Rape culture

Rape culture is a widely used term within women's studies and feminism describing a culture in which rape and other sexual violence are common and in which prevalent attitudes, norms, practices, and media condone, normalize, excuse, or encourage sexualized violence. Within the paradigm, acts of "harmless" sexism are commonly employed to validate and rationalize normative misogynistic practices; for instance, sexist jokes may be told to foster disrespect for women and an accompanying disregard for their well-being, which ultimately make their rape and abuse seem acceptable.

Table of contents

History of term

In a 1992 paper in the Journal of Social Issues 1 entitled "A Feminist Redefinition of Rape and Sexual Assault: Historical Foundations and Change," Patricia Donat and John D'Emilio suggested that the term originated as "rape-supportive culture" in Susan Brownmiller's 1975 book Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape.

Gender and sexuality

In addition to its use as a theory to explain the occurrence of rape and domestic violence, rape culture has been described as detrimental to men as well as women. Some writers and speakers, such as Jackson Katz, Michael Kimmel, and Don McPherson, have said that it is intrinsically linked to gender roles that limit male self-expression and cause psychological harm to men. 1 It has also been linked to homophobia. For instance, in her 1983 "Twenty-Four Hour Truce" speech, Andrea Dworkin said that "if you want to do something about homophobia, you are going to have to do something about the fact that men rape, and that forced sex is not incidental to male sexuality but is in practice paradigmatic." 2 Also, researchers such as Philip Rumney and Martin Morgan-Taylor have used the rape culture paradigm to explain differences in how people perceive and treat male versus female victims of sexual assault.2

Examples of behaviors that typify rape culture include victim blaming, trivializing prison rape, and sexual objectification.

Criticisms of the paradigm

The conceptualization of rape culture has been criticized by various writers for various reasons. Some, such as Christina Hoff Sommers, have attempted to disprove the existence of rape culture, arguing that rape is overreported and overemphasized. Others, such as bell hooks, have criticized the rape culture paradigm on the grounds that it ignores rape's place in an overarching "culture of violence". 3 These critics say that singling out rape and its social underpinnings from other forms of violence makes efforts to combat rape less effective and neglects or trivializes other forms of violence.

Resources and references

1. Jackson Katz, "Tough Guise" videorecording, Media Education Foundation, 2002

2. Phillip N.S. Rumney & Martin Morgan-Taylor, "The Construction of Sexual Consent in Male Rape and Sexual Assault", in Making Sense of Sexual Consent, edited by Mark Cowling and Paul Reynolds, ISBN 0-7546-3687-9

3. bell hooks, Feminist Theory:From Margin to Center, quoted in Feminism is for Everybody by bell hooks, ISBN 0-89608-628-3

4. Transforming a Rape Culture, ISBN 1-57131-204-8, edited by Emilie Buchwald, Pamela R. Fletcher, and Martha Roth

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