Shes A Slut, Hes The Man- What is Rape Culture?

In the United States, every two minutes another individual is sexually assaulted. For
people twelve years of age or older, there is an average rate of 237,868 reported cases of
rape annually. Yet, despite these horrifying facts, we continue to see rape portrayed in
mainstream media and pop culture as a joke. One of the most popular comedy sketches
seen right now is about sexual assault, how rape is funny, how it should be laughed at,
etc However, despite comedians roles to make light of difficult situations, we are
seeing an increase of intolerance for sexual assault, and jokes made about those who
stand up against it. Daniel Tosh was recently criticized for responding to a woman who
did not like his jokes about rape with comments such as wouldnt it be funny if she were
raped by five guys right now. These repeated public controversies surrounding rape
further the wrong messages concerning sexual assault and its victims.
While aimlessly scrolling through Facebook, I stumbled upon this picture that really got
me thinking:

Is this how people actually think about and discuss rape? What does this say about
society as a whole, and how does this small picture represent rape culture at large?
The first aspect of this study that is mind-boggling is the idea of blaming the victim.
What did she do in order to be raped? How does it come to be that women are responsible
for attacks committed against them? Often times, a woman is blamed for her attack due to
the clothes she wears or the way she acts. However, when did society forget that despite
these facts, until she says yes, she was not asking for it. One commentator responded to
this question with If a car is stolen is it the fault of the owner because it happened to be a
Lamborghini. If a wallet is stolen is it the fault of the owner because it had too much
money in it. Victim blame is used as a way to excuse rape. Instead of following the path
of the quote above and respecting women and their bodies, victim blaming is a way to
justify a long standing gender norm in our society. Male power has historically been a
dominant force in our society. In attempts to not disturb societal norms, instead of
challenging the ideal masculine persona, society forces these victims to become
submissive, and sacrifice due process and punishment in order to maintain social order.
In addition to societys impact upon women to cover up their sexual assault, social
norms also influence the process of male reporting as well. After much research, I could
not find a study similar to the one shown above that sought to gain information about
when it was okay for men to be raped. Sexual assault of men is grossly under reported.
3% of American men have experienced sexual assault sometime in their lifetime. Yet, we
hear far less often in the media about these attacks? Why is this so? Also due to the hyper
masculine nature of our society, rape for men is seen as a sign of weakness. Male victims
of sexual assault are often met with these two responses: You cant be sexually
assaulted or You are not a real man if you are raped. The idea of being attacked
challenges the traditional view of masculinity, and similar to female victims, society
attempts to get rid of these challenges. It is easier in these cases of sexual assault to blame
the victims, due to their own actions and behaviors, or their lack of masculinity, then it is
to address a major problem with gender norms in our culture.

Sources:
http://feministing.com/2012/07/11/daniel-tosh-jokes-that-woman-in-audience-should-be-
raped-at-stand-up-show/
http://www.lisashea.com/lisabase/womensissues/whenisrapeok/
http://www.rainn.org/get-information/statistics/frequency-of-sexual-assault
http://www.pandys.org/articles/malerape.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1251040/Rape-Its-fault-victims-say-50-
women.html

This entry was posted in Uncategorized on April 2, 2014.