Boswell, Spade, Scully and Marolla explore and examine the perception of rape. Boswell and Spade’s article on collegiate rape culture focuses on the different environments and their effect on gender relations. Scully and Marolla’s article on the vocabulary of rapists mainly focuses on how rapists explain and justify their actions. Fraternity brothers and convicted rapists share certain perceptions and reactions towards rape and its victims. They are both involved within a pervasive rape culture that blames female victims for their attacker’s crimes, but it denotes rapists as insane criminals, which leads to the invisibility of rape culture within the ‘normal’ society.…
Historically, rape law was designed to regulate “competing male interests in controlling sexual access to females, rather than protecting women’s interest in controlling their own bodies and sexaulity”…
What is rape culture? This issue is prevalent in contemporary society, especially on university campuses. Filipovic blames this prevalence on “religious conservatives” (13); they want men to remain the most dominant sex while women remain submissive to these men, hence maintaining the status-quo. Valenti, on the other hand, casts her blame on the sexual purity myth, which is the “lie” that a woman’s value and importance depend on her sexuality (Valenti 299). If she is a virgin, she is the preferred woman (any woman not in that category has no morals). These two articles provide reasons that position societal institutions as…
The first questions people usually ask about a rape crime are “What was the victim wearing?”, “Was the victim drunk?.” But these are the wrong questions that we ask, these questions make victims feel like them being sexually assaulted is there fault for wearing something revealing or drinking to much, but that does not mean they are asking to be violated it is NOT in any way their fault. We need to ask the questions of why the abuser thinks that something so immoral is okay to do to someone. “The right question is, ‘What made him think this is acceptable,”’ (The Nation). This is the approach we need to have on rape crimes, this does not put the blame on victims and it helps people to understand what they did was not okay for any…
Rape has become a huge topic in today's media. Specifically cases of rape in college towns, like the case of Brock Turner for example. At Jacksonville State University, a college campus located in Jacksonville, Alabama, the school's staff felt obligated to pass out copies of Jon Krakauer's book Missoula to all of the incoming freshman at their Freshman Orientation. Missoula is a book about rape culture and the justice system in a college town. It would be logical to give every college student, not just the freshman at Jacksonville State, a copy of Missoula. This piece of literature gives information on how to handle being a victim of rape, how being a victim of rape changes the victim’s life, and it gives an estimate of how many times rape goes without consequence.…
The report indicated the girl was dragged from college party to party by male students and repeatedly raped. The report stated the males in the video were not present during the rapes, but it showed the men standing over the girl jokingly making crass and offensive comments about her state of consciousness. The news report without the video would contain the same horrific accounting of the events that occurred. The inclusion of the video with the audio of the comments the men made, perpetuates the objectification of and violence against women and in the media. Sexual and violent exploitation of women permeates the news, television programming, and movies. The media, especially news sources should avoid advancing stereotypical graphic depictions of women being subject to the whims of men. Promoting the stereotype that women are the weaker sex through showing unnecessary videos taken by males lacking human empathy and decency further desensitizes the public in ascertaining appropriate and moral behavior toward…
This seemingly comical yet sexist concept negates the meaning of the word “no”, diminishes the concept of consent, further perpetuates rape culture, and globalizes a sense of entitlement over women. The rampant deterioration of consent is a dangerous asset derived from the “friend-zone”. The friend zone has created an atmosphere where woman are afraid to refuse a man’s romantic or sexual proposal due to the possible violent repercussions of their decisions. An article by sociology expert Nicki Cole recounts the story of Maren Sanchez who killed by male classmate Chris Plaskon after refusing to be his prom date ,perfectly depicting the situations that occur from the dangerous ideology of the friend zone. Plaskon allegedly wrapped his hands around Maren’s throat and choked her, before shoving her down a stairwell. Witnesses say he then armed himself with a kitchen knife he had brought from home, and used it to slash Maren across her neck, chest, and…
Camille Paglia’s essay “Rape A Bigger Danger Than Feminists Know” discusses the controversial issue of rape, and argues that feminists have secluded the truth about sex from younger women. The essay was published in 1991 by the New York Newsday. According to Paglia, who has a Ph.D. in humanities, “Feminism keeps saying the sexes are the same. It keeps telling women they can do anything, go anywhere, say anything, wear anything. No, they can’t. Women will always be in sexual danger” (579). She mentions that woman are not physically incapable of doing whatever they desire, therefore, they should take extra precautions to ensure their safety. In support of her thesis, the author addresses the Northeastern campuses that have begun petitioning to raise awareness for what they call, “victims” (579). Paglia elaborates on how the punishment for rape has become less severe. In her days, accusers could be hung, knifed, or even sentenced to death for rape (579). She goes on to say that women will never have the opportunity to engage in…
Rape Culture is a culture in which multi-media (radio, television, movies, music, social sites); news stations, politicians, public and social institutions, religious groups, and the general masses condone sexual assault by normalizing or trivializing male sexual violence and by blaming survivors for their own abuse.…
According to Burt (1980), rape myths are defined as ‘prejudicial, stereotype or false beliefs about rape, rape victims and rapists’ that serve as a kind of denial and justify male sexual aggression towards women. Burt (1980) identified the examples of rape myths such as 1) “she asked for it”; 2) “it wasn't really rape”; 3) “he didn't mean to”; 4) “she wanted it”; 5) “she liked it”; 6) “rape is a trivial event”; and 7) “rape is a deviant event”. Rape myths vary among societies and cultures(Burt 1980). Rape myths are also highly related to why the rape cases are under-reported (Grubb and Turner 2012). However, they consistently follow a pattern, which they blame the victim for their rape, express a disbelief in claims of rape, exonerate the perpetrator…
Sociologist believes that observance of rape myths promote an abuse climate that blames the person who has been violated, excuses the person who performed the crime and blamed the victim (Belknap 2015:347). In my opinion, any act that allows a perpetrator to shift blame is creating a climate of acceptability. Most of the rape myths introduced in this chapter as reasons a person violates another human being are ridiculous. I believe that the regardless of how a person dresses they still have a right to decide who they will or will not be intimate with, so I void that myth, as a sad attempt to blame the victim.…
The essay opened people up to having honest conversations about rape, instead of suppressing it. Katie J.M. Baker states that rape should not be discussed in a “vacuum.” She wants people to take the discussions past the vacuum, where it will be opened up to a new audience.…
Because Popular culture depicts a “typical” rape as being perpetrated by “sick” or crazy men where the rape is a “sudden, violent attack by a stranger in a deserted, public space, after which the victim is expected to provide evidence of the attach and of her active resistance” (Williams, 1984). This stereotype script frames rapists as strangers and the literature refers to such a description as the “classic” rape scenario (Williams, 1994).…
When the topic of rape and sexual assault comes up in conversation, many people truly feel a strong sense of empathy for the victim, yet many others criminalize the victim for how they themselves got into the assault. Why does our society continue to persecute a victim? For the only ones who should be questioning in this fashion, are those investigating the crime in of itself. Rape culture has become a natural part of our society and the largest part of this “culture,” is victim blaming. Yes, there are two sides to this issue, but whether the victim was truly raped or not, it does not matter for there needs to be a better balance for this issue. Whether it is to stop blaming the victim or how the victim can avoid becoming one in the first place.…
The recent media attention to the topic of date rape and sexual assault on campus has really brought the public’s attention to a very important topic that has been a problem for years but just didn't get the attention it should have. But the majority of the media headlines have been all about the assault happening on college campus, but that’s not the only place it happens. It also happens in grade school (K-12). That “doesnt mean the attention should be any less focused on the college campus issue but it should also be acknowlaged that college isnt the only place this kind of thing happens.…