If you don’t know what this means, it’s time to learn
Some things still exist because we refuse to admit that they do in fact exist. One of those things is rape culture.
Admitting that something exists is not just understanding what it entails, but also acknowledging that it is everyone’s problem.
Rape culture by definition is a culture characterized by victim blaming and the normalization of sexual aggression by believing that rape and sexual violence are inevitable.
The central force that drives rape culture stems from the idea that aggressive males are somehow seen as attractive and more masculine. This not only trivializes their behaviour, making it more acceptable, but also makes it seem inevitable, as if aggression is rooted deep in the nature of what it means to be male. What is interesting to note about these points is that they seem to describe animalistic characteristics, not necessarily males in our society.
Men who oppose rape culture and potentially identify as feminists are sometimes perceived as weak, submissive, and “worst of all,” feminine — as if femininity is an insult.
However, a recent study by Geoffrey C. Urbaniak and Peter R. Kilmann completely contradicts these assumptions. It showed that women generally prefer men who identify as altruistic, sensitive, and nice. So, it seems that dominant and aggressive men aren’t that sexy after all.
One of the most common concepts of rape culture pertains to victim blaming. An unfortunately high number of people blame rape victims and claim that “they were asking for it,” as if rape is something pleasant that people want and ask for.
If rape victims actually asked to be raped by dressing provocatively, in theory, women who choose to dress modestly should not get raped. But this is obviously not true. Some may argue that dressing or acting in a certain way makes someone more likely to get harassed or raped and many articles get published debating and analyzing the argument above.What they fail to realize is that proving or disproving this statement does not serve humanity and does not change the statistics. Believing in this idea supports the rapist’s behavior by justifying it. This results in a society that teaches people to not get raped instead of teaching people to not rape in the first place.
Photo courtesy of Gemma Evans via CC0