When it comes down to it, I can confidently say our world sucks. Sure, not all the time. Sometimes we have good days. More often than not though, it sucks. A lot.
I began writing this article right after the whole Rob Kardashian incident, which was right after I read about the Austin Jones debacle. Both of this instances is an example of rape culture, despite not being exactly rape. Here we have a pyramid explaining what rape culture exactly is:
This allows for a visual explanation of how things that may be perceived as "normal" or "everyday" things really aren't. Boys will not just be boys, and sharing nudes without consent or those that aren't yours is dangerous and not okay. The fact that we think of these actions as nothing is the initial problem. We need to see that these "little" problems lead to actual huge problems. These little instances of catcalling do mean something; they can make the victim of a catcall feel unsafe. I, for one, walk with my keys in my hand or with my hand in a fist. It's really easy to feel uncomfortable in this world when no one is fighting to protect victims.
Rape culture is just one other crappy situation created by the damn patriarchy in which we still live in today. It was created by the fact this world often shames real victims, but it totally victimizes abusers. Often creating sympathy for the person that most likely actually ruined someone's life, and not the person who needs the most help. "Do you have any proof?" "How do we know you're not lying?" "What were you wearing?" These are all irrelevant, and they just feed into the destruction of what rape culture already does. They make the victim feel as if what happened is their fault, and it all happened because of them. If only they had done one thing differently, then maybe, perhaps, things wouldn't have happened the way they did? Well, no. It is not their fault. The only person whose fault it is, is the person who decided they didn't care about the feelings of someone else.
I also want to mention how people claiming "fake rape" is dangerous. Yes, statistically, men do commit more assaults than women. However, that does not mean that that women should be allowed to claim assault if it never happened. I say women here because it is what typically happens. Not only can it ruin an innocent man's life, but this also makes it harder to believe people who have actually been assaulted. If it becomes a thing when anyone can claim that they were assaulted, then who's going to believe someone who actually was? To be more specific, white women tend to claim fake assault on men of color, especially black men. And this needs to stop in order to prevent rape culture from staying alive.
Unlike the Robin Thicke song, rape cultures aren't blurred lines. We all know what it is, and we even know when we take part of it sometimes. The fact is that it won't stop unless we actively try to end it. It really isn't that hard to do so.
