TIME Magazine is Wrong. Rape Culture Does Exist.

Photo by Anton Bielousov

Last week, over a million girls and women started trending the topic #RapeCultureIsWhen on Twitter in response to yet another article claiming that “rape culture” simply doesn’t exist.

For those who don’t know, rape culture is an environment in which rape is highly prevalent, normalized and excused by the society’s media, popular culture, and political figures. Rape culture is perpetuated through the use of misogynistic language, the objectification or women’s bodies, and the glamorization of sexual violence, which creates a social culture that disregards women’s rights and their safety. Some examples include victim blaming (“She asked for it!”), tolerance of sexual harassment, rape jokes, inflating the statistics of false rape reports, trivializing sexual assaults, and teaching young girls “not to get raped” instead of teaching young men not to rape.

Sound familiar? That’s because we do, in fact, live in a rape culture but, for some reason, we just can’t seem to get some people to believe it.

In the controversial TIME Magazine piece on March 20, author Caroline Kitchens argues that “rape is certainly a serious problem, (but) there’s no evidence that it’s considered a cultural norm… Rape culture theory is doing little to help victims, but its power to poison the minds of young women and lead to hostile environments for innocent males is immense.”

Once again, we’re being told that the real victims of rape and rape culture are “innocent males” and that clearly, we’re all just making up this rape culture idea to get attention.

Hopefully, after you take a look at some of the millions of testimonials that were tweeted on in response, you’ll realize that rape culture is a real problem that does, in fact, exist, and that needs real attention.

#rapecultureiswhen teenage boys use rape as any other normal verb “dude I just RAPED you in CoD”

— (@provocativelib) March 31, 2014

#rapecultureiswhen girls are taught to wear less revealing clothing instead of teaching boys what “no” means…

— (@BKAPtivated) March 27, 2014

#rapecultureiswhen women fear reporting rape bc “she’s the one who was raped” defining them as tarnished instead of abused.

— (@Elizbethperkins) March 26, 2014

Rape culture is real, folks—and we live in it. If you want to change that culture, you’ve got to stop laughing at rape jokes, stop wondering if a victim is telling the truth or not, stop glorifying rapists, and stop perpetuating popular culture that does. You have the power to end hundreds of nightmares, and all you have to do is say to the co-worker who makes rape jokes at the water cooler, “I don’t get it. Can you explain?” and watch them drown.

Because rape culture isn’t funny, and we don’t have to live in it.

Have your own examples of Rape Culture? Leave it in the comments, or tweet it and tag the @FeministCaucus Twitter page.

Tags: Rape Culture

robinottawa

Blindingly obvious. Women have the right to go around naked if they choose. Like it or not (I wouldn’t like it), sex must be a negotiation. If we can’t do that, were just animals.
- JoeBl
  
  I have news for you. Humans are animals.
- Pitchguest
  
  Yep. Walk around naked, dress however they like. Absolutely.
  
  But I’d advice not to walk around naked in a shady neighbourhood in the middle of the night.
  
  And if you feel like sticking hundred dollar bills to your forehead, which you can; same deal.
  - Isabella Mockery
    
    More male asshat comnents about blame the victim. Where the hell does justice and prison for rape start?
    
    Blaming women for what they wear instead of focusing on the male behavior of the actual rape is rape culture. It is thriving in the American military.
    
    Rape is being swept under the rug at almost all the major campuses in America as well. The fact that over 70% of women are abuse is a staggering statistic on what does happen to women. The opposite of that is that it is rare for any man to go to prison for rape
    - Pitchguest
      
      Not at all. Not victim blaming. Common sense.
      
      We give this advice because we don’t know the minds of other people. Should you be able to walk around naked in a shady neighbourhood in the middle of the night and not be assaulted? Yes. Could you? No. Probably not. Which is why I added the scenario about money stuck to your forehead. Should you? Absolutely. Could you? Not really.
      
      I mean, this is basically the same thing about taking precautions against robbery or theft. People don’t leave their wallets unattended in a crowded place. People lock their doors. Why? Precautions. Ideally, this shouldn’t be necessary, but we don’t live in an ideal world. And it’s not just advice for women. Men are twice as likely to be violently assaulted by strangers, so I would advice men, too, against going dark alleys or walking around places you don’t know at night – naked or otherwise, or with dollar bills attached to your face – as it’s just common sense.
      
      You might get hit. You might get robbed. You might get horribly murdered. Or raped. Whatever. It’s not victim blaming. It’s telling people the world isn’t perfect and how you need to be ready. And no, it doesn’t stop rape, or stabbings, or killings, but it doesn’t hurt to try.
    - edtastic
      
      You are trolling with that bogus 70% claim.
- josluizsarmento
  
  The point is most of us can do that. An overwhelming majority of us.
  - Isabella Mockery
    
    When 70% of women have been sexually abuse in their life time. Your idea of the ‘overwhelming majority ‘ is false.
    - josluizsarmento
      
      What is almost certainly false is your statistic. Ludicrously so.
      - none of your beeswax
        
        It’s really not so ludicrous. Most rapes just don’t get reported. That does not mean they don’t happen.
Tracyindlps

I was date-raped in high school and was told by the police to just go out with “nicer” guys.
- Pitchguest
  
  Alright. Is this an indictment of society as a whole of accepting and encouraging rape as rape culture entails?
  - Isabella Mockery
    
    It is when that is the same thing that is told to women all over the country. When women are blamed for what they do and what they wear instead of the criminal. who did the rape to begin with.
    
    . Blaming women for what they wear instead of focusing on the male behavior of the actual rape is rape culture. It is thriving in the American military.
    
    Rape is being swept under the rug at almost all the major campuses in America as well. The fact that over 70% of women are abuse is a staggering statistic on what does happen to women. The opposite of that is that it is rare for any man to go to prison for rape
    - feral goldfish
      
      Evidence?
      - none of your beeswax
        
        The reason for the lack of evidence, would be the lack of rapes being reported. I know more women who have been raped, than women who haven’t. Date rape is rarely believed. We are told that we must have been giving mixed signals. I know someone who was told by the police that “rough sex” wasn’t rape, when she tried to report a date rape. My best friend didn’t believe me because I had a crush on the guy. So, I must have wanted it. Just because all of you men who are commenting, haven’t raped anyone, or know someone who has raped someone, does not mean it isn’t happening. And it’s happening more often than you would believe. Rape culture is real. You don’t realize it because you are not a woman who has to live with it.
      - feral goldfish
        
        Like someone pointed out up-thread, the plural of anecdote is not data. I know more people who have been sexually assaulted than haven’t also, and not one of them subscribes to the idea of “rape culture”. According to your methods, this becomes a successful refutation of your claims.
Twocontinents

Of course rape culture exists. Look at South Africa, where shamefully our own President very publically got away with rape. The rape statistics there are unbelieably alarming – yet it is sadly an accepted fact. When society simply accepts that the rape of women, children, babies -yes, babies- and men is de rigeur because they have given up waiting for barbaric and patriarchal attitudes to change and have the police and government do anything about it – then, yes , rape culture exists.
- Mike
  
  Can you show how our society “accepts the rape of women, children, babies and men”? Last I looked rape and pedophilia are horrific crimes. The point is that they are committed almost entirely by serial pedophiles and rapists who are immune to “rape culture” hysteria; they are serial criminals and an extremely small percentage of the population. Please provide some evidence that our society not only condones but encourages people to rape and molest their sisters, mothers, children, brothers, etc…
  - Leon O Morton
    
    Rape is a crime yet 90%+ perpetrators are still at liberty
    - Pitchguest
      
      Ev-i-dence.
      - Isabella Mockery
        
        The evidence is that 70% of all women are sexually assaulted in their life time. The vast majority of those rapes are ever reported because they are not taken seriously and the women is never taken seriously. Less than 10% of all rapes that are reported ever go to trial and about 2% of those are convicted.
        
        That is evidence, do your own research it is not a secret
      - feral goldfish
        
        No, it’s no secret that data can be massaged to say exactly what someone wants. As long as YOU continue to make assertions without evidence, I’LL continue to completely disregard whatever you say. Good day.
      - Pitchguest
        
        Err. 70%? I’ve heard statistics of 1 in 4 or 1 in 6, but over two thirds of all women? That is steep. I’m gonna have to see a citation for that.
    - Mike
      
      What source(s) is this statistic from. Rape is certainly underreported, but the organizations who track these things do not multiply the statistics by 900 to get the real number. Most rape trials end in conviction, so where are you getting this. If it’s simply that 90% are never reported, then how do you know this?
      - Isabella Mockery
        
        Most rape trials do NOT end in convictions at all. Less that 3% ever go to prison.
      - Mike
        
        Please cite your source for this
      - edtastic
        
        That 3% isn’t a conviction rate, it’ comes down to a guess about how many victims there might be out there which varies tremendously from one study to the next.
    - feral goldfish
      
      Is this “statistic” also operating under the widely accepted legal definition of rape? You know, the one that some feminist groups have actively lobbied to exclude cases wherein someone is “forced to penetrate” from the laws?
  - David Finnegan
    
    Making something a crime and not actively prosecuting it is certainly a form of acceptance. I ask you to consider how hard our criminal justice system is going after the thousands of incidents of rape by Catholic priests. I suggest you consider the message of a church that claims their god is the source of morality yet goes out of it’s way to interfere with justice, hiding the offending priests by moving them, refusing to cooperate with police and court officials and claiming to be handling the situation themselves. This corruption goes all the way up to the pope.
    - Pitchguest
      
      Err, what?
      
      So American society is really in favour of pot smoking?
      
      Many female murderers in the US get a reduced sentence or is set free on probation. The prison population is mostly men. A form of acceptance?
    - Mike
      
      Who says police don’t actively pursue rape as a crime? One of the biggest issues is that DA’s understand the requirement for evidence in a trial (innocent until proven guilty), but this is simply a limitation of prosecution of this type of crime, not proof of a “rape culture.” Neither are priests proof of anything – priests are the exception to the rule. Priests are generally above the culture and the law. Most people don’t believe it’s their priest that does those things. When you show me a congregation that is fully aware their priest is molesting their children and accepts it, then I’ll show you a rape culture. The fact that the church moves them around and tries to hide it proves that we as a society find rape and pedophilia abhorrent…
  - Vanessa
    
    Actually, most rapes are committed by someone the victim knows. So you are the one who should be providing evidence to the contrary.
    - Mike
      
      Sorry Vanessa, but I never made the claim that most women who are raped are not raped by someone they know, so I don’t have to provide any evidence for a claim I never made. Please read my comment again and the original comment, as well, and try to add something relevant. I concede the fact that most women who are raped are raped by someone they know (this provides serial rapists the most opportunity), but how does that prove we condone and/or encourage that behavior? Rapists do everything they can to hide their behavior because they know SOCIETY/MAINSTREAM CULTURE REJECTS AND PUNISHES SUCH BEHAVIOR… because we don’t live in a rape culture
  - Isabella Mockery
    
    The fact that extremely few men are ever sent to prison for rape is a classic example of society condoning rape.
    
    No one is teaching the BOYS that abuse of women is barbaric and unacceptable. Why is that not the primary issue here?
    
    Blaming women for what they wear instead of focusing on the male behavior of the actual rape is rape culture. It is thriving in the American military.
    
    Rape is being swept under the rug at almost all the major campuses in America as well. The fact that over 70% of women are abuse is a staggering statistic on what does happen to women. The opposite of that is that it is rare for any man to go to prison for rape.
    
    When rape is not taken seriously it is the glorification of it.
    - josluizsarmento
      
      «The fact that extremely few men are ever sent to prison for rape is a classic example of society condoning rape.»
      
      No. It is evidence that very few men commit rape.
      - none of your beeswax
        
        Well then the one guy running around doing all the raping sure has been busy. Since “so few men rape”. Please. You are just being insulting to the women who have been raped, and were dismissed. He wouldn’t do that, he’s a good student, a good Christian, he’s in the military, oh but you went out with him, surely you were expecting it…These are the reasons so many rapes go unreported. If we were taken seriously when they occurred, you would have plenty of evidence. Sadly for us victims, we don’t get justice, we don’t get believed, and then people like you, try to convince us that it isn’t happening. I’m seriously glad that you aren’t a rapist, however, that does not mean that they aren’t out there. Just because you don’t know them, doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
    - edtastic
      
      “The fact that extremely few men are ever sent to prison for rape is a classic example of society condoning rape.”
      
      No that’s evidence of a crime that leaves very little evidence. It’s hard to prove and there is little we can do about it.
      
      “Blaming women for what they wear instead of focusing on the male behavior of the actual rape is rape culture. It is thriving in the American military.”
      
      Do you realize you chose a place where people usually wear uniforms?
Mike

But how exactly have you shown that rape culture exists? What you’ve shown is that there are lots of anecdotes and feelings that it exists, but unfortunately you might need to do some real work and show that it exists instead of reposting some tweets. Nobody is denying rape exists or that it needs to be dealt with, but the point of the article was that the experts in the field reject your thoughtless and biased approach as counterproductive. I thought the Humanist encouraged skepticism and fact-based reporting…
feral goldfish

People believe rape culture is real because that’s what they’ve been spoon-fed. By the logic you display here, 2.18 BILLION Christians prove the existence of God.
- Isabella Mockery
  
  No one spoon feeds the statistics and what they stand for. Blaming women for what they wear instead of focusing on the male behavior of the actual rape is rape culture. It is thriving in the American military.
  
  Rape is being swept under the rug at almost all the major campuses in America as well. The fact that over 70% of women are abuse is a staggering statistic on what does happen to women. The opposite of that is that it is rare for any man to go to prison for rape.
  - feral goldfish
    
    Evidence? Or just anecdotes again?
  - josluizsarmento
    
    «The fact that over 70% of women are abuse[d] is a staggering statistic on what does happen to women.»
    
    Where did you get that «fact?» If you construe «abuse» to mean anything you want, you will no doubt get 100%. It will still be BS.
  - Allison Kirkpatrick
    
    That’s a ridiculous statistic – where did you get that from? Stephanie Zvan? Rebecca Watson?
Pitchguest

#rapecultureiswhen teenage boys use rape as any other normal verb “dude I just RAPED you in CoD”

Oh my god. You’re so right. And staring me in the face was the slaughter culture (or murder culture if you want to change it up) when people said, “You just got slaughtered.” Why didn’t I see this before? Must have been the blind culture.
- josluizsarmento
  
  And slavery culture when someone says “You’ve totally been owned.”
- Allison Kirkpatrick
  
  Telling people to lock their doors is “burglary culture”. We should instead just tell burglars not to burgle. Funny how we never hear Rebecca Watson et al making that argument.
josluizsarmento

«If you want to change that culture, you’ve got to stop laughing at rape jokes…»

Easy. I don’t think I’ve ever heard or told a rape joke, and I don’t think I would find it funny if I did. But I wonder how prevalent these jokes can be when I’ve never heard one.

«…stop wondering if a victim is telling the truth or not…»

Not on your life! That is exactly what you must always wonder! Otherwise you would be throwing ‘innocent till proven guilty’ out of the window.

«…stop glorifying rapists…»

The last time I saw a rapist being glorified was a few decades ago, when Ayn Rand – that monster – was still alive.

«…and stop perpetuating popular culture…»

Perceptions don’t perpetuate popular culture. Popular culture perpetuates perceptions. That is why it is popular culture and not high culture.
- Isabella Mockery
  
  Sadly everyone seen to think that every man who said it was not rape, but consensual is more likely to be believes that women are. Police do not accept victim report, the community does not either. Rape is being swept under the rug at almost all the major campuses in America as well. The fact that over 70% of women are abuse is a staggering statistic on what does happen to women. The opposite of that is that it is rare for any man to go to prison for rape.
  - JoeBl
    
    “Rarely”, “70%”, “everyone” These sweeping generalizations are not the stuff that rational conversations are made of.
  - edtastic
    
    You are using false or misleading “staggering statistics” to advance your gender hate agenda so knock it off. I’d have no problem turning that right back around on you by showing all the studies showing abundant male victimization by women.
JoeBl

No offense but I don’t live in any rape culture. You gave a definition and all of it is either socially unacceptable or too vaguely undeterministic.

This whole business of clothes and whatnot is an either-or fallacy. We teach people to avoid getting mugged, to avoid having cars broken into, and any number of crime prevention techniques. Any modern human living in an urban area with a crime watch knows this. Someone saying don’t leave your iPhone on your car seat is not promoting car break in culture. Likewise telling a 14 year old girl not to get drunk c because bad things can happen does not excuse those bad things. Nor does it imply that boys are not being told to avoid getting drunk and doing stupid things.
- MichaelFarese
  
  Well said.
- Isabella Mockery
  
  Yet another pathetic attempt to blame women for the behavior of men. That is rape culture.
  - JoeBl
    
    Yet another logical fallacy. That one is called straw man. Not to mention it is so vague there is no way to dispute it. Do you care to be more specific?
- Steff Zep
  
  Just look at your wording. “Telling a 14 year old girl not to get drunk because bad things can happen…” What bad things? That she will likely vomit and feel ill the next day? That she might fall down or have trouble walking? That she might make a fool of herself? That she might get alcohol poisoning? Those are consequences of her choices. That she will get raped?
  
  That’s not something that “happens” to someone because they got drunk. That is a crime committed against someone by someone else, and it isn’t always associated with drinking, it isn’t always associated with young women or underage girls, and it isn’t always committed against a sexy girl in revealing clothing. Old women get raped in nursing homes, getting into their cars, etc. Young women get raped in parking lots after work. Men get raped in bars, at parties, etc., usually by other men. Your view of what rape is, is very stunted and limited, and it is obviously shaped by what our culture has taught you to believe that rape is. After all, you say, “Nor does it imply that boys are not being told to avoid getting drunk and doing stupid things.”
  
  You imply that rapists are boys. The word choice of “boys” implies a lack of maturity, and an expectation that they will do “stupid things.” What stupid things? That they’ll drink and drive? That they’ll jump off a roof? That they’ll show off to their friends and injure themselves? That they’ll rape? Raping someone is not “doing stupid things.” It is an absolute violation of another person. It is a complete lack of respect for that person’s right to their own body, and their right to do with their body as they see fit, which includes having sex with whomever they want within legal boundaries, and also being able to refuse sex with whomever they choose.
  
  Your choice of words detaches the crime from the victim, and from the rapist, and diminishes the seriousness of the crime by calling it “stupid things.” Both men and women need to take responsibility for the choices they make, but they also need to understand the legal definitions of rape. If we’re going to go with the never overused example of a drunk girl at a party, then the male in question needs to understand that, legally, she is not able to consent to sex. The right thing to do, no matter how difficult it may seem in the moment, is to refuse having sex with the drunk girl. If she is truly interested in pursuing a sexual relationship, she will still be interested when she is sober, and waiting is not going to hurt anyone.
  
  However, this is not the only version of rape, and it’s not even the only version of drunk girl rape. A lot of these drunk girls are raped when they’re no longer conscious. That’s not something bad happening because she got drunk, and that’s not boys doing stupid things, that is absolutely, without a doubt, rape. It is a violent crime that violates the sanctity of her body. A violent, violating crime. Let’s call it what it is, shall we?
  
  I assume that, based on your previous comments and arguments, you are going to try to call this something like the “band wagon” fallacy, but no, this is not some logical fallacy. Language absolutely is important, especially in rape culture, which is in the definition you didn’t seem to understand, or chose not to. You claim that the definition of rape culture given in the article is vague or socially unacceptable, which is, frankly, vague in itself. The definition given is very clear, especially considering that she took a paragraph to explain it. You are also comparing theft crimes to rape, which is not the same kind of crime. Rape is an entirely unique crime, and it cannot be compared to someone stealing CD’s out of your car. You may want to look at your own argument and the logical fallacies you are employing.
  
  Perhaps you don’t pay attention to what our politicians say about rape. Perhaps you don’t pay attention to our media and how it treats rape victims v. rapists. Perhaps you have never seen a comedian make a rape joke, or seen a television show or cartoon make a rape joke (you may want to check out Fox’s Sunday animation block for that.) However, just because you haven’t seen it, or you don’t necessarily understand it, or even if you don’t agree with it because you think rape jokes are funny, and the misogynistic language and attitudes aren’t actually damaging, and that the objectification of women isn’t damaging or diminishing of their status as whole, real human beings – it doesn’t make rape culture disappear. It makes you either unintentionally ignorant, and purposefully ignorant; the latter of which being repugnant.
  - JoeBl
    
    Simply repeating the same things with long paragraphs doesn’t make it any more right. Actually reading what people right and trying to interpret it how they mean it is a helpful skill. You should try it some time.
    
    I am not going to write a 3000 word essay for you if English cannot suffice.
    
    Let’s talk about my wording: “Telling a 14 year old girl not to get drunk because bad things can happen…” All bad things you named and more. Clear enough? She can get raped. She can get robbed. She can get killed in an accident. and a whole host of others things I am not going to list. You know all this of course. Clear enough for you? So do you think because you tell her that then you are encouraging “robbery culture” or “accident culture?” It is ridiculous to suggest that self preservation and safety advice means that you are encouraging that which the advice is meant to avoid. It is logically ridiculous. Nobody is “blaming” anyone any more than saying “put on your seat belt” is blaming someone else for hitting your car.
    
    “You imply that rapists are boys.” I do no such thing you liar. I do not imply but suggest rather directly that boys are boys. i.e. they are children and not grown men and as such they need to be taught right from wrong.
    
    “diminishes the seriousness of the crime by calling it ‘stupid things.’” So you are suggesting that rape isn’t stupid?
    
    Yes I am comparing theft to rape. I am absolutely. They are both crimes. They both have victims. One is violent the other is not. Got a problem with that? Do you have a problem with abstract reasoning and analogy? You still haven’t directly answered the comparison. If it is fine to give advice on avoiding crime of one crime then why not another? Why does one magically become “blaming the victim” in one case and not in another when the glaring fact is that the point is that there be no victims.
    
    I did not claim “the definition of rape culture given in the article is vague or socially unacceptable.” What I said was this: “[the author] gave a definition and all of it is either socially unacceptable or too vaguely undeterministic.” Since English isn’t your first language and trying to actually figure out what a speaker means isn’t your first impulse let me clarify. The components of her definition fit into one of two categories: That which is socially unacceptable and that which is vague. That is to say if the components are socially unacceptable it is hard to argue those are part of an accepted cultural norm and if others are too vague to determine what precisely they mean or if they are satisfied in reality then it is hard to argue there is a “rape culture.” Reality does not meet the minimum conditions of her own stated definition.
    
    The stated definition is this: “highly prevalent, normalized and excused by the society’s media, popular culture, and political figures.” Highly prevalent is not defined but all violent crime is on a steady decline in the United States (where the author is based.) That includes rape. It is not in any way “normalized.” That claim would verge on delusion. It is not “excused” in media and popular culture. If anything it gets more negative attention as cases in Stubenville Ohio and others show. Politicians who bungle basic physical laws and anatomy are almost always ostracized even by their own parties and usually by voters as well. So how is there “rape culture” again if those are the conditions that define it?
    
    but of course you aren’t interested in rational dialogue. You are interested in simply cherry picking phrases and pretending they mean things other than what the person meant them to mean. You have already religiously decided what the holy truth is and no actual evidence and argumentation (let alone self examination of cognitive dissonance) will dissuade you from your holy views.
whatever

Thanks for the article Ashley.

Rape Culture still does not exist.
- Isabella Mockery
  
  Says only the men, they are the rapists.
  - whatever
    
    Shows your ignorance in that:
    1) Studies by Lisak show (what we know) that rapes are committed by a very small percentage of people who are serial rapists
    2) women are 50% of the child abusers
    3) you have certainly erased female on female rape and female on male rape
    
    Are you sure you’re a humanist? You seem more like a feminist.
  - Sean
    
    Wow a man-hating feminist, that’s a first
  - edtastic
    
    Clearly you haven’t read many studies on sexual violence that include both genders. Female perpetration is quite substantial. They sexually assaulted 40% of victims in the CDC NIVS 2010. The term ‘rape’ is gendered because it excludes any assault involving male gentials. The mouth and anus are not the only way a man can suffer a severe sexual assault. Women are also 25% (or more) of those who sexually abuse children.
John Forest

I will preface by saying, I am a husband, a father of a grown daughter and the grandfather of two girls. It does not serve my interests to deny or minimize any situation that threatens my family members. With that said, I agree with some of the other posters, you didn’t prove your case. At most you showed that there are elements of some modern sub-cultures that are dubious, disgusting, etc. My retort is, there always have been such examples and there will likely always be. To say that such things spill over outside their sub-culture to permeate our broader culture and result in a “rape culture” is a big claim. And, as we are aware, bold sweeping claims especially require the requisite evidence to back them.
joel

what about male on male rape? why does everyone get so pissy about this shit them leave out that not only women get raped? 1 in 10 males get raped,the vast majority of these rapes go unreported because of the stigma on that 6 percent of this is women on man, yes it does happen its not just men raping people, and lesbian rape is around 37%, so all this feminist smear campaign against men is bs, yes alot of rape is done by males, but there are still plenty of instinces where thats not the case,, and dont go blame the media for all your problems, if you want to fix this problem educate people dont just smear and blame everyone else, it helps nobody and just exacerbates the problem
- Isabella Mockery
  
  The vast majority of all rapes go unreported. Women are stigmatized equally as men are. I have never heard anyone say that a man deserved to be raped. They most certainly say that repeatedly about women.
  
  No one is teaching the BOYS that abuse of women is barbaric and unacceptable. Why is that not the primary issue here?
  
  Blaming women for what they wear instead of focusing on the male behavior of the actual rape is rape culture. It is thriving in the American military.
  
  Rape is being swept under the rug at almost all the major campuses in America as well. The fact that over 70% of women are abuse is a staggering statistic on what does happen to women. The opposite of that is that it is rare for any man to go to prison for rape.
  
  When rape is not taken seriously it is the glorification of it.
  - josluizsarmento
    
    «I have never heard anyone say that a man deserved to be raped.»
    
    Nor have I heard anyone say that a woman deserved to be raped. Not in the developed world, anyway.
    - http://cityzenjane.wordpress.com/ cityzenjane
      
      This is an argument from ignorance. Please. Just because you haven’t experienced it (as in ALL THE GODDAMN TIME) does not mean it’s not real.
      
      I challenge you to create a female avi on the net and spend a year posting as an opinionated woman.
      - josluizsarmento
        
        If my argument is from ignorance, so is the argument it answers. Strictly speaking, neither of them proves anything, but this does not mean they are meaningless. If the ‘she deserved to be raped’ attitude was as prevalent as claimed, I would surely have heard it quite often – I don’t live in a cave in the desert, after all.
        
        Of course you can construe anything anybody says about the victim’s behaviour as ‘she deserved to be raped.’ But that is your construction, and not neccessarily a sane one.
  - edtastic
    
    “Women are stigmatized equally as men are.”
    
    Men are far more stigmatized in that our culture has yet to accept the full reality of male victimization. The fact we only count men who were ‘raped’ or forcibly penetrated while ignoring any forced sex acts involving his penis is itself an tremendous moral failing on the part of anti ape activist and feminst.
- edtastic
  
  What about female on male sexual assault? Rape is defined as penetration and men’s gentials are on the outside. No matter what a person does to a man’s gentials without his consent it’s not counted as rape under the law or in studies on sexual violence so we should abandon that term or insist the rape definition be changed to be male gentials inclusive.
MichaelFarese

Yes, we try to teach young women how to reduce their risk of being raped… we also teach young children how to reduce their risk of being abducted (stranger danger!). We teach the public how to not become a victim of tobacco and alcohol.

No one glorifies rape. Rape culture seems to exist in certain Middle East contries, but not here.
- Isabella Mockery
  
  No one is teaching the BOYS that abuse of women is barbaric and unacceptable. Why is that not the primary issue here?
  
  Blaming women for what they wear instead of focusing on the male behavior of the actual rape is rape culture. It is thriving in the American military.
  
  Rape is being swept under the rug at almost all the major campuses in America as well. The fact that over 70% of women are abuse is a staggering statistic on what does happen to women. The opposite of that is that it is rare for any man to go to prison for rape.
  
  When rape is not taken seriously it is the glorification of it.
  - josluizsarmento
    
    «No one is teaching the BOYS that abuse of women is barbaric and unacceptable.»
    
    False. There is hardly any parent, school, church or public institution that is NOT teaching the boys that abuse of women is barbaric and unacceptable.
    
    The «fact» that over 70% of women are abused woud be a staggering statistic if it was a fact and not a paranoid fantasy.
    
    If it is rare for any man to go to prison for rape, that’s because most men are NOT rapists.
    
    You don’t have to send half the male population to prison to prove you are taking rape seriously. One case of rape is one case too many, and seeing it this way is all the seriousness you need.
  - edtastic
    
    “No one is teaching the BOYS that abuse of women is barbaric and unacceptable. Why is that not the primary issue here?”
    
    Why are you ignoring male victims and female perpetrators? You’re the one perpetuating rape culture through male victim erasure.
    
    It seems women are the only class of victim you care about and that’s whack. We don’t need to be lectured on caring for victims by people who intentionally ignore them.
  - Dustin L. Tabor
    
    Who is this no one? I for one was taught that not only hitting women, but hitting people is unacceptable period. I don’t personally know of any men that hit their wives and wouldn’t associate with them if they did. I actually do know more than a few men who just put up with being casually struck by women, because “it’s not that hard don’t be a baby” or they are are supposed to “man up and take it” or they were raised like most men and believe that hitting in return is just plain wrong because women shouldn’t be hit. If anything “no one” is teaching girls that they shouldn’t hit boys.
- edtastic
  
  These lazy attacks on the Middle East sound like right wing B.S. It seems like anything goes when it comes to islamophobia.
Anthony Stanton Barondess

A RAPE CULTURE exists in India, South Africa, and U.S. as normative.

Who ape-rapes? WHITE JOCKS, colleges teach us. “WHITES slobs mostly, not BLACKS.” BLACK GANSTA’ RAPPERS (fat punks with gold chains with scantily clad white females gyrating behind them with degrading dignity and self-respect).

Who among us will bring daughters into your FOUL EVIL CULTURE? tsk tsk tsk.

MILLENNIAL FEMINISTS
(10 photographs)
Sean

The author of this “article” provided absolutely no evidence for anything she said. Everyone is well aware what “no” means, rapists simply do not care. People joke about the Holocaust, yet somehow it’s worse to do so about rape?
http://cityzenjane.wordpress.com/ cityzenjane

Using prison rape as a punchline – is rape culture. Wishing rape on people in prison is rape culture. Making fun of male rape survivors is rape culture. Discussing rape without discussing rape of men and women serving in the US military is rape culture. Ignoring the fact that rape is a tactic of militaries across the globe is rape culture…
- edtastic
  
  “Discussing rape without discussing rape of men and women serving in the US military is rape culture.”
  
  You mean like this article that assumes women are the only victims worth mentioning.
- Nirst Fame
  
  Very nicely said.
http://cityzenjane.wordpress.com/ cityzenjane

Surprise – article talking about rape culture brings out all the trolls and defenders of rape culture…along with men who say …well I never experienced this! So it’s not real!
Dustin L. Tabor

Growing up I was of course taught that no means no and nobody is asking for it based on how they are dressed. I was taught that being sexually aggressive and hitting on women is demeaning and unacceptable. I was taught to be almost paranoid of women like they are some kind of life ruining trap set to a hair trigger. I was taught that any form of mildly ribald joke could construed as creating a hostile work environment and it only takes one woman who thinks it isn’t funny to exercise her power to destroy your life, and even expressing interest or being flirty could get you fired from your job or charged with sexual harassment if it’s not reciprocated. It shaped my behavior when interacting with women to such a degree that it took me a long time to reach a point where I realized that’s not quite what the world is like and even longer before I was remotely comfortable letting a woman know that I was sexually or romantically interested in her. In a world where you can instantly lose your job for giggling about the word dongle, and girls have lied about being raped because they’re embarrassed to admit they were voluntarily having sex in public or even just as and excuse for not doing well in classes, I’m not so sure it’s not the minefield I was warned of. So, to me the idea that forcing women to have sex is somehow widely socially acceptable is more than a little alien. It’s only been recently when I’ve seen the way communities come to rally around athletes who are “just being boys” and are not only accused, but have confessed to sexual battery and rape complete with photographic evidence, the way some women who report rape are shunned by their community, or the sheer indifference to the number of rape accusations that’s come with a more gender integrated military that have opened my eyes a bit.
MichaelYHC

This article is an embarrassment to rational discourse. Ashely’s argument is that this concept of “rape culture” is proven because many activists Tweeted about it online.

The plural of anecdote is not data.
mofa

I am sick and tired of feminists bringing their agenda into places aligned with skepticism and rational thinking and delivering misandric hate speech, distortions of the truth, propaganda, bigotry, unproven assertions and dogma.
Allison Kirkpatrick

This is nonsense – there is no such thing as “rape culture”. Rapists are arrested, imprisoned, scorned, shunned, and ostracized in the U.S., as they well should be.
John D

To my sensible Humanist friends:

Please do not give up hope. Sometimes people latch on to a really silly model of how the world works. The latest incarnation of this is the idea that the US has a rape culture. Many of us, including me, believe this concept is intellectually bankrupt.

But, many of the people who are pushing this concept are hurting and angry. I think we should politely disagree with them. They will come around in my opinion, once they calm down and have more time to think this through.

This hysteria will pass. We need not assume that AHA has been taken over by radical feminists. There are still other voices here.
Nathair /|

All rape perpetrated by males and/or against females or children is unacceptable. Everyone old enough to know what rape is knows that unless they have severe mental health problems. The way to deter those evil enough to act in spite of that knowledge is to make them afraid of the consequences. Women need to be supported and encouraged in preparing themselves and in using all necessary force to defend themselves and others.
BrainFromArous

Two things about rape-as-crime. The first concerns accusations.

Imagine the following…

Tomorrow morning, local police show up at Bob Smith’s door with an arrest warrant for rape.

The accuser is a woman he knows but whom, let’s be clear, he DID NOT RAPE. Yet the police find
her statements credible and are there to bring Bob in.

It will be just a matter of days – perhaps a week at most – before all Bob’s coworkers, friends
and family members know him as an accused rapist.

Exactly what do you imagine will happen to the quality of his life throughout this ordeal? What
about the months and years that follow – even assuming he is properly acquitted? What will his family and friends think? How will acquaintances and coworkers act around him?

What risks does Bob stand of having his social relationships poisoned, reputation ruined,
livelihood threatened, or savings wiped out as he frantically fights to clear his name and avoid prison?

If Bob has kids, what are the chances that the State will regard him unfit as a parent? If he is
totally exonerated, what will he go through to get his parental rights and proper standing back?

Good thing for Bob that our society is a “rape culture.” Otherwise he might have been in real trouble, eh?

The second concerns convictions.

1) It is not “Rape Culture” to insist that accusation does not and must not equal guilt.

2) It is not “Rape Culture” when those accused of crimes are accorded the presumption of innocence as both a principle of jurisprudence (theory) and placing of the burden of proof upon the accuser and the State (practice).

3) It is not “Rape Culture” that rape, like some other crimes, can be very hard to prove given that it often occurs in secluded or private settings, with no one present except the claimed victim and offender, and can leave NO physical evidence whatsoever. (Rape “tests,” administered promptly and properly, can return inconclusive and legally useless results.)

I’d happily hang every actual, real rapist on telephone poles from Times Square to the Grand
Canyon. But the cold facts are that it can be very difficult to prove the crime, for reasons having nothing to do with any institutionalized, socially-entrenched misogyny.
- William Ho
  
  This is exactly what I’m most wary of. This whole ‘blame on the men first mentality’. Furthermore even if Bob in the example manages to get his innocence back he is ruined regardless. Suppose he changes jobs, or tries expanding his social circle, people will not think ‘he is innocent’, any more than ‘he was accused of rape’. Given the type of crime rape is, the benefit of doubt goes to the (in this case false) victim. Perhaps there will be a day when everyone has some sort of ‘contract of consent’ before going out, and make sure there is a team of lawyers ready if something goes wrong.
BrainFromArous

Also, let’s cut right to it, hm?

The people inveighing against “Rape Culture” are less interested in stopping rape than in Stopping Rape, if you take my meaning.

What they’re after is the construction and maintenance of Crisis Politics to justify their ideological extremism.

“Don’t waste my time with talk of due process and skepticism! We’re in a Rape Culture, don’t you see? We’re under attack! Drastic steps must be taken!”

When the religious do this, we use the apt term Moral Panic. Moral panics are not necessarily based on wholly phantasmal dangers – like rock music indoctrinating kids in Satanism, to pick a famous case – but can arise from genuine problems.

Child abuse, for example, is all too real. But the hysteria that swept across many communities in the late 80s and early 90s about multitudes of kids being abused and molested by adults in vast conspiracies located in schools and youth programs? That was a Moral Panic. And so is Rape Culture.
iknklast

Rape culture is when movies and plays are more likely to depict the woman crying rape as lying than treating it sympathetically and honestly.
Nirst Fame

Rape culture exists within the community of psycho-sexually
dominant and oppressive males and females, and is a means of capitalizing on
less aggressive members. What is the big mystery? Success in our society
perpetuates these evolved behaviors. Alpha-leadership by dominance as opposed
to Beta-leadership that acquiesces power to the person best suited to serve the
greater good. This is the real argument being represented here. I’ve seen it firsthand
being the son of a feminist in the eighties, I have been attacked as a man for
the views I was taught were equitable. Yes, it is a rape culture. It is your
denial of it that continues it. Being a man, alone, does not make one part of
it, telling someone their experiences are misinterpreted in an act of denial, does.
If you are leaving the person no cognizant choice, free of duress, than you are
capitalizing on dominance. The problems arise when you have blindly insensitive
people mixed with overly concerned from being hurt, people. Both having a
conversation with only the internal message they think or feel. The rape
culture is a matter of where we are coming from, but what are we headed to? I
do not want gay posters tagged on my locker because I asked my peers not to
share their masturbation stories about last night’s conquests with women who
were too drunk to say no. There are women who are my sisters, my friends, my
teachers, my co-workers to whom this is disrespectful, but in whatever
relationship that is mine to share with them, none of them are mine to own, possess,
or rape. The litmus test is and will be when fantasies of rape are not seen as
a turn-ons, they are turn-ons because it is a rape culture in either some
nuance or some overt practices of welcomed aggression and power over a less
aggressive person.

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