STEADY ACCLIMATISATION TOWARDS RAPE CULTURE’

LITERATURE REVIEW
-Pragathi. R

Rape culture, is a newly coined term that refers to a surrounding where cultural and social
attitudes normalise or trivialise sexual remarks, advances or harassment by ruling it off as
comedy or non-problematic content. We are dangerously steering into a place where rape
and sexual harassment are turning into routine happening, and the lack of action and
continued trivialisation of this is posing a grave threat to the physical and social security of
women.

The literate and socially conscious society of 21 century is unaware of the rape culture that
st

it has been consciously or unconsciously breeding through its movie preferences,

advertisements and leaders that publicly berate and sexualise women.

It is a swift and steady adaption, as it amounts to our unconscious consumption of

derogatory content and incorporating that in our daily lives.

This paper contains the review of several journal articles and studies conducted by
academicians who have delved into the cause and effects of rape culture that is prevailing in
the modern society with aim to create awareness about the severity of the situation and
what it might develop into.

 “Street Harassment and informal ghettoization of women” is a paper written by

Professor Cynthia Bowman who elucidates the physical and psychological aspects that
are involved in harassment and eve-teasing on the street or public places.

“Street harassment is a phenomenon that has not generally been viewed by academics,
judges or legislators as a problem requiring legal redress, either because these mostly
male observers have or experienced this behaviour” is according to prof. Bowman.
Harassment on the street or in public places can range from staring, verbal abuses or
unwelcome physical contact, often sexual in nature which is aimed at validating a woman’s
presence or existence to ‘‘objects of pleasure.” Street harassment or eve teasing is an
incursion on women that seldom goes penalised for although it is a punishable offence
under Section 294 and 509 of the Constitution. The article talks about how this failure of
accountability deprives women the basic rights of liberty and freedom in terms of restricting
their movement and accessibility. This can also be something that invalidates gender
equality while one gender is largely disadvantaged.

 The news article “Normalisation of Sexual Violence through Rape culture’ by Ali Ciocca
defines rape culture as a society or environment whose prevailing social attitudes have
the effect of normalizing or trivializing sexual assault and abuse. We live in a society that
normalizes this culture on a daily basis.” This culture fuels the already prevailing male
dominance over women, which again is widely propagated in movies with their stalking
and harassment actions disguised as ‘elaborate endeavours of love.’ Ciocca in the article,
also highlights the denial of existence of such this culture, in reference to President of
the United States’s continued derogatory remarks to women that have been brushed
aside as ‘locker room talk’ which is an evident trivialisation of harassment. The
consequences of this propagation can be dire, as it has the potent of nullifying consent;
one of the most basic human and humane rights.

The author of the paper identifies rape culture “as the common cold of the society.” She
believes that we constitute an environment that fosters rape, through our movies,
advertisements that predominantly sexualise women and portray her as a being that
is merely at the mercy of male gaze or dominance. There is a sort of social
conditioning that is taking place through our consumption of media content that is
inducing us to believe and propagate that this is acceptable. The prevalence if rape is
attributed to the to the power imbalances in the society. The paradigms of an age-
old construct of dominance and submission that have been restricted to particular
genders have evolved.
  The paper titled ‘Attitudes towards rape’ by Knud. S. Larsen and Ed Long, talks about
the pre-set notions about sexual harassment and rape in the society which are still
based on victim- blaming and the stereotyping of gender into constrictive ‘roles’ often
by highlighting the presence of an alpha-sex. The paper houses a study that was
conducted in the cafeteria of the University of Oregon where the yielded results stated
the casuality with which men view rape and often resort to victim blaming; while
women called out for more awareness and education towards rape. However certain
section also believed that external factors like luck, type of place and time or even
alcohol amount to the assault; which bore no condemnation to the perpetrators of rape.

The paper in relation to the previous one, highlights the consequences that victim-shaming
inflicts on the survivor and how the society is harbouring such mentalities while the media
remains a mere bystander in this context.

 Published in the Economic and Political Weekly termed ‘Sexualisation of public places’-
this article centers its focus on the gory sexual content that are used across media
platforms as a means of advertisement. It speaks about how uncommon it is to find
beauty products or even tyres, which do not market it based on the sex and sexuality of
a woman. There is also mention about the increasing sexual and explicit content that
pervade our daily lives, a possible sign of a rebellion against the ‘traditional’ or
conservative societal ideologies. This also serves as platform for the youth to freely and
publicly conform to their sexual orientation; and women to fully express their sexuality
which was often bound by patriarchy. However, these have also led to more abusive and
derogatory comments that have arose as a result of this

This has been mistaken by the larger crowd who are of the opinion that this sexual freedom and
absence of ‘shyness’ also gives them allows them to make advances at a woman that she
will accept.

Derogatory or violent content under the guise of ‘racy’ or ‘daring’ normalises rape culture. The
advertisements, showcase women with a beckoning look when a man makes certain
advances at her; there is a certain sense of yearning towards the male. Hence, young boys
expect the same reaction and are taken aback when there is a lack of consent or plain denial
on the receiving end. They have not been taught how to receive or perceive rejection of
their advances and are under the impression that even if they are unwelcome at first, they
will eventually ‘coerce’ an acceptance from women.

 Author Seemanthini Niranjana in her journal article “Gender and space- feminity,
sexualisation and the female body’ that was a result of an ethnographic study in rural
Karnataka; is of the opinion that the gender hierarchies from ancient texts and
scriptures have taken a place of permanence in today’s society under the guise of
‘culture.’ She further elaborates that the feminity and womanhood is restricted by
aspects of honour, shame and morale. Highlighting the absence of distinction between
gender and sex, she speaks about the limited spaces that women have and which are
continually infringed my men.

However, there are a large number of cases of rape and sexual harassment in rural or
‘traditional’ societies, therefore it is evident that trying to curb women in the name of
‘honour’ is a façade. It is still bound by male dominance and a woman’s freedom and
sexuality is still dictated by a man.

 Written by Anastasia Powell termed “Rape culture- why our community attitudes to
sexual violence” the article speaks extensively about the behaviour towards the entire
spectrum of rape and sexual violence and the attitudes towards the victims and
survivors. Based in Australia, the paper highlights the political and social interactions
that are diverted towards the survivors of sexual assault like asylum organisations,
medical help and a serious attempt to include them into the mainstream of the society
and remove stigmatisation against them. She also talks about the beliefs that hinder this
attempt, like victim-blaming and slut-shaming.

All the articles and academic literature point to how this is a steady acclimatisation as the
normalising is something that takes place on a day to day basis and has woven it's way into
the vernacular communications and social interactions. The general public consciously or
unconsciously objectify and sexualise women while also trivialising the trauma that
harassment or eve- teasing inflicts This leads to formation of opinions that it is an
acceptable behaviour and "all in good humour."

By the same notion or intention, advertisements and movies in specific are made with the
aim of pandering to the audience interests. They produce content which they believe will
cater to the large masses, and use “rape culture” as a marketing strategy to grab more
eyeballs. Unconscious acclimatisation to these derogatory attitudes which have us believe
that it is acceptable.
Hence, when the audience is sensitized towards the trivialisation and faulty portrayal of
sexuality, they will start denying the consumption this content which will eventually cause a
decline in the harassing and objectifying culture.

Thus, this amounts to generalisation of this problematic attitude. The aforementioned

paper "Attitudes towards rape" propagates this idea and talks about the dire consequences
that these attitudes and behaviour will spawn and how the society might increasingly grow
into a surrounding of hostility.

REFERENCES-

 The Sexualisation of Public Spaces: Why is the public space being so heavily sexualised?
(2010). Economic and Political Weekly, 45(30), 7-8.
Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20764324

 Owen, L. (2012). "Work That Body": Precarity and Femininity in the New Economy. TDR
(1988-), 56(4), 78-94.
Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23362773

 Bowman. Cynthia (1993). “Street Harassment and informal ghettoization of women”.

Harvard Law Review Vol.106, pp. 517-580.
Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1341656
 Niranjana. Seemanthini (2003)- “Gender and Space- feminity, sexualisation and
the female body”. Sociological Bulletin, Vol. 52, pp 144-148

Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23620325

 Knud. S Larsen and Ed Long(1998): Attitudes toward rape.

The journal of Sex Research. Vol. 24, pp. 299-304.
Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3812852

 Anastasia Powell, ‘Rape culture-why our community attitudes to sexual violence matter”
https://theconversation.com/rape-culture-why-our-community-attitudes-to-sexual-violence-matter-31750

 Ali Ciocca, “Normalisation of sexual violebce through rape culture.”

https://petsempower.org/the-normalization-of-sexual-violence-through-rape-culture/