Stereotypes In Rape Culture

Common phrases college students toss around during their time spent on campus are “freshman 15”, “syllabus week”, or “rape culture”. Culture is understood to be something that people engage in together as a society. Rape culture is when people of a society excuse or tolerate sexual violence. It is when sexual assault, rape, and harassment are ignored, belittled, normalized, or made into jokes. Rape Culture is when pop music tells women “you know you want it” because of these “blurred lines” (Thicke), when society supports athletes who are charged with rape and then calling their victims career-destroyers, when companies create advertisements using women in order to promote business, when people believe that girls allow themselves to be raped,

Many individuals might wonder, what is rape culture? “Rape Culture is an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual violence against women is normalized and excused in the media and popular culture. Rape culture is perpetuated through the use of misogynistic language, the objectification of women’s bodies, and the glamorization of sexual violence, thereby creating a society that disregards women’s rights and safety.” Most women limit their behavior because of the existence of rape. (Marshall University)

However, I am privy to the fact that the U.S ranks amongst the highest in the number of female rapes. It seems that the US is at war with itself. Here in the U.S individuals rape others for their own personal gain rather than a war tactic. Rape in the U.S is created by our rape culture instead of being a weapon of war. Rape culture is all around us. There is a sort of "tolerance" for rape that has been normalized in society. This is not acceptable. Our rape culture takes form in many ways. One being victims seem to always get the finger pointed at them when they gather the courage to report it. Personally speaking, I was taught if I do not want to be raped then I should not wear certain outfits, drink alone, leave my drink unattended, I also should not walk alone at night, and the list goes on. And if I were to be raped, I should be prepared to be bombarded with questions that paint me as partially responsible for getting raped, which in turn, takes some of the blame off of the assailant. This is not right, however, it is justified due to our rape

Our group of researchers decided to conduct a study in order to gather information on the rise of sexual assault allegations. We were interested in concluding whether or not the rise of sexual assault allegations in the media tested the validity regarding those accusations. Since Penn State has been exposed to a number of sexual assault scandals in the past few years, Penn State students were an ideal focus group because most students are familiar with our subject. With our phenomenon being a sensitive topic for a handful of our subjects, we decided to conduct a study in which all of our subjects could remain anonymous. Thus, we created a survey composed of nine questions, keeping in mind that this topic can be triggering for

Recently, I have had an opportunity to watch your TED talk show and analyze one of your political cartoons for school. As a teenage girl of a new generation, I was outraged and disappointed with our society by the gender prejudice demonstrated in your cartoon. Meanwhile, I was able to look into your effort to raise awareness of gender issues and to deliver your message of how women are often wrongly stereotyped as being the main causes of rape by the public. And, I concur with your point. I was stimulated by your challenge to confront the institutionalized behavior of people that stereotypes women, and this encouraged me to write a letter to you to show my support and share my opinion.

Rape culture includes jokes, TV music, advertising, legal jargon, laws, words and imagery that make violence against women and sexual coercion seem so normal that people believe that rape is inevitable.

“Rape Culture is an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual violence against women is normalized and excused in the media and popular culture” (1a) Today you can't turn the television on without hearing references to rape culture. Jokes about sexual abuse plague every sitcom and news channels question rape victim’s every move. Even entire shows are dedicated to the topic such as Law and Order SVU. The media trivializes rape leading to a rape culture in America.

Though this is quite simplistic, it certainly holds up. Both of the points that were previously made contribute to rape culture: objectification is a facet of it, as are the dismissal of women’s beliefs and the continuation of a constant fear of sexual violence. When women complain about being harassed on the street, they are often told to ignore it, to change their route to avoid it, or to carry weapons to protect themselves. These suggestions, which tell women that they must change rather than those harassing them, are clear signs of a rape culture. They normalize harassment, make it seem as though it is simply an inevitable fact of life rather than a problem that can and should be changed. Instead of telling women to be prepared for the eventual fact of harassment, society must begin to tell men that harassing women is never acceptable. When society begins to do that, things will begin to

If a woman says “no” does she mean “no”? So then, if a man says “no” does he mean “no”? Male rape cases have been around for as long as female cases, the reason why it’s most commonly suppressed is due to stereotypes enforced by society. These stereotypes disregard males as real victims of sex crimes. Nobody ever expects a man to be raped by a woman, but it does happen and there are organizations out there who are reaching out to try to help these victims. Even with all their hard work female-on-male rape cases are still not recognized or treated the same way as male-on-female rape cases are. It is because men are stereotyped as “predators”, that people believe that men cannot be raped by women, therefore anti-sexual assault organizations should

We have continued to accept rape culture as normal in our lives because we grew accustomed to the sexual violence that we were exposed to on a daily basis. We need to stop allowing rape jokes to be passed off as harmless, the over sexualization of young girls, victim-blaming, and put an end to the double standard surrounding rape. We’ve continually white-washed rapists’ actions towards victims and taken no action against their crimes. There are thousands of cases that have been slipped under the rug in order to protect the rapist from social stigma. I believe that rape culture is a product of our ignorance as a society. We have chosen to ignore the importance of this growing problem. It’s so common to hear about young girls getting raped on college campuses or at high school parties. We often turn the other way because that is how it has always been. The portayal of victims in the media has continued to be the same, she has either been drinking too much, wanted to have

Feminist scholarship has argued that rape ideology encourages and justifies sexual coercion, trivializes sexual violence and demeans and devalues women who have experienced sexual assault. The foundation of this argument is based on women's experiences in patriarchal societies. Due to the fact that

Even though the first amendment states freedom of expression, statistics show rape and sexual assault numbers have risen due to the presence of rape culture in modern society. Rape culture promotes more assaults and violent acts, not only towards women but also towards men. Some evidence rape culture is present in today’s society are rising statistics showing that only three out of a hundred rapists see jail time and that over 17 million American women are victims of sexual assault every year. Rape culture is seen in every aspect of daily American life, even if people do not realize it.

Buchwald, Fletcher and Roth (2005) define rape culture as “a complex set of beliefs that encourages male sexual aggression and supports violence against women” (p. vii). It is

Rape culture is an environment in which social attitudes have the effect of normalizing sexual violence against women and excusing it in the media and other popular cultures. Rape culture attempts to rationalize a continuum of sexual violence that range from sexist remarks to unwanted sexual touching, and rape itself. Rape culture has become so desensitized by society that perpetrators may not be aware of their wrongdoings and victims may not realize they are being victimized. It is a culture in which victims are suppressed when they decide to speak up about their traumatic attack, because they are seen as being dramatic or untruthful while the perpetrator's actions are left unpunished. While the majority of victims are women, rape culture is not solemnly an issue of female oppression, it is a general disconnect between human beings. It is a culture that many of us refuse to accept exist, however there are numerous examples that normalize rape and sexual assault on a daily basis. Rape culture is not a new topic. The term was first used back in the 1970’s by a group of feminist to raise the awareness of the normalization of sexual violence in society. In recent years the topic has become a popular, controversial issue and has come to permeate virtually every aspect of our lives through media, song lyrics, and everyday jargon.

According to the Marshall University Women’s Center, “rape culture is an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual violence against women is normalized and excused in the media and popular culture” (“Women’s Center” marshall.edu page 1). Women believe that rape culture is emphasized through arrogant language, women being objectified by men, the overuse of television sexual violence, and teaching the victims not to be raped instead of teaching the rapist not to rape.