What Is Rape Culture

“‘Rape culture,’ a culture that normalizes, trivializes, and quietly condones male sexual assault against women, blaming female victims subtly celebrating predators. America, President Barack Obama went on to argue, suffers from a ‘quiet tolerance of sexual assault,’ all too often blaming victims, making excuses, or looking the other way. To combat sexual violence, he said, America needs a ‘fundamental shift in our culture.’ Rape culture addresses, albeit in a scramble and unjust fashion, a deep problem in contemporary American life; a huge cultural resistance to the fact that sex is a profoundly serious business” (Wilhelm). The rape culture isn’t specifically based on just sexual assaults. It also refers to the way that women are perceived and treated publicly and privately. The rape culture

“Most rape cases share a few common threads: alcohol, texting, a consensual hookup gone awry and, most notably, ‘empowered’ young women who are apparently too weak, too afraid, or too emotionally torn to know what they want” (Wilhelm). “Rapist select victims they can intimidate and overpower,” according to the University of California. A major aspect of the rape culture is whether or not a woman is under the influence. Being under the influence plays a major role in one’s impairment and decision making process. Whether it is alcohol or use of drugs, there is always going to be a way to take advantage of the person using these poisonous substances. The more popular drugs that rapists seem to favor, when striking a victim, are referred as the “date rape” drugs. "Being one of many, Rohypnol is the oldest drug used in date rape. It is up to ten times more powerful than Valium and Halcion, producing a slowing of physical and mental responses, muscle reflexes, and amnesia in about fifteen minutes. This pill looks like aspirin, and when dropped in a drink, usually an alcoholic beverage, it is