Rape Culture.
A topic that is very unpleasant to discuss and sad to hear. A topic, that unfortunately even in this day in age needs to be discussed.
Rape culture is defined as “a society or environment whose prevailing social attitudes have the effect of normalizing or trivializing sexual assault and abuse.”
Unfortunately, rape culture can be found all around us. It’s in movies, music, video games, literature, and even billboard ads. It’s in the way we as a society define beauty, the clothes we manufacture, and the hidden messages we send to young girls and women.
According to RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network), in America alone, someone is sexually assaulted every 98 seconds, meaning that on average there are 321,500 victims each year.
Let that sink in for a moment. 321,500 victims. Every. Single. Year.
Beyond that, RAINN goes on to state that 1 out of every 6 women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime.
Let’s take a look at some other statistics regarding rape and rape culture (Seidman, 178-179):
Women are ten times more likely to be victims of sexual assault.
1 in 5 college women has experienced forced intercourse.
During the early 20th century laws against rape were devised to limit criminalization and prosecution rather than help the victim.
Even from the get-go, we as a society laid the foundation for rape to be normalized and now years later, after reforming legislation and many social movements speaking out against sexual assault, rape, and abuse, it is still normalized.
Take the song U.O.E.N.O by Rocko, Rick Ross, and Future for example. This song, which was released in 2014 was apparently pretty popular (although we personally don’t understand why) and included lyrics such as:
"Put Molly in her champagne, she ain’t even know it
"I took her home and I enjoyed that, she ain’t even know it"
These two lines say it all. We live in a culture which prides itself on male dominance and control.
If you want other examples, take a look at Fifty Shades of Grey, Grand Theft Auto, or simply google images of objectification.
“Women are seen as sex objects who take pleasure in servicing and pleasing men, or as masochists who desire and enjoy punishment and pain. Porn depicts women as little more than sexual playthings and conveys a view of women as inferior. Moreover, the image of women’s sexuality in porn expresses men’s fantasies, not women’s actual desires. Finally, insofar as porn eroticizes sexual violence and aggressiveness toward women, porn encourages actual violence toward women. Hence the saying “Porn is the theory and rape is the practice.” Porn, then, is fundamentally about gender; its sexual images reinforce men’s social dominance (Seidman, 240).”
With the way in which sexual assault, sexual violence, and rape are depicted in all sorts of media presentations it’s really no wonder the statistics are so high.
With this in mind, you can begin to ask yourself what can be done to change this? What can be done to create a decline in the statistics? What can be done in order to lessen or remove rape culture within not only American culture but various cultures and subcultures around the world?
Well, thankfully, something is already being done. But, this does not mean that more can’t be done or that our job is done.
No Means No Worldwide is a non-profit organization founded by Lee Paiva. In October 2009, Paiva was beginning to build her foundation while also forming a “violence prevention and intervention system called IMpower.”
IMpower classes first began in Kenya and Malawi, and since its inception has taught over 300,000 boys and girls. The boys have been taught concepts such as positive masculinity and standing up for women, while the girls learn self-defense practices. With this curriculum in place, the area’s in which the classes have been instilled have seen a 50% reduction in rape and a successful intervention by males to sexual assault 73% of the time.
In addition to teaching young males the concept of consent and how to respect women, and young girls learning how to defend themselves from an attacker, No Means No Worldwide has also created a recovery program for survivors of sexual violence called Sexual Assault Survivors Anonymous.
Rape culture and sexual violence is a global epidemic.
No Means No Worldwide is working on getting their classes everywhere, and once they are we can imagine the decline of rape culture. But, until then, we should work on changing our views.
Stop thinking of rape and sexual violence as normal, because it’s not. Don’t make excuses as to why sexual assault happens and don’t blame the victim. Understand that society has taken this perverted action and normalized it to a point where it’s expected to happen.
Once this is understood, making a change can be that much easier. The music, film, and other pop-culture industries will change and questions cush as "What were you wearing?" or "Were you walking alone?" will become a thing of the past. Women will no longer be thought of as merely a play-thing rather than a person with a heart, mind, and spirit.
https://www.nomeansnoworldwide.org
https://www.rainn.org/statistics/victims-sexual-vi...
Seidman, Steven (2015). The Social Construction of Sexuality. New York, N.Y.: W.W. Norton & Company
