Feminists often claim that we live in a rape culture. Whether that is true or not depends solely on the definition of "rape culture", which Wikipedia defines as:

a setting, [...] in which rape is pervasive and normalized due to societal attitudes about gender and sexuality.

Needless to say, that men are the rapists and women are the victims is implied automatically. Whether you live in such culture again depends on the definition of "pervasive and normalized" and on the specific details of your college, city, country.

But I know a setting where rape is "pervasive and normalized" - and not only rape. I am reading the Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by: Jon Krakauer, a book about America’s isolated Mormon Fundamentalist communities. The treatment of women in these communities is beyond believe. Pedophilia, child marriage, rape or incest are rampant, physical violence is common and emotional abuse and brainwashing is the norm that makes all this possible. Little girls are the ultimate currency: husbands-patriarchs groom their own daughters as child brides, to be exchanged for neighbour's daughters - child brides. (Unless they are step daughters, in which case they are first molested by and subsequently married to "father".) Education, employment or self-realisation are of course out of the question.

There are some 15,000 to 30,000 fundamentalists practicing polygamy in the US, of which I guess, maybe 2/3 are women and girls. I think it is safe to say that tens of thousands of little girls are being groomed and brainwashed into child/teenage brides with little to no life prospects beyond breeding hoards of children and living miserable, subservient lives. All this while polygamy is officially a crime and sex with person under the age of consent , which is 18 years in Arizona and Utah, is a statutory rape. This means that every single 18 and 3/4 years old teenage mother from such community was statutorily, but often also literally raped.

Why am I bringing this up on this sub? Because of the feminist hypocrisy and because of the lost boys). If you have ever wondered where do polygamists take so many wives for all the men, the answer is simple: they don't. They discard large portion of young boys from their communities, based on real or pretence missteps, to keep the sex ration in the favour of the core group of polygamists. Like the girls, lost boys are unskilled, uneducated and deeply brainwashed, but unlike the girls, lost boys are torn away from their families and left on the street without any support. Many of the boys turn to drugs or alcohol to cope with the traumatic separation; others find themselves in trouble with the law. Check out the 2010 documentary Sones of Perdition.

How is this even possible in a modern society is a complex question. The book I am reading chronicles several cases of officials who tried to change the status quo, only to be shunned by the wider public and eventually voted out of office. I think it all boils down to the US bipartisan political system using religious fundamentalists as a weapon, one way or the other.

But interestingly I don't remember seeing a single feminist article or video on this topic. Feminists today wield a huge political power and they are very vocal about every real and perceived grievance. Why are they silent when it comes to a real rape culture and subjugation of women in these abusive polygamous communities? I am sure the feminist movement has more than enough power to change the status quo, which would improve the lives of thousands of girls - and boys.