Rape Culture, Normalized Sexual Aggression And Violence Against Women

It’s even disagreeable to be agreeable

Rape culture, normalized sexual aggression and violence mostly against women (Buchwald et al., 2005), is prevalent in our society. Rape culture is reflected in popular culture, news events and in day-to-day interactions. Rape culture stems from the sexual double standard and the good girl/bad girl binary among other social phenomena. It is highly problematic because it induces victim-blaming of sexual assault survivors or victims (Bolger, 2014).

The sexual double standard refers to the fact that girls are thought to not “be sexual beings in the way boys are” (Adichie, 2013) as eloquently stated by Nigerian feminist author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. A consequence of this double standard is normalized sexual

However, both boxes are subjected to normalized sexual violence. The bad girl box is associated with an overt sexuality. In other words, a bad girl is unapologetic about her sexuality. She will proudly wear revealing clothing and amplify her sex life, actions deemed inappropriate by society. However, girls who adhere to this box are constantly shamed and objectified by society. They are treated as being inferior to other women simply for being unapologetic about their sexuality. Consequently, violence against them is normalized because, according to society, women who are overtly sexual beings deserve harm. For example, after Miriam Meeks was revealed to be porn star Belle Knox (Beusman, 2014) by a classmate, she began to receive countless death and rape threats. She was constantly judged and berated for her decision to make porn videos. Her humanity was also questioned because of her overt sexuality; individuals refused to acknowledge her academic achievements because of her porn career. Conversely, the good girl box is characterized by a covert sexuality and by a pleasant personality. In contrast to a bad girl, a good girl does not amplify her sexual activities and she always frames them as being romantic. Instead of wearing revealing clothing like a bad girl, a good girl wears clothing deemed respectable by society. However, girls adhering to the good girl box are also subjected to

Victim blaming is illustrated in “Agreeable”. In fact, Patty is blamed throughout the story for her rape. Immediately after her assault, she blames herself: “Patty had given Ethan Post a mistaken impression. (..) In the pool, she must have been giddy with agreeability” (Franzen 5). She essentially blames herself for her rapist’s erroneous impression of her desires. In addition, she views her rape as a punishment for “betray[ing] her true team” (Franzen 8) and for being out of place. She also associates her drinking as the cause of her sexual assault: “<<I’m just never going to drink again,>> she said, <<and that will solve the problem.>>” (Franzen 7-8). Her statement is similar to advice given to girls in real life (Valenti, 2014): girls are told to avoid drinking in order to avoid sexual assault. Patty is also blamed by her dad. He refers to her rape as being her mistake: “But sometimes the best thing is just to learn your lesson and make sure you never get in the same position again “(Franzen 14). Instead of supporting her, he tells her to “move on” and “forget about it” ( Franzen 14). He tells her to not take the case to court because he believes that she’ll “end up feeling more violated by the pretrial and trial” (Franzen 12) and because her case has a slim chance of actually winning. He essentially makes decisions