around rape. Everyone can be raped by anyone, and any sexual assault is sexual assault. Another myth is that rape is always perpetrated by a stranger, when in fact 8085% of rapes are committed by someone the victim knows. This is something that needs to be recognized.

Rape in the entertainment industry

Everywhere from CSI to Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, rape is used in the entertainment industry all the time. These two shows, at least, attempt and often succeed in dealing with rape as a horrible thing and they arent taken lightly at all, but both shows have been known to perpetuate the myth that a lot of rape accusations are false (by that I mean, more than the >1% that happen in real life). But even more unfortunately, these shows deal with the issue much better than a lot of entertainment. There are constant shows and films that use sexual assault and rape as an entertainment strategy and either dont deal with it (in which it is ignored or put on the backburner), deal with it in a very bad way, or perpetuate terrible stereotypes of survivors of sexual assault.

Rape in entertainment - cont. As the_nameless, an author on beingfeminstblog, put it, I dont just hate rape scenes because theyre rape scenes. I dont just hate rape scenes because theyre demeaning or scary. I hate rape scenes because theyre LAZY. In all the films I have watched, I can think of only two in which a rape scene is relevant. One is The Rules of Attraction, which basically opens with a rape scene, the relevance of which is that we gain an insight into Laurens flawed character through her thought processes which we hear during the scene. The second is A Clockwork Orange, during which the rape scenes speak volumes about the degeneration of society and violent crime becoming a norm. The trouble is, rape and sexualised violence have now become so normalised in the news and in film that theyre no longer seen as anything other than entertainmentUntil society learns to respect and admire women as PEOPLE, rather than objectifying and reducing them to breasts and a vagina, I feel that we cannot move forward. We have made strides as a society, whether technologically or in terms of marriage equality and acceptance of relationships which even forty years ago would have been severely frowned uponso why this? Why still this insistence on viewing rape as something thats not important, that isnt a big dealso much so that Hollywood needs to use it for entertainment value and ratings? Why?

The dismissal of rape contributes to rape culture

Its amazing and horrifying that in todays culture, friends and family of survivors of sexual assault can easily dismiss it. Many families and friends will insist they just get over it after so long, many even after it just occurred. Even more shocking is the fact that the police will dismiss rape accusations, or more likely, as we saw in an earlier page, rape kits simply arent processed rape is put on the backburner, less of a crime than other crimes. The fact that its dismissed as boys will be boys (as statistics show less than one percent of rapes are committed by females) is pathetic, sad, and unfair to the victims since when is rape something that can be dismissed as inherent in men? Sexual assault should never be dismissed, and if a friend or family member has gone through it, be supportive. Forever. Its not something to get over, and nobody should treat it as such. And its not just family and friends more often than not, its society in general. During the Steubenville rape case in 2012/13, there seemed to be a general consensus between the news channels in general to feel bad for the boys who raped and CNN, in many of their broadcasts, said not one word about the victim the absolute dismissal of rape, the boys will be boys. Many women in the armed services talk about rape being dismissed and if they make it an issue, they are discharged rather than taken care of. Im sure its no surprise and many are already aware of the issue with rape in the armed services, but its still absolutely shocking and horrible to think about.

Advising preventative measures so women dont get Raped RatheR than teaching men not to rape contributes to rape culture.
At lot of people, when someone says something of the nature of the tweet to the right, the public reacts incredibly negatively. The source of this picture unfortunately comes from an IGN thread in which the OP says about it, Okay bitch. Go to the club in an outfit with your tits falling out and your pu**y visible anytime you bend over, and make sure to get sloppy drunk too. If you get raped its not your fault. Not even in the slightest and amazingly while some people stand up for it, most of the respondents agree with the OP. Heres the facts: we need to teach (mainly) men not to rape. That should be your first incentive. Amy may not have worded the tweet absolutely perfectly; what she was getting at is that if you purely advise women on preventative measures and dont try to attack the source of the problem, you are a rape apologist. Women shouldnt have to take preventative measures against rape thats her point. And if thats all youre doing to help the rape crisis, then you are a rape apologist. What needs to be done first and foremost is that we need to teach that rape is never okay, under any circumstances, and that women are more than their breasts and vaginas. Then women wont have to worry about getting raped and wont have to take preventative measures.

What You Can Do About It

There are many more contributing factors to rape culture many of the things gone over have a million different parts that I could talk about all day. But these are the basics, these are something to start with these are something you can base your own research off of to see what rape culture is all about and how you can take a stand. What we need is people who understand rape culture, people who get it and will take a stand when some part of rape culture is being perpetuated. As there are many contributing factors to rape culture, there are many different things you can do to stop it. Here are the basics, just a few (and in some cases, most important) things you can do, everyone can do, to help stop rape culture.

Educate
First and foremost, educate yourself. Understand rape culture, what and who perpetuates it, and then educate others. If you never bring up the topic, who will? Some excellent resources:
National Sexual Violence Resource Center rapeis Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network National Sexual Assault Hotline American Civil Liberties Union American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children Break the Cycle End Violence Against Women International Among many more

Stop laughing at rape jokes.

Comedians love using rape jokes because people laugh at them. People continuously make rape into a joke, realizing it or not as previously stated, my friend made a date rape joke without realizing it was a rape joke. But start realizing it. Start realizing when jokes are made about forced sex, diminished capacity sex, or any other type of sex that isnt consent. And stop laughing at them. Instead, start asking the joker why. Why is it funny? That always makes the perpetrator think about it. Why is it funny. A lot of the time, once they realize that the joke is about rape, theyll stop. And if they dont, ask them why they think rape is funny. Whats funny about forced sex? Whats funny about ruining someone's life, giving them PTSD, giving them extreme anxiety and making it hard for the to trust again. Whats so funny about that? However you do it, question rape jokes. And realize when theyre being made, because they arent always obvious.

Antivictim Blaming

Luckily, there are people standing up for victims, and helping the public realize nobody is ever asking for it. JOIN IN! And educate others teach them that no matter how someone is dressed, they arent asking for anything.

Speak up
Its not always easy, but its always worth it. Always speak up for what you believe in, be it the end of rape culture or a million other things you might believe in. As well, start speaking up for sexual assault victims, start teaching those around you what consent really is (active permission; a straight up yes; both participants have to be willing; voluntary and free of force). Speak up for those communities (like LGBT and POC communities) that the criminal justice system doesnt take as seriously especially in cases of sexual assault. Raise your voice, share your own experiences, let people know whats right and whats wrong.

Stay Informed
Stay informed on whats happening in the political side of rape culture. Stay informed about whats happening on the social side. Stay informed about protests and other things going on in your area. Here it is: just stay informed. The Internet is a vast source of information, and it should definitely be used for news and things that dont make the news. Watch social networks Twitter, Tumblr, even Facebook can be helpful these days to create events that oppose rape culture and sexual assault. Stay informed about these. Stay informed and always update yourself about anything thats happening in the world.

Participate
Essentially, what this means is theres a time when you need to stop simply consuming information (stop simply being educated) and participate. Theres a point in time when you have been as educated as you can on a subject and even though youre sure to keep yourself informed on whats going on with a subject you need to start participating in ending it, or encouraging in, depending on what youve been educating yourself about. There are a million different ways to participate, from protests to speaking up to educating others. But, at some point, you need to stop simply consuming information and start participating, start spreading it around. This can be frustrating: With consumption, you can get frustrated. I often get frustrated and sick to my stomach when I read some of the things that happen to women, and to minorities in general, all over the world, everyday. Its sickening, and saddening. And youd figure that nothing could be worse. And youd be wrong, because participating is even more frustrating. Once you decide to participate, to try and educate others, you realize that many people are choosing to be ignorant. Many people dont want to learn, dont want to understand, dont want to realize they have privilege, or are contributing to the problem. But its always worth it.
Both quotes courtesy of myself.

Slutwalk
Youve probably heard of the Slutwalk originated in Toronto, it has spread to many different large cities throughout North America and around the globe. Essentially, for those who havent heard of it, and as a refresher for some of you who have, Slutwalk is a movement of protest marchesagainst explaining or excusing rape by referring to any aspect of a woman's appearance, and call for an end to rape culture. In many of the Slutwalks women dress like sluts and hold up signs like still not asking for it. Slutwalks are marches against victim-blaming, and the rallies bring together many survivors of sexual assault who share their stories. Most Slutwalks are independently put together by members of and around cities, and can be organized in any city or campus.

This is rape culture and we need to do something about it.

Bibliography
http://www.remotepatrolled.com/2012/11/is-american-horror-story-becoming-toosadistic/ http://altarofthecult.wordpress.com/movie-reviews/american-mary-review/ http://www.sidereel.com/posts/195576-review-law-and-order-svu-educated-guessreviewhttp://thegrio.com/2013/09/25/college-bars-ban-blurred-lines-amid-claims-itexcuses-rape-culture-2/ http://beingfeministblog.wordpress.com/2013/10/11/rape-is-this-entertainment/ http://dayofthegirl.org/rape-culture/ http://www.marshall.edu/wcenter/sexual-assault/rape-culture/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_culture http://www.shakesville.com/2009/10/rape-culture-101.html http://globalgrind.com/2013/10/15/jesus-be-a-fence-victims-house-burned-downafter-she-accuses-football-star-of-rape-details/ http://www.buzzfeed.com/jpmoore/23-people-who-think-the-steubenville-rape-victimis-to-blame http://www.facebook.com http://browneyedamazon.com/2012/02/22/northamericanrapeculture/ https://warosu.org/fa/thread/7789562 https://secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=3205 http://collectiveshout.org/2011/08/keep-australia-beautiful-trash-sexist-adcampaigns/ http://trueadvertise.wordpress.com/2011/07/03/the-objectification-of-women-inadvertising-how-much-is-too-much/ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/28/michael-strahan-rapejoke_n_593176.html http://www.google.com/imghp search: rape jokes http://ccdirect.comedycentral.com/watch/bo-burnham-words-words-words https://soundcloud.com/comedycentral/deep-bo-burnham-what-new-album Burnham, Bo. Words Words Words Words Words Words. Burhnam, Bo. From Gods Perspective. what. http://feminist.org/nomoreexcuses/backlog.asp http://feministing.com/2014/03/17/100-serial-rapists-identified-after-detroit-finallyprocesses-untested-rape-kits/ http://hypervocal.com/news/2012/houston-rapists-love-bureaucracy-untested-rapekits/ https://www.rainn.org/get-information/statistics/reporting-rates http://www.humboldt.edu/stoprape/statistics.html http://www.totalfanhub.com/straw-dogs/blog/the-most-controversial-films-of-all-time/ http://horror.wikia.com/wiki/The_Purge http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/lol-this-bitch.453338405/ http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/14/health/military-sexual-assaults-personality-disorder/ http://www.change.org/petitions/cnn-apologize-for-your-disgusting-coverage-of-the-steubenville-rapists http://nuswomens.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/i-actually-think-sexist-jokes-are-really-funny-and-otherreasons-im-not-a-feminist/ http://www.pinterest.com/misskimm/end-rape-culture/ http://363news.wordpress.com/2013/04/03/rape-jokes-arent-funny-so-why-do-we-still-use-them/ http://www.universalonehealing.com/nonprofit/domestic-abuse/ http://www.accordingtosykes.com/#!resources/c9l8 http://wnmu.edu/events/aclu-campus-reps-immigration-reform/ https://twitter.com/NSVRC http://upsettingrapeculture.com/workshop.php http://www.uww.edu/sasa/whatissexassault.htm http://letterofcreditforum.com/content/express-consent-transfer-letter-credit http://smartcomputing.eku.edu/insidelook/stay-informed-safe http://www.guildmortgage.com/branches/northpole/blog/Stay-Informed-with-10-Essential-Tips http://oursocialtimes.com/ http://tasearmochorps.tumblr.com/ http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/KTVttQU4Wj/Slutwalk+Participants+Protest+Against+Rape/OTsF2ITIbuB/Siri+Blomquist http://www.mgtowforums.com/forums/mgtow-general-discussion/18417-rape-culture-meme-misandry.html http://feminspire.com/outcry-in-india-fighting-back-against-a-long-painful-history-of-sexual-assault/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slutwalk http://thefeministwire.com/2011/05/sluts-on-parade/ http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SlutWalk_NYC_October_2011_Shankbone_28.JPG http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/08/12/rape-culture-101-west-virginia-teaching-hs-jocks-how-to-getaway-with-rape/ https://thegrumpygiraffe.wordpress.com/2013/03/21/dont-shut-up-about-rape-culture/comment-page-1/ http://sistersofresistance.wordpress.com/2013/03/19/resisting-rape-culture-teaching-men-not-to-rape/ http://technorati.com/women/article/rape-culture-celebration-on-t-shirts/ http://kateeberstadt.blogspot.com/ http://www.criminalizeconservatism.com/2013/11/the-party-of-rape-culture-40-republican-rape-quotes.html http://zeldalily.com/index.php/2012/11/still-not-asking-for-it/ http://slutwalkseattle.com/post/59821266597/still-not-asking-for-it http://www.wornjournal.com/blog/after-the-slutwalk-still-not-asking-for-it/ http://www.pinterest.com/thelov3lybone5/still-not-asking-for-it/