This past Thursday, a discussion in my journalism class involving the now-infamous Rolling Stone article regarding the alleged rape of a woman named Jackie spiraled from an objective view on poor reporting to an all too familiar slap in the face: victim-blaming, vicious condemnations, and the perfect example of pure, unadulterated rape culture. To give a brief synopsis of what began it all, it’s true that Rolling Stone was very lazy with reporting and perhaps gave too much leeway to the victim, but the venom directed at the victim rather than the reporter was startling at best.
This discussion was just an example of something so ingrained in our society that we see it every single day, often without noticing. Rape culture is the sexualizing of young girls on TV. Rape culture is being afraid to pass by a car full of men, anticipating a “Hey, baby!” followed by insults hurled your way when you ignore them. Rape culture is asking what the victim was wearing the night she was attacked. Rape culture is hearing half of my journalism class insist that when it comes to rape, the alleged rapist is more likely to be honest than the victim. Rape culture is not being able to count the number of times I have heard someone tell me that “rape culture does not exist.” Rape culture is something that we are not exempt from at our campus simply because we view ourselves as more progressive than previous generations.
While I am proud to say that many of my classmates spoke up to defend victims at large, even Rolling Stone’s Jackie, who embellished her story quite a bit, there were also plenty of myths to be debunked. One particularly harmful myth was that a larger amount of victims make up tales of sexual assault than other crimes, which is completely untrue. The number is no higher than any other crime, but the harmful stigma remains. Another very important myth was one perpetuated by the professor himself: a real rape victim would report it. Despite our protests, he tried to convince us that such a traumatizing experience would absolutely be reported if it was legitimate. Unfortunately, the majority of victims do not report the crime due to embarrassment, confusion, not wanting to make a big deal of it all, wanting to forget, or even because of the example that was made out of other victims who spoke out. Reports have been brushed off, the victims have been blamed, and sometimes it just boils down to no one believing them. Rape culture is knowing that if it were any other crime, if someone invaded a home and stole something, it would be believed. But when it comes to sexual assault, suddenly the lines of legal and illegal become extremely blurred.
Another huge issue with rape culture is that it perpetuates the idea that these things can not and do not happen to men. While it happens less frequently, it is still such an enormous issue. Men are even less likely to report sexual assault than women, because we hear so often that it just can’t happen, that they must have enjoyed it, that they got lucky for having someone want them so much. Rape culture is the idea that men and women are not equals in this, that they can not be harmed.
At Stony Brook, we have been making an effort to improve ourselves. While this university has absolutely not been superior to others in the handling of rape investigations, we can give a little credit for trying. Students completing Haven, the mandatory online training program on sexual misconduct (get to it if you haven’t! It’s due September 30th!) is a start, and the integration of the UN’s HeforShe on campus will hopefully push us further in the right direction. For now, we must educate ourselves, unlearn the harmful mindsets we’ve been put in, and always remember, it is never, ever the victim’s fault.