WRITTEN BY GUEST WRITER, LIVIA RICE
In a society where pornography runs rampant, magazines blast headlines about sex tips for the ambitious, sexually explicit images are more accessible than quality sources for your next term paper, and one misguided click on the internet will take you down a spiraling road of sexual fetishes that you could never image, the arguably most important sex topic is ironically taboo: rape culture. While a majority of the population is educated on the technicalities of foot fetishes, most could not even begin to describe rape culture accurately; lack of education is one of the largest contributors to rape culture. Rape culture could broadly and generally be defined as “creating excuses for and normalizing rape and other sexual crimes”. This includes more everyday scenarios than you may imagine. For example, turning to your friend after an accounting test and saying “Wow that test completely raped me” is normalizing rape and thus contributing to rape culture. For the purposes of this article I will focus on a few main points of rape culture that are particularly prominent on college campuses: shaming victims, consent, and how rape culture negatively affects males.
“Did you see how short her skirt was? She was totally asking for it.” “She has had sex with almost every male in the school and now she’s calling it rape?” Comments like these lead to the isolation and blaming of victims of sexual crimes. The inexplicable backlash victims receive for reporting their assault has created the dangerous trend of not reporting crimes and the feeling of eternal damnation from once trusted peers for those who do report it. Despite what you may have been taught in your awkward 6th grade sexual education class and every dress code after, covering up your shoulder, leg, or even breast will certainly not prevent a sexual crime. The only person who has the power to prevent a sex crime is the perpetrator. While evidence should not be needed to support this concept, evidence can be found in the tragic sexual assault of nuns, children, and prisoners. There is no excuse for rape. Clothing, even lack thereof, is not consent.
Consent is much like a condom; it keeps both sexual partners safe. Active, legal consent is given by a person who is not under the influence of drugs and her/his blood alcohol level must be low enough to make reasonable decisions. This means that if a person is stumbling or slurring their words, they cannot give consent. Additionally, a person who does not say no or yes has not given consent. Laws on consent have recently been evolving, for example, California has embraced the updated concept that “yes means yes”, rather than the age old “no means no”, meaning people must give affirmation that they do in fact want to have sex. In fact, apps are being developed to create a contract, so to say, to help people really think through their choices.
When most people think of the effects of rape culture, they often only think of females as victims, however, males are also adversely affected. There are two main ways males suffer from rape culture: it demeans males morally by saying that males cannot control their hormones and when males are raped (because males are raped, even though it may occur less often than females) many people do not believe them. The idea that men are controlled by their hormones and would commit such an inhumane crime without regard to women as a whole, morals, or the law is sexist against males. Often in the news, male rape is shown as statutory rape and the crime is typically committed by a woman in a position of power. People often dismiss male rape by using the excuse that having sex with a woman in a position of power is a “stereotypical boyhood fantasy”. Excusing male rape makes it less likely that they will report it, in turn allowing rape to spread.
Rape culture is a huge and complicated topic that plagues society as a whole, but has been particularly prevalent on college campuses. Becoming more educated and aware of the signs of rape culture is the first step to preventing rape on campuses. If you or someone you know has been a victim of a sexual crime and need support or your claim has fallen on deaf ears there are resources out there for you. Pittsburgh Action Against Rape (PAAR) has a free, 24-hour confidential helpline: 1-866-END-RAPE.
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