Recently, I had the opportunity to see the always-wonderful Laci Green present on how rape culture is affecting the US as a whole and more importantly, how it effects those who have personally been a victim of sexual assault. Green is a YouTube personality as well as the host for MTV’s web series Braless. When she was a young teenager, she began to notice how suppressed women appear to be in today’s society. At the presentation, Green focused on how communities as a whole can begin to end rape culture.
If you are unaware, rape culture is “a term that was coined by feminists in the United States in the 1970’s. It was designed to show the ways in which society blamed victims of sexual assault and normalized male sexual violence,” as defined by the Women Against Violence Against Women Centre. Rape culture embodies many things such as victim blaming, sexual objectification of women, and more common aspects of life such as media like music, movies, and posts on social media.
Laci Green explained that rape culture seems nonexistent to those who are unaware of the term because the USA normalizes it so frequently. From politicians to teens in high school, rape is used as a joke, or a fact of life. Many perpetrators are not being sentenced for raping women while women are found guilty of ‘tempting’ the man, who apparently is too animalistic to help himself. This is called victim blaming, and is seen in nearly every public rape case. The media tends to focus on how “good of students” the perpetrators were, or how they had a “promising career in football”, or my personal favorite, simply stating that the victim of assault was very, very drunk. Making excuses for these people will not solve anything because the perpetrator does not get sentenced, allowing him to potentially rape again (the average rapist rapes six times). As Green points out, women wearing revealing clothes do not cause rape, alcohol does not cause rape, rapists cause rape.
In addition to protecting the defendant, rape is thought of as a joke. Songs, movies, comedy acts, television shows, and the list go on and on. Robin Thicke’s wildly popular song “Blurred Lines” talks only about sexual assault. It is the number one selling song… Ever. When people have things like this reminding them that assault is a ‘normal’ thing and a fact of life, it allows an incorrect view on assault to become a thought. After hearing things of this nature for their entire life, it becomes normalized. Do you understand what she’s saying here? PEOPLE ARE NORMALIZING BEING RAPED. THE MEDIA IS ACTING LIKE IT IS NOTHING BUT A HUMOROUS PART OF LIFE. Being raped is the most traumatic experience of a woman’s (or man’s) life. And when they tell someone, most people have the mindset explained above and laugh it off. This can lead the victim to never speak of it again or to do something much worse to herself.
Green ended by reminding the audience that we must be actively involved in ending rape culture. Every voice is incredibly powerful. Simply acknowledging the problem is a huge step in the right direction to taking rape culture down. Remember, one voice is so powerful. Even if it seems like a hopeless cause, Green encourages you to share your story and opinions on rape culture, and how we can end it.