Blurred Lines

Sexual violence is a touchy issue. In schools, sexual consent is omitted from the curriculum, but girls clothing choices are policed so they are not distracting or tempting anyone. Victims of sexual assault are blamed for being raped, and the media constantly shows pictures of women at the mercy of men. Rape culture is often ignored and overlooked, but it is a serious issue that needs to end.

Few people seem to understand that in the simplest terms, rape culture is society normalizing sexual violence. Rape culture is a rapist pleading guilty and facing no charges for his actions in a court of law. Rape culture is when the odds of being attacked by a shark are one in 3, 748, 067 while a woman’s odds of being raped are one in six. Rape culture makes the fear of sharks rational while being cautious of men is seen as misandry. Rape culture is women feeling less safe walking down the streets than men do. It is when one in five women and one-in-71 men have reported experiencing rape, and when being assaulted, yelling “fire” is more effective than yelling “rape.”

Rape culture is incredibly common in America particularly. The article Opposing Viewpoints in Context states, “the FBI estimates that American women are eight times more likely to be raped than European women and twenty-six more times more likely than Japanese women.” The article suggests that, “rape is more common in societies where women are widely viewed as inferior to men.” America is a definite offender of treating women as inferior to men.

Proponents of male superiority claim that the obvious answer is the hormone differences. Women’s hormones make them ineffective leaders by clouding their judgment, yet a man’s hormones absolve him of rape.  In most sexual assault handbooks, it says, “offenders often choose people whom they perceive as most vulnerable to attack or over whom they believe they can assert power.” Rape isn’t about lust or sex; it is about power and control and anger.

In 2009, a study was conducted by Rebecca Stotzer, a professor at the University of Hawaii and expert in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender hate crimes found, “approximately 50 percent of transgender people experience sexual violence at some point in their lifetime.” In a different study, researching the rate of sexual violence against disabled people, by Dick Sobsey, a professor at the University of Alberta, he released that, “almost 80 percent of people with disabilities are sexually assaulted on more than one occasion and 50 percent of those experienced more than ten victimizations.”

Another contributing factor lies in the manner with which women have been conditioned to respond to a man’s behavior. Girls have been taught to romanticize every boy’s action. It’s cute if a boy chases after a girl even after she said no. Or if a girl moves away from a kiss and the guy pulls her back and forces it on, the guy saying “I won’t take no for an answer” is passionate and romantic. Society is teaching girls to normalize abusive traits.

Rape myths and victim blaming are also contribute to rape culture. Rape myths are assumptions about the action of rape, and victim blaming is when the victim is blamed for being raped rather than the rapist. The article Misogynistic Social Norms Cause Sexual Violence states, “American culture encourages sexual violence through “rape myths” that blame the victim and excuse the perpetrator of such violence.” Common rape myths are: It’s not rape if they’re dating. It’s not rape if she said no but really meant yes. Victims of rape are blamed for their assault because they were drinking alcohol, wearing tight or sexy clothing, or simply being young and attractive.

Here is the truth: Sex without consent is sexual assault. Sex with someone unable to consent, meaning drunk or unconscious, is sexual assault. Sex without ongoing consent is sexual assault. Sex without voluntary consent, such as being tricked into saying yes, is sexual assault. As for the “sexy” clothing, one in every seven rape victims are under the age of 12, and rape still occurs in nations where it is required for women to be covered head to toe. If she was “in the wrong place at the wrong time,” two in every three rape victims knew their attacker. Rape is never the victims fault. Being raped is one of the only cases where the victim is blamed for their assault. As the article Misogynistic Social Norms Cause Sexual Violence points out, “growing up we are taught that we can only be responsible for our own behavior, our own choices, and our own actions.

Yet, when it comes to sexual violence and rape myths, the victims are blamed and held responsible for the perpetrators choices, actions, and behavior.” As a society, people are taught that a woman’s body will cause a men to sin; that if a woman shows too much of her body, men will do stupid things; that is victim blaming. In one case, a judge sentenced only 30 days in jail to a 50-year old man who raped a 14 year-old girl, and defended that the girl was “older than her chronological age,” which demonstrates how thoughtless and pointless victim blaming can be. Another example is sexual assault education programs that focus on women being told to take measures to prevent rape, such as getting married, not using public transportation, and make it seem less fun to be a victim of rape, instead of men being told not to rape. There is even a website dedicated to women’s self defense, selling pepper spray, mace, tasers, and more.

Rape is never okay, and those who choose to rape need to be held responsible for their actions. By blaming the victim, it not only keeps the perpetrator from being held responsible for their actions, but it also encourages them, and makes it appear that rape is okay. It is the rapist who is choosing to rape. It doesn’t matter what someone wears, if they’re drunk or unconscious, or if they change their mind. It is not the victim’s fault.

Rape is such a common part of society, people don’t even realize it’s an issue anymore. In an article titled Rape is a Serious Problem for Women, it draws attention to the fact that, “we have assimilated rape into our everyday culture much as we have the cold.” Songs glorifying sexual assault and abuse are Billboard 100s, movies that feature rape or sexual assault win Oscars, and rape is used as “television’s go-to plot twist.” Rape culture has become so mainstream, people hardly bat an eye when music icons sing about putting date rape drugs in a girl’s drink. The article expands on the idea that examples of rape aren’t even noticed anymore: “Look through any supposed women’s publication and notice the ads that display women at the mercy of a man or at the mercy of the male gaze.” Magazine ads, commercials, television, everywhere; women are viewed as a man’s servant. It normalizes male dominance in unhealthy ways. Companies create decals of women bound and gagged in order to “promote their business.”

Not only should women be considered equal to men anyway, but they should not be seen as a man’s sexual slave, maid, or servant in any way, shape, or form. In just about any store, one can buy a magazine of a woman without her top on, yet on the streets it’s illegal for women to go topless. Therefore, breasts can be bought, but not worn. In these ads and commercials, women are viewed as sex symbols. Burger commercials show women in scantily clad clothing, seductively licking sauce off their fingers. In commercials targeted at male audiences, such as cologne, the man is seen as irresistible to their female counterpart, who just can’t keep her hands off of him. These commercials give unrealistic expectations as to how women are supposed to act when around men.

Aside from the commercials and magazines filling society’s head with unrealistic expectations of women, people have internalized rape culture. Men talk of women and girls in terms of legality in order to sexually objectify children and insinuate that they, “already sexually objectify this child and would attempt to have sexual relations with her if there were no laws in the way.” That is terrifying. Rape jokes are defended, and when someone responds saying it’s not funny, they’re told they “just don’t get that kind of humor.” By joking about such a serious issue, women regard sexual violence against them as normal. Rape culture won’t end if the effects of rape and sexual assault are constantly being downplayed, if people continue to victim blame, and say things such as “boys will be boys.” Boys will be held responsible for their actions just like everyone else. Someone’s gender doesn’t release them of responsibility.

America is one of the biggest offenders of rape culture. The Washington Post revealed that, “someone is sexually assaulted in the United States every two minutes.” The Iowa Supreme Court rules it’s legal to fire a woman for being too attractive, less her body and looks force a man to sin. In 2015, America has still yet to elect a female President. Men say they don’t want women in positions of power because “they’re slaves to their hormones/emotions,” yet a typical response to a woman reporting rape blames the woman’s choice of clothing. Is it not hypocritical to lose control and revert to animalistic behavior at the sight of a woman’s bare skin?

Additionally, politicians try to distinguish “legitimate rape” and state that rape is “something that God intended to happen.” According to a Republican, Lawrence Lockman, a woman’s right to an abortion following an unwanted sexual encounter guarantees others to force themselves on a woman. Unfortunately, the same logic does not hold in defending the rights of serial killers due to the availability of proper medical attention. The Washington Post also addresses the fact that there are people who don’t even know the definition of rape. For example, In 2012 two football players were caught assaulting a 13 year old girl. A witness did not stop the attack because, “he testified that he didn’t know the attack was rape: “‘It wasn’t violent. . . . I thought [rape] was forcing yourself on someone.’ Earlier that evening, this teen took car keys away from a drunk friend. While he understood  that drunken driving is wrong , but never that penetrating an unconscious girl is rape.” A person cannot consent to sex when they are unconscious.

Social media also indicates the widespread effect of rape culture.. The content is easily accessible; more than 250 million people have a Facebook. If images are viewed as offensive, complaints can be filed to have the image removed. The Cable News Network (CNN) Wire divulges that “Facebook declined to remove an image of a woman, mouth covered in tape, in which the caption read, “Don’t tap her and rap her. Tape her and rape her.” The photo went viral. CNN Wire reveals Facebook’s response to readers who reported it read, “we reviewed the photo you submitted, but found it did not violate our community standards.” Facebook has removed photos of women breastfeeding, but they won’t remove a picture of a woman about to be raped. On Twitter, another social media platform, there is a popular hashtag titled “#ItAintRape if…” to further qualify the conditions to rape. In some instances, women were referred to as investments as another indicator that women are not considered actual people.

Circling the internet there is video evidence of two boys raping a 16 year old girl while she was unconscious, and the media’s response is how tragic it is because the rapists had such a bright future as athletes. One of the rapists even tweeted “The US loves football more than their own daughters,” after his jail time was lowered. In some articles online, journalists substitute the word “sex” for “rape” – as if they’re the same thing. The media publicly defends celebrities accused of rape just because they are celebrities and completely ignore what the victim has to say. Social media has warped rape into a dilute, everyday happenstance . People get their news from social media: articles show up on their search engine’s homepage, Facebook has videos and pictures of rape, Twitter hashtags trend defending rape and sexual violence. It’s incredibly difficult to end normalizing rape and sexual assault when everywhere in the media, it’s viewed as ordinary. If anything, the media should be used to destroy the idea of normalized rape and assault.

Sexual violence is increasingly popular at University campuses. At Georgia Tech, a fraternity brother made headlines after sending an email to the rest of the young men with advice on how to take advantage of drunk girls. The email was entitled “Luring Your Rapebait.” At Colorado University, St. Petersburg Times discloses a statement after a student was raped by one of the football players in 1991: “Players are taught that women are objects and that if you come to this school, you get women, you get sex,” The player was never charged. Men are taught that to prove their manhood, they must be dominant. It’s teaching men to dominate women to prove their manliness. St. Petersburg Times gives more depth on how football players are not being charged for sexual violence crimes, “At least eight women since 1997 have accused football players of rape, though no charges have been filed.” In college, a student who plagiarizes faces expulsion, but there are no charges for drugging, physically assaulting or threatening another human being. In society today, plagiarism is a worse crime than rape. At Columbia University, a female student was raped on in her own dorm on her mattress. When her case made it to a university hearing, the administrators were confused as to how her rape occurred and she was forced to draw a diagram. Later, two other women came forward and said they had been assaulted by the same student, but were told their cases were mishandled, and therefore not legitimate as another example of shifting the blame to the victims. The attack was said to be not guilty by the university and remained at the school. To protest, the first victim decided to carry the mattress she was raped on, symbolic of the weight she carries, everywhere she goes on campus until her rapist is expelled.

Rape culture is virulent. Until it ends, women will still be afraid to walk the streets alone, commercials and ads will still portray women as submissive sex objects, the media will continue promoting rape, and rapists can live without the fear of consequences. People do not like talking about sexual violence because women are best seen, not heard.

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