by Shreya Vikram
What is rape culture? Rape culture is an environment in which rape is normalized and excused in both the media and popular culture. Rape culture also defends sexual violence against women and is enforced through the use of misogynistic language, objectification of women’s bodies, and glorifying sexual violence. This creates a society that disregards consent and women’s safety.
There are many examples of rape culture in people’s everyday vocabulary. One of the most popular being, “she asked for it!” There are many problems with this statement starting with how it blames the victim by saying that they ”provoked“ their rapist. It also blames the victim typically by using what the victim was wearing against them and assumes that only promiscuous women get raped. Some school dress codes promote this idea of rape culture (ex. wearing short skirts and tank tops are too “distracting” for the males). Another saying is “boys will be boys.” This harmful saying enables rape by saying that rape is inevitable because “boys will be boys” and all men rape. This also enables toxic masculinity and makes men seem like animals. Slut-shaming is the biggest reason rape culture is still prevalent in our everyday lives. When girls get raped and speak out about it, they get shamed for having sex but they never shame their rapist for doing something awful and illegal. Girls also get slut-shamed for being sexually active, dressing slightly more revealing clothing, or even just acting very confident and open about all of these things which continues to promote the idea that women are always at fault no matter what they do.
Many of these stigmatizations are not only sexist but also not very factual either. 1 in 9 girls and 1 in 53 boys under the age of 18 are raped/sexually assaulted. Children do not even know what sex is so it is impossible to say “they asked for it.” For adults, unless someone specifically, vocally tells you that they want sex then they did not consent to anything. Just because someone is wearing something, that does not assume anything. For example, if I am not wearing a helmet and someone chucks me in the head with a rock, was I asking to be chucked in the head with a rock?
How does this mentality affect people? According to the Department of justice, only 230 out of 1,000 sexual assaults are reported to the police. Out of those 230 reported, 995 out 1000 are dropped or do not end with prosecution. 20% of victims do not report due to fear of retaliation, 13% believed they would not receive any support, 13% believed it was a personal issue, and 8% thought it wasn’t important enough. People arguing against the importance of sexual assault often don’t recognize the lifetime after-effects or want to acknowledge how detrimental it is. For example, in children to adolescents, depressive, and isolative/destructive habits or lifestyles, high chances of developing PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) can result. The consequences can take years to recover from, the psychological aftermath can be debilitating, some common results are intense trust issues, substance abuse, low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, it can completely derail an individual’s future and lives, yet there is so little acknowledgment of the severity of these attacks in courts of law, the perpetrator often will face 1-4 years in prison or less.
How to combat rape culture and slut-shaming? The easiest way is to NOT RAPE. People should avoid using language that objectifies or degrades women in any way. Speak out
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