WHAT IS

RAPE CULTURE?• Rape Culture is an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual

violence is normalized and excused in the media and popular culture.

• Rape culture is perpetuated through the use of misogynistic language, the objectification of women’s bodies, and the glamorization of sexual violence, thereby creating a society that disregards women’s rights and safety.

• Blaming the victim (“She asked for it!”)• Trivializing sexual assault (“Boys will be boys!”)• Sexually explicit jokes• Tolerance of sexual harassment• Inflating false rape report statistics• Publicly scrutinizing a victim’s dress, mental state, motives, and history• Gratuitous gendered violence in movies and television• Defining “manhood” as dominant and sexually aggressive• Defining “womanhood” as submissive and sexually passive• Pressure on men to “score”• Pressure on women to not appear “cold”• Assuming only promiscuous women get raped• Assuming that men don’t get raped or that only “weak” men get raped• Refusing to take rape accusations seriously• Teaching women to avoid getting raped

is the phenomenon in which a victim of a crime is partially or entirely attributed as responsible for the transgressions committed against them. For instance, a victim of a crime (in this case rape or sexual assault), is asked questions by the police, in an emergency room, or in a court room, that suggest that the victim was doing something, acting a certain way, or wearing clothes that may have provoked the perpetrator, therefore making the transgressions against the victim her or his own fault.

VICTIM BLAMING

STANFORDRAPE CASE

A California judge, Aaron Persky, decided to give former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner a six-month jail sentence for raping an unconscious woman has caused a national uproar.

- A longer jail sentence might have “a severe impact” and “adverse collateral consequences” on Turner.

Sexual-assault advocates pointed to the Stanford case as a prime example for why so many women choose not to report sexual assaults to police or press charges against their rapists and testify against them.

Men are also victims of rape culture

• The National Crime Victimization Survey questioned 40,000 U.S. households and revealed that 38% of rapes and sexual violence committed were against men.

• FBI didn’t even consider men as victims in their definition of rape until in 2012

According to the 2013 Department of Defense and Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office Annual Report on Sexual Assault, about 54% of military sexual trauma victims in 2013 were men, which means there were about 14,000 male victims. An estimated 81% of them never disclose their assault to officials to avoid the stigma associated of being raped.

HOW TO END RAPE CULTURE

• Name the real problems• Re-imagine masculinity• Get media literate• Globalize awareness of rape culture• Don’t laugh at rape• Tell your story

https://www.southernct.edu/sexual-misconduct/facts.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_culture#Victim_blaming_and_slut_shaming

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/06/06/3784952/letter-victim-blaming-turner/

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/10/how-rape-culture-victimizes-men/

http://www.ebony.com/news-views/street-harassment-catcalling-rape-culture-476#axzz4EOP5A72O

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_harassment

https://prezi.com/wpgqf2hcrchc/the-influence-of-catcalling-on-rape-culture/

https://www.thenation.com/article/ten-things-end-rape-culture/