How-To: Feminism

Chapter Four: Rape Culture

Warning: this chapter is long.

It should also be noted that this chapter was adapted from an essay I wrote at university on rape culture and rape myth acceptance.

I may revisit this topic in the future.

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Societal norms and predisposed misconceptions of gender and gender roles are the factors that create and encourage the social construct of rape culture. The idea of rape culture was first introduced in the 1970s during the second wave of feminism and further expanded on in the 1990s.

The main model consists of five subunits that all intertwine to form this social idea; these are, traditional gender roles, sexism, adversarial sexual beliefs, hostility toward women, and acceptance of violence.

Martha Burt's 'Cultural Myths and Supports for Rape' presents perhaps the most well-known definition of rape culture; she proposes the idea of rape myth acceptance where boys are taught to be "sexual aggressors" and girls are taught to be "sexually passive" [Burt, M 1980, 'Cultural myths and supports for rape', Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 217-230].

These ideas are placed under the more generalised term of myth acceptance simply due to the fact that it is not biologically intrinsic for people to behave this way but is rather learned through our social interactions.

Traditional gender roles embedded in society further enhance the ideas of rape culture in that women are encouraged to be sexually passive and men as sexually aggressive.

Sexual conservatism is defined as "restrictions on the appropriateness of sexual partners, sexual acts, conditions or circumstances under which sex should occur" [ibid.]; these restrictions are gendered in the way that men and women are subjected to different ideas of what is sexually appropriate.

Typically, men are viewed to be dominant and sexually forward and are often ridiculed if not. Conversely, women are labelled such names like 'prude' for being sexually inactive and other derogatory labels akin to 'tramp' if they are sexually active (more on this in chapter five).

The notion that men and women should uphold different standards for appropriateness when it comes to sex encourages the rape culture and further stigmatises the people who stray away from the societal norms.

Similarly, sexism is regarded as perhaps the number one driving force of rape culture. Rape culture is riddled with ambivalent sexism in that women are viewed as fundamentally weak and such, need and deserve men's protection.

Because sexism inherently involves men's dominance over women and this social misconception that women are in need of men's assistance, society has normalised and excused men's behaviour when it comes to sexual harassment and assault.

Research shows that only 15% of women and 7% of men who experience some form of sexual harassment in the workplace file a formal complaint [Fraser, C 2015, 'From "Ladies First" to "Asking for It": Benevolent Sexism in the Maintenance of Rape Culture', California Law Review, vol. 103, no. 1, pp. 142-1,679]; this deviates from the normative behaviour of sexism.

The victims who report these incidents are now seemingly undeserving of men's protection and thus, claims like 'she was asking for it' and 'it was harmless' and brought forth and largely accepted.

Adversarial sexual beliefs also allow the continuation of rape culture in society. Deviance from the heteronormative ideals that are placed upon individuals, primarily sexual preference, is viewed as weakness and/or morally wrong.

Hence, the ideas of women being weak and in need of male protection are embedded in the cycle of rape culture and the women who deviate from this norm are ostracised and less deserving of male protection.