Rape Culture Rape culture is an issue all over America. It usually comes to light when a victim of sexual assault comes forward to talk about their experience and what occurred during the event. Rape culture is also embedded in today’s society, it can happen in an everyday setting with social media posts as well as the toxic masculinity that is taught and displayed throughout all of a young man’s life. However, not a lot of people are aware of how rape culture affects everyday life. The way to make people aware of what they’re doing to contribute to the problem is to educate the general public about rape culture and how it affects a victim’s life.
Rape culture has also changed the meaning of “no”, which in this society can mean “maybe” or “try harder” leaving both people wondering whether consent was actually given. The miscommunications and the ideals that are being taught about rape have led to the many problems that are caused in rape culture today. Heben Nigatu, Jessica Testa, and Ryan Broderick did a good job with their argument based on the pathos, however could have given better logos than what was used in this article. The BuzzFeed staff did a nice job appealing to angry emotions to relate their audience. They did this with their explainer from Shakesville who enlightens readers that rape culture is when women have to change their habits to protect themselves from rape because it is a woman’s fault if she in fact is assaulted.
According to Boswell and Spade the term “rape culture” is the ideas and values that create an environment that increases the chances for it to occur, or promotes, rape. This term derives from conflict theory, which advocates that those who are more powerful define what is considered “normal” and “deviant”, and social norms usually reflect their interests. Thus, rape culture is not meant to specify a setting, but how the atmosphere about a certain setting makes rape more or less likely to occur. For instance, in college, specifically in fraternities men control the setting; therefore, they promote a rape culture, since they don’t consider themselves or their “brothers” deviants for their actions. Instead, they have adopted a set of beliefs
Rape and sexual assault does not only occur in the ancient times of The Scarlet Letter but is extremely prevalent in today’s society and is normalized through the depiction of rape culture presented in the media. In today’s society, it is imperative to address the rape culture that is being cultivated by the objectification of women, normalization of violence against them, and the recurring victimization of the victim because it leaves men confused in their relationships with women and women feeling disempowered and violated. One of the initial causes of rape culture is the way in which women are being objectified by men and the media as it creates a society that disregards women’s rights and safety. From a very young age, men are encouraged to believe that all women are property because of the media. In magazine advertisements, it has been tested that sexual objectification occurs more frequently for women than for men and that women are 3 times more likely to be dressed in a sexually provocative manner.
Typically people assume a victim to be someone that is shy and weak, often a child or a female. This is because individuals unconsciously apply attitudes and stereotypes reflecting the society or cultural norms. It is often thought that men cannot be the victim of rape or sexual assault and this is due to the gender construct of men and women over time. Men were always expected to be strong and hold the family together. There has always been gender inequality and as women have dealt with the oppression in attempts to rise above the male dominant roles, men have continued to suffer (Lippard, et al., 2009; Javaid,
1.What is Rape Culture? Rape culture is a culture in which sexual violence is normalized and victims are blamed for their own assaults, it is also the use of misogynistic language, objectifying women’s bodies,g and the glorification of sexual violence, creating a society that has little respect for women. In many cases it’s situations in which sexual assault, rape, and general violence are ignored, trivialized, glamorized, or many times joked about. Rape culture is present in terms like,“why couldn't you keep your legs closed” or “boys will be boys”. Rape culture is the suggestion that only nice girls can be raped because girls who dress a certain way at act à certain way were “asking for it” or leading the perpetrator on.
Do you think rape culture has become a bigger issue in today 's society? I do agree that rape culture is still an ongoing problem across the world. According to Melissa Ecwan, rape culture is defined as, “encouraging male sexual aggression”, and “is regarding violence as sexy and sexuality as violent” (Rape Culture 101). Rape culture allows men to rape women in which people find it to be a normal thing. Rape is a horrible crime, no one should ever go through that, it causes the victim a lot of trauma which then leads them to having depression and self blame.
While images depicting sex have been widespread throughout all of human history, porn, as we think of today, wasn't common until the 18th century. The modern history of Westernized porn originates during the age of Enlightenment. It was considered an inappropriate way for individuals to express their sexual and private pleasures. With the beginning of printing press, mass media became much more accessible. However, most of the printed works were religious.
Mainly, gender roles talk about the concept of femininity and masculinity. In this society,
“Culture is a dynamic system of rules, explicit and implicit, established by groups to ensure their survival, involving attitudes, values, beliefs, norms and behaviours.” (Matsumoto) However culture is also a dynamic system of rules. And artifacts. And collective internal programming. In essence, culture varies from definition to definition. It is so broad and complex it cannot fit into one singular denotation, hence today, there are more than 100 definitions of culture available to us.