The fact that all women have a 26 percent chance of being raped within their lifetime is appalling and unacceptable (Lips 303). Rape Culture has yet to be dealt with by society in an active way. In some ways, society actually perpetuates rape culture by maintaining the cycle of victim blaming, sexual objectification, and elected ignorance. When I say elected ignorance, I’m referring to society’s tendency to turn a blind eye to some forms of sexual violence, like domestic abuse, because it is considered to be outside of the public sphere. When sexual violence occurs in the private sphere but somehow leaks into the public sphere, social institutions as well as the victims of the crime will often try to conceal the offense for fear of scrutiny and penalties. The perpetuation of rape culture and the social construction of sexual violence are significantly influenced by society’s conceptualization of the public and the private sphere.
Recently, I watched a twenty-minute YouTube video telling the story of a Brown University student named Lena who was strangled and raped by a fellow student in August of 2013 (YouTube.com). Lena Sclove was told that her healing process would begin when she reported the rape to Brown’s public safety. Although Brown University found the rapist guilty and suspended him from school for a year, he is allowed to return to school for the fall semester of 2014. Brown turned her down when she called for an appeal of their decision to allow the perpetrator back on campus. The reason I am bringing up this incident that occurred at the renowned university is because it is one of few where the victim actually speaks out about the “consequences of academic institutions’ silence in the face of rape” (Lips 306)....
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...ning. It actually makes me uncomfortable thinking about why I perceive Beyoncé as “real” and Nicki Minaj as “fake”. It is not simply because I have had an image of what a “real woman” is ingrained into me since childhood, it is also based on the fact that there are racial stereotypes and double standards at play. It is a complex discourse that requires a lot of thoughtful self-reflection and criticism that I may not be fully prepared for at this moment.
Works Cited
Lips, Hilary M. "Sexual Lives and Orientations." Sex & Gender: An Introduction. 6th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill/Higher Education, 2008. Print.
Sexual Assault at Brown University: Stand Up For Lena. YouTube.com, 22 Apr. 2014. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
Tough Guise: Violence, Media & The Crisis in Masculinity. Dir. Sut Jhally. By Jackson Katz. Perf. Jackson Katz. Media Education Foundation, 1999. Transcript.
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
Rape is a virus that infects every nation, culture and society. It is constantly referred to as “the unfinished murder”, because of the deep state of despair the rapist leaves the victim in. There is no common identifiable trend that determines who will be a rape victim. Women are not assaulted because of their attitudes or actions, they are attacked simply because they are present. With rapists, just as with their victims, there is no identifiable trend. The old myth that only “sick, dirty, old, perverted men” commit rapes is a lie that society tells itself in order to sleep better at night. The startling truth is that most rapists work under a veil of normalcy. In order for the percentage of rapes to decrease, we have to change our ideas about rape and let go of the old myths of the past. And until this happens, rape will continue to plague our world at large.
In what is sure to be a very solemn matter for all American students and their families across the country , in January 2013 , President Obama, the office of the Vice President and the White House Council on Women and Girls converged and issued a renewed call to action against rape and sexual assault report which analyzes the most recent reliable data about this issue and identifies who are the most in peril victims of this malefaction, investigates the costs of this violence both for victims and communities , and describes the replication very often inadequate of the US malefactor equity system.
Hess, Amanda. "To Prevent Rape on College Campuses, Focus on the Rapists, Not the Victims." Slate Magazine. Slate Magazine, 16 Oct. 2013. Web. 12 Feb. 2014. .
One of the most horrible things that has erupted from the subjugation of women is rape culture. Rape culture is the downplaying of the crime of rape to appease the violator, the accusation that the victim made a choice that led to their rape, or even jokes that suggest rape. According to Jessica Valenti’s, “In Rape Tragedies, the Shame Is Ours,” in today's world many people give in to rape culture by participating in these acts that somehow change our mindsets into believing that, “it is more shameful to be raped than to be a rapist”. Once ...
In the past century, America has made great leaps in terms of equality. With the efforts made by the civil rights and suffrage movements, all people gained the right to vote. We are even moving forward with marriage equality, and currently fifteen states recognize same-sex marriage. But regardless of all of our progressive institutional movements forward, we continue to socially oppress women. Men’s violence against women has grown to be an internationally recognized epidemic, and will continue to grow unless measures be made to stop it. Domestic violence continues to be prevalent in the lives of many families, and is the primary cause of homelessness in half of cases for women in children. Many women have been forced to alter their behaviors out of fear of being sexually or physically assaulted. One out of every three women is sexually or physically abused in their lifetimes. The first thing that comes to mind is, there are a lot of people abusing women out there. Many people with opposing ideas may claim that men can be victims of violence perpetrated by women, but in instances not used for self-defense, it is rarely part of a systematic pattern of power and control through force or threat of force. In fact, 99% of rape is perpetrated by men, but when confronting men about the issue of violence against women, it is often combated with denial. Jackson Katz writes in his book, The Macho Paradox, “We take comfort in the idea of the aforementioned child-rapist murderer as a horrible aberration. A monster. We’re nothing like him.”(Katz 30). The sad truth is that most women who are raped are raped by men they know, or even men they love. Many men have a hard time believing that saying that most violence is perpetuated by men does not...
Many of the attitudes, beliefs, and mistaken ideas about rape have been with us for centuries. By looking at myths, such as “women ask for it,” and “it would do some women good to get raped,” from a historical perspective, lead us for better understanding how they evolved. Women are still seen as the property of men, are protected as such. Men and women are still taught to occupy very different roles in today’s world. Men are usually more aggressive, and women are seen as passive. (Vogelman) This socialization process is changing, but slowly.
College is supposed to be a time to remember, for students to find themselves and start a new chapter in their lives. Instead, one girl will remember signing papers that said “Rape Victim”. Her perpetrator, also a college student and athlete, will be remembered as the man who raped an unconscious woman and walked away with very little punishment. Outrage and shock emerged once the public heard about Brock Turner’s sentence. In Ashley Fantz article, “Outrage over 6-month sentence for Brock Turner in Stanford rape case” from the June 7, 2016 issue of CNN, she uses pathos and logos through quotes and interviews to effectively show the faulty logic throughout the case and how the state of California did not deliver justice to the perpetrator of sexual assault.
At the 2016 Academy Awards, Lady Gaga took the stage for her performance of “Til It Happens to You” from The Hunting Ground – a documentary highlighting the nature of rape and sexual assault on college campuses in the United States. This powerful performance featured dozens of sexual assault survivors joined hand-in-hand, and was introduced by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who brought light to his previously launched campaign against sexual assault called It’s On Us. The aforementioned celebrity engagements are only a piece of the larger conversation about rape and sexual assault on college campuses that has become increasingly prevalent in recent years. Whereas this discussion has brought significant attention to the issue of these crimes
In this research paper, we will evaluate how sexual assault is handled on a college campus. What system is used and how does it
Susan Griffin’s Rape: The All-American Crime touches on many issues within American society. She begins by recounting how she was taught to be afraid of strange men from such a young age that she had not yet learned what it was she was so afraid of, and then goes into her experience with harassment, an experience shared by every woman at some point in her life. Griffin recounts the belief that all rapists are insane and the proof that they are just normal men and dispels the myth that rape is normal activity that is prohibited by society. However, she goes on to clarify that our culture views rape: “as an illegal, but still understandable, form of behavior” (Griffin 514). It seems that the wrongness of rape is determined by the situation in
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.
According to DeMatteo, Galloway, Arnold, and Patel (2015), roughly 75 percent of universities have policies that outline procedures in case of a sexual assault, but unfortunately only half of the universities provide students with a phone number to report an assault and less than half actually provide a phone number that can be used after hours. If universities provided effective measures to guarantee that a victim can report an assault, then less victims will feel like they do not have a voice or someone that they can turn to for help. A recent study found that a mere 50 percent of universities provide a hotline for victims of assault, 44 percent of universities allowed sexual assaults to be reported online, and 8 percent of universities provided anonymous reporting (DeMatteo et al, 2015). Another starting point would be if policies were put in place to protect victims of sexual assault rather than blame them. If university and college campuses could continue to implement preventative measures, then it is possible that more people will be educated on the occurrences of sexual assault on college and university
Sexual violence is a national issue that permeates every aspect society. Sexual assault and rape is an ongoing problem, evident by the troubling statistic that roughly 20 million out of 112 million women (18.0%) in the United States have been raped during their lifetime (Kilpatrick, Resnick, Ruggiero, Conoscenti, McCauley, 2007). Despite the continuous push for gender equality, the current culture of society perpetuates victim-blaming tendencies towards innate cognitive processes and media influences.
The society we live in is rape-conducive, rape-friendly, if you will. Despite the anger I feel joining those two words together, I know the sad paradox holds within it a great deal of truth. We are a violent society that has shrouded rape in mystery and shame. To stop this nightmare’s venomous crusades, all people must wage a private war to eradicate their own acceptance of the savage crime. While it is only a minority of men that actually commit rape, it is everyone’s silence that tells them it’s ok.