What is Rape Culture?
Sexual assault is the most underreported crime. Victims often will not be sure if what they experienced was a crime.
When cultural norms perpetuate coercive, non-consensual and ownership behaviours over others’ bodies, victims will often blame themselves and be blamed by their communities for the assault.
Challenging Rape Culture
Most women have been told to be careful walking alone at night and not wear revealing clothing. These messages all lead women to feel that it is their responsibility to protect themselves from the behaviour of others.
The majority of sexual assault victims are women. Historically, women have been treated as men’s property; until the 1970’s rape laws treated women as property rather than victims. Around the same, the term “rape culture” began to emerge.
Sexual Violence and Marginalized Groups
Susan Griffin used the term in 1977 as “describ[ing] the general environment created by the threat and the experience of sexual violence whose terms women must internalize to live safely in the world” (p. 8, Phillips, 2016).
In a similar vein, it’s crucial to take note anyone not viewed as a man under historical, European patriarchal terms, including women, children, Indigenous and non-binary individuals, experience higher rates of sexual assault.
Redefining Gender Roles
Although laws have been reformed, It has not been all that long since women and children were viewed as property of men. This past echoes through our culture in which sexually dominating behaviours are socially acceptable, expected or even encouraged.
These behaviours range on a continuum from street harassment, unwanted touch in a crowded public spaces to rape. All a result of gender role assumptions that men are expected to be sexually aggressive and women passive (p.11, Phillips, 2016).
We can all play a role in changing cultural attitudes, “those who rape are not alien evil monsters that invade our idyllic landscape. Rather, they are products of the culture from which they emerge – a culture that in many ways condones aggression against women” (p.7 Phillips, 2016).
By naming rape culture and speaking up about it, culture begins to shift. Rape culture harms everyone, not just the victims of assault.
Building a Culture of Respect
By holding perpetrators accountable, it makes a clear statement that abuse is never acceptable. We create a culture of consent and bodily autonomy by holding perpetrators accountable. It is never the victim’s fault for being assaulted.
Reference
Phillips, N. D. (2016). Beyond blurred lines: Rape culture in popular media. Rowman &
Littlefield.
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