Suppose you have a nice leather jacket. Armani, high-end. One night, somebody beats you up and steals the jacket. You go to the police and report the theft, but instead of following through with the investigation, they question you: Why were you out at night? Were there any witnesses? Are you sure this happened? Have you let other people borrow your jacket before? Do you have a history of lending your jackets to people? Did you say “no”? Did you say “no” explicitly? Why didn’t you fight harder? You feel uncomfortable and decide not to press charges. You used to lend your jacket to others all the time. Now, the thought makes you queasy and upset. You grow paranoid, depressed. People make jokes, like can I borrow your jacket too? You do not laugh. …show more content…
You wonder why the responsibility falls on your shoulders. You wonder why you didn’t fight harder. You wonder if maybe it is your fault.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is rape culture. Rape culture teaches young girls to not dress “provocatively,” tells them that “boys will be boys, they can’t help themselves,” and establishes sexual violence as the norm. Rape culture normalizes hypermasculinity and promotes victim blaming. Rape culture is incredibly dangerous and very, very common.
You perpetuate rape culture every time you excuse the actions of a “boy with his life ahead of him.” Every time you express disbelief at accusations against a high-profile celebrity like Bill Cosby or Johnny Depp. Every time you write off male propagated sexual aggression as something natural, or worse, attractive (looking at you, Christian
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Sometimes the victim does not look like a stereotypical victim. Smoked a lot, drank a lot, dressed provocatively, wasn’t she asking for it? Doesn’t that make her less credible? With our justice system, the standard for whether rape occurred is placed upon the victim entirely. Their thoughts, sexual history, and actions are opened up for scrutiny, criticism, sometimes outright disbelief. It is no wonder that around 66% of sexual assault cases go unreported and less than 2% of rapists are ever actually incarcerated [2]. (These are generous estimates; the reality is probably much worse.) When they are reported, people think they’re lying. Disregarding the fact that reporting rape is a very traumatizing process, statistically only 2-8% of rape reports are false reports [3]. We must dispel the idea that rape victims are lying, because the overwhelming majority of the time, they are not. This kind of mentality creates a toxic environment that prevents the victims from speaking
When university or police find out about the sexual assault, they immediately blame the victim or question what the victim was wearing, drinking, or doing. “Brownmiller identified four basic rape myths: (1) All women want to be raped; (2) a woman cannot be raped against her will; (3) a woman who is raped is asking for it; and (4) if a woman is going to be raped, she might as well enjoy it” (Helgeson, 2012, p. 432). In The Hunting Ground, the rape myth, which a woman who is raped is asking for it, is seen throughout the testimonies of the survivors. Clark, herself, was told by her dean that “rape is like a football game” and asked if “looking back, what would you have done differently?” (Ziering & Dick, 2015). These rape myths affect how many victims actually report and how seriously sexual assaults are taken within universities and the justice system. For example, some women, themselves, subscribe to rape myths because they see how current cases are handled. “Women who did not physically fight off the person who raped them and who subscribed to the rape myth that “it can’t be rape if a woman doesn’t fight back” were less likely to acknowledge that they had been raped” (Helgeson, 2012, p. 434). Universities need to teach first-year students about consent and how to
Lievore, D 2004, ‘Victim credibility in adult sexual assault cases’, Trends and issues in crime and criminal justice, no. 288. Australian Institute of Criminology, [Online]. Available at: http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/tandi2/tandi288.html. [Accessed 14 April 2011].
Applying to the dress code, sexism can be seen commonly in schools due to the excessive amount of females who violate compared to the males. Basic arguments for dress code include eliminating distractions, which include the fantasies of a male student, which also leads into rape culture, defined as a society whose prevailing social attitudes have the effect of normalizing sexual assault or abuse. Females are punished for a male capability to be distracted, allowing a male to fantasize about a female. Ultimately, this causes increase in rape culture, which has been very prominent in today's
Sexual assault is an under-reported crime. It is difficult for women to report sexual abuse but it is far more difficult for men. For males, it is exponentially more difficult to report such crimes, thus making it more difficult for victim advocates to present an environment where victims feel comfortable coming forward to report sex crimes. To this end, according to RAINN (2009) male victims of sex related crimes may find it easier to make a first report anonymously, giving them the opportunity to speak to an objective list, specifically trained to address specific and complex emotional issues related to this crime.
First, Boswell and Spade describe how rape culture is a set of values and beliefs that provide an environment conductive to rape (217)..As they do a study, the list indicates a host of factors that distinguish higher risks of rape and some examples of setting were the highly distinct ratios at parties (Boswell, Spade 219). They observed 2 opposing fraternities at the same school and noted the distinctions of high and low risk parties in which they generated sexually assaultive behavior by observing interaction between men and women.
According to the SACHA Sexual Assault Center, rape culture involves everyday phenomena that “make violence against women and sexual coercion seem so normal that people believe that rape is inevitable” (“What is rape culture,” n.d.). Common examples of rape culture include: telling women to always travel in groups at night, asking survivors what they were wearing or if they were drinking during the time of the assault, and ignoring or stigmatizing males who are sexually assaulted (Ray, 2013). On college campuses, rape culture can contribute to the underreporting of sexual assaults, as survivors may be ashamed or afraid of humiliation. Furthermore, the presence of rape myths perpetuates the overall rape culture by shaping public opinion towards blaming survivors and discounting the actions of offenders. Largely cited myths, such as women falsely reporting rape to protect their reputations or because they are angry with the accused perpetrator, are based on a kernel of truth that is unrepresentative of the realities surrounding these issues (Burnett et al., 2009). Rape culture is alive and well on college campuses, despite being a broader societal issue. While this socially ingrained behavior is difficult to reverse, universities are major institutions that must accept partial responsibility for the perpetuation of rape culture and consequently need to devise programs for change that circumvent this erroneous
Firstly, Rape culture can be defined as the normalization and excusing of sexual violent behavior towards women in everyday media and culture (marshall.edu). Rape culture can also be the over sexualization of women’s bodies and misogynistic attitudes. These images and attitudes may not seem like they are obvious or even present but they are subtly weaved into many of the symbols and daily interactions in society. This is what causes rape and rape culture to be normalized. For example, if a young woman is sexually assaulted in a club, instead of asking details about the person who committed the act, the questions are reversed onto the victim. There are questions that arise such as, “what was she wearing?”, “was she drunk?”, “was she flirting with him/her at first?”. These questions are problematic because they suggest that the victim is the one is at fault for being sexaually assaulted. This idea is pushed by the symbolic interaction that if someone is trying to get lucky the other individual has to follow through, especially in party settings. I often see this especially in music and movies where stalking and harassing a person to the point of being uncomfortable is chalked up as a heated “romantic” pursuit.. For another example, women’s bodies (and often men’s too) are oversexualized. The is especially in the advertising industry and again in the media.
It is not a topic that is brought up often, especially at schools or at gatherings, yet it is crucial that everyone be educated, or at least informed on a topic that affects women every day. “Given that sexual violence continues to occur at high rates in the United States, it is vital that we understand attitudes and cultural norms that serve to minimize or foster tolerance of sexual violence” (Aosved, 481). Growing rates of sexual violence goes to prove that it is not taken seriously by many, especially when myths excuse the actions of the perpetrator and instead guilt victims into thinking they are responsible for the horrible act. Burt (1980), in her article titled, “Cultural myths and support for rape” attempts to make sense of the importance of stereotypes and myths, defined as prejudicial, stereotypes, or false beliefs about rape, rape victims and rapists- in creating a climate hostile to rape victims (Burt, 217). Examples of rape myths are such sayings as “only bad girls get raped”; “women ask for it”; “women cry rape” (Burt, 217). This only goes to prove that rape myths against women always blame and make it seem like it is the women’s fault she was raped and that she deserved it for “acting” a certain way. McMahon (2007), in her article titled, “Understanding community-specific rape myths” explains how Lonsway and Fitzgerald (1994) later described rape myths as “attitudes and beliefs that are generally
Particularly in cases where the defense claims the sexual activity was consensual. For example, in the past, the victim’s testimony was not enough to support a conviction, so the defense often sought to add moral doubt to the victim’s testimony by cross-examining the victim about past sexual promiscuity and character as a consent defense factor. id. at 250. The slightest discrepancy or inconsistency would further humiliate and throw doubt in the reliably of the victim’s testimony only to further traumatize the individual. In light of this, many rape cases went unprosecuted because victims refused to come forward or dropped the charges out fear of being publicly shamed.
According to Marshall University, Rape Culture is defined as “an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual violence against women is normalized and excused in media and popular culture.” In American society, it is not hard to find examples of rape culture. In popular movies, music, and current events there is an undeniable notion of victim blaming, and sympathizing with male perpetrators. People have begun to use the term rape as a casual adjective. For example “I just raped him in that game,” could be used to describe two people playing a game and one winning easily against the other. American society uses pop culture and current events to promote and justify the prominent rape culture.
Victims often find that they have to deal with a lot of harassment even after being shamed. For example, some men will come onto girls who have a reputation of being ‘sluts’ because they think the girls are going to be ‘easy’ and ‘into it”; thus, slut shaming can ruin how people, especially men, perceive and treat a woman. Slut shaming can also increase rape culture by discrediting a women’s allegation of rape due to her sexual history. In so many cases where rape is reported, officers and lawyers attack the victims by questioning how they were dressed prior to being rape, how they acted, were they being ‘promiscuous’, or were they flirting with their rapist; if any of the above questions were answered “yes” they would claim the victim was “asking for it”. In the Steubenville rape case, a 16 year old girl was recorded being raped by two football players at a party. The footage was later sent to other classmates and quickly spread throughout the whole school; as a result of the “stigma surrounding sexual assault, she [the victim] was labeled as a slut and viciously tormented by her classmates,” (Nelson, 3). In cases like these, girls are slut-shamed for being victims of sexual
Inertwined with rape myths, are subsequent rape scripts. As Ryan (2011) and Clay-Warner and McMahon-Howard (2009) showed, depending what script is prevalent or dominant, reporting rates and overall acknowledgement can be greatly affected. Our understanding of what constitutes a rape or sexual assault needs to significantly change otherwise countless victims will remained silenced. If the understanding of these crimes was broadened, and the acquaintance scenarios taken more seriously, more victims would come forward, report, and get the help they may desperately need, in addition to aiding the legal system in punishing the offender and improve society’s population.
Sexual assault is an offense that plagues many U.S. citizens. Although some studies show that rape is on the decline, other studies report that the phenomena actually occuring is that less rape victims are reporting the crime. In fact, approximately 68% of sexual assaults go unreported to the police according to the U.S. Department of Justice in a National Crime Victimization Survey from 2008-2012. It is common knowledge that rape victims are usually severely traumatized after the event, which leaves them susceptible to various emotions such as shame, anxiety, numbness, fear, denial, and guilt. Because of this, many rape victims decide to repress their experience and let it go unheard. However, not only does this prevent them from healing emotionally,
Misconceptions regarding rape myths can impact how people view the victim and how blame is assigned in rape cases. These misconceptions, found by a specialist on violence against women, “are often called ‘rape myths,’ because they are powerful stereotypes that can have a profound impact on perceptions of rape and the treatment of victims/survivors and offenders both within and
The methodology adopted for the present study is based on review and analysis of published data and literature related to the sector to understand the growth and development of Leather Industry in India during Plan XII. The published data on Leather an leather Products sector shall be compiled from DGFT and annual survey of industries and export-import data from the website of DGFT.