Pop Culture: A Discussion About Rape Culture

Encyclopedia Britannica defines music as, “art concerned with combining vocal or instrumental sounds for beauty of form or emotional expression, usually according to cultural standards of rhythm, melody, and, in most Western music, harmony”. Music was considered beautiful at one time. Musical artist in this day and age put their drive to succeed well before their personal morals. The explicit language warnings on music covers are not enough. The foul language used in music is not the only thing that is influencing the younger generation. Pop, country, R&B, and rap music is having a big impact on influencing the American youth. Most of these music lyrics are just flat out detrimental to all involved.

Ever hear someone say ‘She was asking for it,’ or ‘Boys will be boys,” after a news article about rape or sexual abuse? Per Southern Connecticut State University, “rape culture is an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual violence is excused and normalized in the media and popular culture. People believe that everything is mostly the victims fault,” (Rape Culture par 1). Americans have created a rape culture. The people who mainly created this are the news stations and feminists. Feminists post their opinion all over the media. Creating society to be a rape culture. The feminist’s biggest argument creates rape culture; they use social media to make it seem like females are the only ones getting sexually harassed.

Now as a College student, speaking of rape culture is definitely an obligation. Reading the “The myth of the college ‘rape culture’” article in the NY post by Naomi Schaefer, she talks about the survey Harvard did as part of an effort by the American Association of Universities to quantify sexual assault on campus. The survey where bit vague but it looked like it was more of an alcohol problem more than a rape problem. The statistics show that most of the victims and the offenders drank alcohol or did drugs voluntarily. Yes there are some cases where the rapist was just a mad man that like raping but on campuses this is rarely seen. Quoting two things from Scaefer “On campuses where students are encouraged to see every bad sexual decision as an assault, incapacitated is a way students can explain away their behavior” and “Once you dig through all of the data collected here, there is no evidence that women are

The casual misinterpretation of the concept of rape extending all the way to its widespread comical usage is ghastly. The term is used when a sports team beats another sports team by a wide margin, or when someone’s electric bill is higher than it was the on the previous billing statement. In this context, rape is being devalued. Rape is not about uncontrollable sexual desire; one only has to listen in on a Call of Duty game to see that. When that kid crows, “I raped you!” he’s not complimenting his opponent; he is saying he defeated him, dominated him, and humiliated him. That is what rape is about, and that should scare society. The author of Transforming a Rape Culture, Emilie Buchwald, describes rape culture as “a complex set of beliefs that encourage male sexual aggression and supports violence against women.” Whether private or public school, rape is still an epidemic being covered up by university systems. We all have a part to play in allowing rape culture to exist—so, we can all do something to eradicate it.

Along with television shows, news stations are accused of trivializing rape aswell. How many times have you heard, “She asked for it.” or any other type of victim blaming, or a derivative of,“Boys will be boys.” to make rape seem like not such a big deal (1a)? News channels will even go as far as scrutinizing a victim’s dress, mental state, motives and history to make the victim seem in the wrong about their rape (1a). Some channels will inflate the fake rape statistics to make rape seem like a less

“I am about to rape this exam.” In today’s society, rape and rape culture has become second nature. The extent of lax attitude towards rape and its stigma has seemed to become the new “norm.” From popular movies and music, to social media, to simple everyday conversations, our environment is strewn with this notion of men with the sole purpose of forcefully obtaining sex. Our culture, in which sexual violence and where people aren’t taught not to rape, but taught not to be raped, has become the new normal. This term, “rape culture,” first began in 1970 by feminists, but has soon become increasingly popular over the recent years as more survivors share their stories (What is Rape Culture). Many feminists have provided substantial definition

One out of every six women in America will be a victim of rape or sexual assault. From a young age, females are taught many ways to minimize the chance of being raped, whereas males are rarely ever taught not to rape. Women are told not to walk the streets alone at night, to cover any drinks they may have, and to always have someone know where they are. They have to make sure their clothing isn’t too provocative because it could unleash unwanted male attention. Even though, women take many precautions to avoid rape, the statistics are still high. Rape is one of the most brutal attacks and unfortunately the act is becoming one of the most normalized acts of violence in the United States. This creates a culture that disregards not only women’s rights but their safety as well.

In Roxane Gay’s article, “The Careless Language of Sexual Violence,” she breaks down rape in the perspective of our society nowadays. Gay states that our world today does not take the act of rape as an important issue to pay attention to by saying, “the idea that male aggression and violence towards women is acceptable and often inevitable.” Also, that in many cases the idea of victim blaming plays a big role in the way our society looks at the subject; saying that the individual that was raped is in the wrong and the rapist is not at fault. In the article, Gay states that we live in a “rape culture,” meaning that the way the world is today is to view violence towards women as something that is not an important

“You were asking for it,” is one the most shared comments and viewpoints expressed towards women who have been sexually assaulted or raped. According to “The Criminal Justice System: Statistics | RAINN,” 994 perpetrators out of 1000 rape cases will walk free; and every 108 seconds a sexual assault is committed. You may have heard of rape culture on the news, social media, and/or online, but rape culture isn’t just some group of people or a society, but rather the concept of rape culture means we have familiarized ourselves and have come to terms with rape and have made it our norm in society or our culture. We have learned to brush it under the carpet, and often joke about it, and even go so far as to blame the victim for the attack. The

What is Rape Culture? It is a culture in which sexual violence is normalized and it is seen as something that happens often and it does not surprise the masses due to giving or having excuses for rape and sexual abuse. It also means that Rape is perpetuated through the objectification of a women’s body and the glamorization of sexual violence, this means that having a society that doesn’t care about a women’s rights and safety. With Rape Culture being normalized, it teaches women to not get raped instead of teaching men not to rape. The effect of Popular Culture normalizing rape like sexual imagery in music videos and advertisement, it focuses on the male gaze solely to please men and their desires. It also makes it normal for the Victims to

As defined by southernct.edu, rape culture is “an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual violence is normalized and excused in the media and pop culture.” Some examples of common rape culture ideals are: blaming the victim, refusing to take rape accusations seriously, and defending sayings such as “boys will be boys” and “she was asking for it.” Today, the media is a large platform for this kind of behavior, many people have begun to accept these ideals.

    In today’s society, rape is acceptable. Sounds appalling, but it is the truth. There is an entire culture devoted to covering up the knowledge about rape and any type of sexual violence. This has become the norm because rape culture numbs people of the idea of rape in American society. When people bring up rape, it can cause uneasiness, and for those who have been a victim, it can cause a lifetime of suffering. Rape culture exists in many things including tv, media, music, music videos, and the music videos that go with them. To completely know everything there is to know about rape culture, you must know all of the things that influence its existence.    The first reason is objectification. This is the treatment of human beings as commodities. This is the practice of putting extreme value on individuals physical attributes while ignoring everything else about them. Women have now become objects, being depicted as always ready for sex, and always wanting sex. Women have become the representation of sex, and this is what sells. Sadly for women, they have to pay this price and only be seen as a hot commodity.Sut Jhally who has a Ph.D. in communication at University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a media critic, has produced a film called “Dreamworld: How the Media Abuses Women”. In this film it goes over 150 images of women taken right from MTV’s first ten years. Jhally, and many teachers around the world, use this

If someone was asked, would you approve of rape? Usually, the answer would be no without any hesitation, but what people do not seem to realize is that people say yes to rape all the time due its promotion through rape culture that is everywhere in our society. The concept of rape culture is not new, but the term itself is and over the most recent years the definition of rape culture has gradually evolved, that there is not one specific definition for the term anymore. Women and men alike have started to research and discuss concepts revolving around rape culture using a variety of definitions that fit the concept of rape culture. Several of the information gathered from a variety of research has been very interesting and eye opening to the

The Kesha and Dr. Luke case study is useful in analyzing how rape is talked about in Western Society. We have seen how the case is heavily debated on social media as people take sides on who they believe is telling the truth. Arguably, disputes that involve sexual assault, such as in this case study, often attract widespread media attention. This is most likely due to several reasons:

When American culture thinks of rape, women are the primary victims that come to one's reasoning. We’ve painted a portrayal that says, women are initially the one gender that can be raped, and if we were to consider a man getting raped by a woman, it would be absolutely ridiculous. Reason being? A woman could never overpower a man. We have adjusted to live in a civilization that hearts masculinity. Unfortunately in the procedure we’ve turned a blind eye to the insignificant anticipation that a man can be raped by a woman as well. Male rape should not be a humorous joke to laugh about, it should be a secure concern we can communicate about without falling into a misleading hole of myths and in order to do this we must first diminish these mere myths.