What is rape culture?

Lawtonfogle · 2012-04-14T20:13:38+00:00

A society that blames the victim, is a rape culture. However, I don't use the word blame lightly unlike some feminist. I don't view giving advice to anyone on how to avoid being raped, as victim blaming. An example of this (victim blaming) would be, why did you leave your drink unattended, you were asking to be raped. As opposed to an advice which would be phrased as, maybe you shouldn't leave your drink unattended. Although, I don't believe it's appropriate to give such advice to actual rape victims because to them it would most likely seem as though they could have stopped it somehow and given this is a traumatic event, I don't think people should traumatize them further.

A society that doesn't recognize anyone's ability to withdraw consent at any point e.g. it's acceptable to have sex with your wife even though she refused.

A society that glorifies rape. We currently live in one, however, this restricted to prison rape. This is mostly because we view prisoners as bad people and we believe that bad things happening to bad people = alright just like we don't give a fuck and glorify when prisoners are murdered. However, if people understood the type of people who are raped and it's not only rapist or murderers who are raped, they'd change their opinion.

A society that doesn't respect the concept of consent and it's importance. We also currently live in one. There's nothing wrong with having "surprise buttsexs" with your girlfriend/wife when you have both talked about it and agreed to it but the problem here lies in the fact that most people don't talk about it and the only time that most people find out about it is post-sexual act. This applies to men and women, women engaging in blowjobs without the consent of the men for example.

This is what I'd define as rape culture. Some people both feminist and men's rights advocates take it further and believes jokes about rape (although from reading a lot of men's rights blog, it seems that many men don't have a problem with rape jokes rather the hypocrisy surrounding it) are a example of rape culture because they normalize rape. I don't agree and haven't seen much empirical evidence of this being the case as well as the fact that it would imply murder jokes normalize murder, holocaust jokes normalize holocaust etc etc.

Alanna · 2012-04-14T22:52:28+00:00

A feminist perspective.

A non-feminist perspective.

kragshot · 2012-04-15T03:21:36+00:00

Rape culture?

The concept of "rape culture" is simply separating the crime of rape from other violent crimes of violation for the sake of a socio-political agenda that criminalizes and demonizes men. Should we create a concept surrounding "mugging culture" or "car-jacking culture?"

The connotation/word "culture" in this context is defined as the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group. The Center for Advanced Research of Language Acquisition defines it as the shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs, and affective understanding that are learned through a process of socialization. These shared patterns identify the members of a culture group while also distinguishing those of another group.

One can look at any given culture and note the following things that can be noted in each one; associated media, social events/gatherings that celebrate the values of said culture, iconic figureheads that represent those same values.

Drug culture is real; despite it's illegality, there are many things that exist which demonstrate the evidence of a culture surrounding the use and supporting the use of illegal drugs. There are countless movies and songs that celebrate the use of drugs. An event that comes to mind are the various hemp and weed fests across the country. Finally, three of the most prominent drug icons are Cheech & Chong, Dr. Timothy Leary, and Snoop Dogg.

Thug culture is real as is "pimp culture" and both can be similarly supported by tangible evidence (i.e. hip-hop, The Annual Player's Ball, & any rap star or Bishop Don "Magic" Juan).

Can anyone point to any of these examples that illustrate the existence of "rape culture?" Is there media that glamorizes the act of rape? Are there social events or organizations where rapists can get together and celebrate "the joy of rape?" Where can you go out and buy some "rape-wear?" Point to an individual who is celebrated as being a paragon of rape culture.

Can anyone here show me where the act of rape is genuinely supported as a cultural hallmark in the Western world? In Western society the crime of rape (against women) is always framed as something horrible in any sort of context (i.e. news, fictional media, etc...). It is almost never marginalized and although there are many cases of injustices surrounding specific incidents; whenever attention is brought to an instance of it happening, it is always taken seriously.

2012-04-15T07:57:31+00:00

The documentary on the entrenched acceptance of male prison rape entitled "Rape Culture" was the first legitimate use of the term 'rape culture.' Feminists colonized the term to describe patriarchalism as rape culture, in contrivance to the obvious heinous nature of rape as a crime and a social malady.

Meanwhile, we still have a vibrant rape culture surrounding male prison rape. How many light-hearted comedies about women being raped have you seen... ever? Exactly my point.

2012-04-14T22:22:12+00:00

Rape culture is FF101 dishonestly gendering rape and domestic violence.

Rape culture is citing the stats for female victimization only.

Rape culture is feminist researchers manipulating the abuse data to cover up male victimisation and female perpetration.

Rape culture is feminists getting angry with people that correct feminist misinformation on abuse rates.

SpanishGuy · 2012-04-14T21:39:32+00:00

If you want the feminist version, brace yourself and take a look at this: "Rape Culture 101".

[Warning]: That post was written by a known angry feminist blogger called Melissa McEwan. I believe this person may have PTSD or a similar disorder, since I vaguely remember some comment from her saying that she went through one or more scary/traumatic experience. So, in case some of you want to contact/discuss with her, you're already advised.

CrawdaddyJoe · 2012-04-14T23:20:55+00:00

A society that objectifies women, portrays them as sexual but lacking agency and power, that portrays male sexuality and exclusively physical, that perpetuates rape jokes and casual attitudes towards sexual assault, that makes sexual assault cases extremely difficult for the prosecutor, or that casts blame of the victims of sexual assault, is commonly understood to be under the spell of 'rape culture'.

rightsbot · 2012-04-14T19:50:19+00:00

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2012-04-14T19:58:17+00:00

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kanuk876 · 2012-04-15T02:44:19+00:00

A blunt force instrument feminism dreamed up to bludgeon society into submission.

kragmoor · 2012-04-15T04:49:40+00:00

an imaginary term feminists made to make men feel bad

TracyMorganFreeman · 2012-04-15T07:48:54+00:00

Well for one, rape is rampant in nature, and some species of sharks procreate exclusively by rape. Male orangutans have been known to rape or attempt to rape women, and most great apes are significantly stronger than their human counterparts.

Rape isn't unique to a given culture, or even a given species. That doesn't justify it, but to say culture is designed to enable is a stretch.

If rape culture is a worldview that enables rape by ignoring it or trivializing it, then arguably female rapists are truly the ones enabled, and male rape victims are the ones really ignored. I've read of people defining rape culture as only one in which women are victims, which is downright sexist.

Rape for a self aware self determined species is truly a horrible crime, and it is nonetheless a human issue not a gendered one, one which violates one's body autonomy, and by extension an aspect with which we convey ourselves to the world. That does not mean a particular culture cultivates rape as something to be embraced or ignored, at least not in a general sense just because rape exists. Otherwise, we'd also live in a murder-culture, a theft-culture, a fraud-culture, and hell while we're at it a sadness-culture.

Bobsutan · 2012-04-15T15:32:18+00:00

If rape culture is real then so is...

Murder culture

Violent assault culture

Robbery culture

and so on

hardwarequestions · 2012-04-14T20:16:10+00:00

rape culture is whatever feminists say it is since they're the only ones suggesting it exists.

paket · 2012-04-14T22:29:07+00:00

Rape culture is a bit of social fiction that feminists invented to justify their anger and prejudice against men. It doesn't exit in reality.

teler9000 · 2012-04-15T07:37:01+00:00

Jokes that involve murder are said ALL THE TIME, and no one cares. But jokes about rape are grounds for you to denounced? Unless you consider rape worse than murder, in which case you clearly have no faith in the tenacity and willpower of the average person, joking about murder should be considered worse.

Dark_Moose · 2012-04-15T08:02:29+00:00

I am grateful for all that was written. The post I made on the /feminism link also pointed out alot of interesting ideas.

From both posts, I gathered that there is no hard and fast detonation. What it seems to be is a idea that there exists a culture where it is alright to use sexuality as a weapon. Be it a weapon to harm, control or dominate others or exalt, advance or promote oneself.

I do not know if such a culture does exist. If it does, to me it would seem as though women who use sexuality as a weapon or a tool would be as guilty as the men who use it. That brings up a whole world if not solar system of questions and implications that I do not know if I am ready to start thinking about. My greater concern is that if sex has been made into a weapon by the sexes, I do not see how we as humans could ever beat that sword into a plow.

This will be posted on both this reddit and /feminism.

Once again, thank you for reading and posting.

2012-04-14T20:41:20+00:00

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VoodooIdol · 2012-04-14T20:34:18+00:00

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Title	What is rape culture?
Author	Dark_Moose
Upvotes	16
Comments	74
Date	April 14, 2012 7:48 PM UTC (14 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/s9ujb/what_is_rape_culture/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/what-is-rape-culture.1023971 https://theredarchive.com/post/1023971

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