Rape culture is a setting, as described by some sociological theories, in which rape is pervasive and normalized due to that setting's attitudes about gender and sexuality. Behaviors commonly associated with rape culture include victim blaming, slut-shaming, sexual objectification, trivialization of rape, denial of widespread rape, refusal to acknowledge the harm caused by sexual violence, or some combination of these. It has been used to describe and explain behavior within social groups, including prison rape and in conflict areas where war rape is used as psychological warfare. Entire societies have been alleged to be rape cultures.
The notion of rape culture was developed by second-wave feminists, primarily in the United States, beginning in the 1960s. Critics of the concept dispute its existence or extent, arguing that the concept is too narrow or that although there are cultures where rape is pervasive, the very idea of rape culture can imply that it is not only the rapist who is at fault, but also society as a whole that enables rape. Critics of that line of criticism have disputed the notion that only one party needs to be at fault, noting that the perpetrator can be the primary wrongdoer, those who help cover it up or harass the victim acting as accomplices, and that thus, also according to them, the wider society and culture can still be blamed for its collective influence on these individuals.
Two movements have addressed what they either fully or partially perceive as being rape culture or a role being played by rape culture, i.e. SlutWalk and Me Too. Though their rationale for claiming and including that the role of rape culture as being party to the particular social blights and crimes that they are fighting can vary, these movements have helped spread people's stories through hashtags and provide an online space where victims of different types of sexual violence can confide in each other.
Origins and usage The term "rape culture" was first used in the 1970s by second-wave feminists in the United States and applied to contemporary American culture as a whole. During the 1970s, feminists had begun to engage in consciousness-raising efforts designed to educate the public about the prevalence of rape. Previously, according to Canadian psychology professor Alexandra Rutherford, most Americans assumed that rape, incest, and wife-beating were rare.Review of Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape quoted in The concept of rape culture posited that rape was common and normal in American culture and that it was an extreme manifestation of pervasive societal misogyny and sexism. Rape was redefined as a violent crime rather than a sex crime, and its motive redefined from desire for sexual pleasure to male domination, intimidation and control.Brownmiller, Susan. Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape. Ballantine, 1975. Print Maschke, Karen J. The Legal Response to Violence against Women. New York: Garland Pub., 1997. Rape also began to be reexamined through the eyes of the victims rather than the perpetrators.
The first published use of the term appears to have been in 1974 in Rape: The First Sourcebook for Women, edited by Noreen Connell and Cassandra Wilson as a project of New York Radical Feminists. In the book, the group wrote, "our ultimate goal is to eliminate rape and that goal cannot be achieved without a revolutionary transformation of our society". This book and Susan Brownmiller's 1975 Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape were among the earliest to include first-person accounts of rape. Their authors intended to demonstrate that rape was much more common than previously believed. In the book, Brownmiller comments that women never talk about rape because they do not want to be open about a "crime against their physical integrity", which explains public ignorance of rape's prevalence. Brownmiller, a member of the New York Radical Feminists, argued that both academia and the public ignore incidents of rape. She helped psychologists begin observing and studying what sparked this "rape supportive culture". Against Our Will is considered a landmark work on feminism and sexual violence and one of the pillars of modern rape studies.
Sociology professor Joyce E. Williams traces the first usage of the term "rape culture" to the documentary film Rape Culture, released in 1975. Produced and directed by Margaret Lazarus and Renner Wunderlich for Cambridge Documentary Films, the film, Williams said, "takes credit for first defining the concept". The film discusses rape of both men and women in the context of a larger cultural normalization of rape. The film featured the work of the DC Rape Crisis Center in cooperation with Prisoners Against Rape, Inc., and includes interviews with rapists and victims, as well as prominent anti-rape activists such as feminist philosopher and theologian Mary Daly and author and artist Emily Culpepper. The film explored how mass media and popular culture have perpetuated attitudes toward rape.
In their 1992 Journal of Social Issues paper "A Feminist Redefinition of Rape and Sexual Assault: Historical Foundations and Change", Patricia Donat and John D'Emilio suggest that the term originated as "rape-supportive culture" in Against Our Will.Patricia Donat and John D'Emilio, "A Feminist Redefinition of Rape and Sexual Assault: Historical Foundations and Change", Journal of Social Issues, vol. 48, n. 1, 1992; published in Di Karen J. Maschke, "The legal response to violence against women", Routledge 1997, . By the mid-1970s, the phrase began to be used more widely across various media.
Overview
Feminists and gender activists conceptualize rape culture as a cultural environment that encourages gender violence, as well as perpetuating rape myths, ranging from treating rape as merely "rough sex" to blaming the victim for inviting rape.
Michael Parenti believes that rape culture manifests through the acceptance of rapes as an everyday occurrence and even a male prerogative. It can be exacerbated by police apathy in handling rape cases, as well as victim blaming, reluctance by authorities to go against patriarchial cultural norms, as well as fears of stigmatization suffered by rape victims and their families. Other sociologists posit that rape culture links non-consensual sex to the cultural fabric of a society, where patriarchial worldviews, laced with misogyny and gender inequality, are passed from generation to generation, leading to widespread social and institutional acceptance of rape.
One explanation for the commonality of these myths is that only certain "bad" or "misbehaved" women are raped. This creates a category of women separated from the general population which encourages an "otherness" and reduces the idea that anyone is vulnerable to being raped. One common rape myth is that no event is random. This promotes the idea that the women who are raped were not raped for no reason, but that they deserved it. If women believe that they were the cause of the rape, they may not go to authorities. Society also uses the stereotype of men being aggressive as an excuse for their actions. This justifies and normalizes rape. Society creates these myths, scaring women before they are even raped. Another reason for the acceptance of rape culture is the "just-world" fallacy, the cognitive bias that leads some people to believe that what happens to an individual in life is inherently tied to their actions and thus seen as justly deserved. People who believe in this theory would also be more likely to believe women who are raped deserve it in some way. Finally, rape can be attributed to ways women were treated historically, as a factor used to oppress and create control over women.
Brownmiller, in Against Our Will, discusses three ideas that helped bring awareness to some clearly defined rape myths of the early to mid 20th century. First, any woman can be a rape victim regardless of age, size, shape, ethnicity, or status. Second, any man can be a rapist, not just "evil" or "mentally ill" men as thought in previous decades. Finally, rape can occur in many different forms besides the stereotype of a violent, forceful rape done by a stranger.
The idea any women could be raped was a new proposition that called attention to the notion of victim blaming. Now that rape could affect anyone, there would not be a proper way for men and women to avoid it. Some rape myths that were widely accepted on the basis of what kind of women would be raped were ideas that the victim was always "young, careless [and] beautiful" or they are "loose" women who "invite rape" by provoking men.Gordon, Margaret T., and Stephanie Riger. The Female Fear: The Social Cost of Rape. Urbana: U of Illinois, 1991. . Although Brownmiller's idea about victim blaming was supposed to expose rape myths thus eradicating victim-blaming, blaming the victim in rape circumstances is still a common practice.
Rape culture can manifest when third parties separate the sexual violence of select individuals and cast them off as deviant perverts rather than acknowledging that anyone can be capable of rape. In the 1960s, rapists were often seen as mentally ill or deviants in society, and this view persisted among some people into the 1990s.
Rape cases in which both parties previously knew one another has been coined as "acquaintance rape", a term first used in print in 1982 by feminist writer and activist Diana Russell. A book by Robin Warshaw, I Never Called It Rape was published in 1988 which provided the first in depth discussion on the subject. The term has subsequently been used by prominent academics such as Mary P. Koss.
Chris O'Sullivan asserts that acts of 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, or a rape victim might be blamed for being raped because of how she dressed or acted. O'Sullivan examines rape culture and fraternities, identifying the socialization and social roles that contribute to sexual aggression, and looks at "frat life" and brotherhood ideals of competition and camaraderie. In these groups, sex is viewed by young men as a tool of gaining acceptance and bonding with fellow "brothers", as they engage in contests over sex with women. In O'Sullivan's article, sexualized violence towards women is regarded as part of a continuum in a society that regards women's bodies as sexually available by default.
To some, the root cause of rape culture is the "domination and objectification of women". However, academic theory holds that rape culture does not necessarily have a single cause, and causes may be localized based on other social aspects of culture. Rape culture is a fluid and always-changing entity that is socially produced and socially legitimated, so throughout time and place its definitions will change. Reasoning about rape and rape culture is also influenced by gender and heterosexuality norms.Herman, Dianne F. "The Rape Culture". Printed in Women: A Feminist Perspective (ed. Jo Freeman). McGraw Hill, 1994. Retrieved 18 October 2011. For example, in South Africa the overriding "war culture", which emphasized masculinity and violence, led to a culture in which rape was normalized. A University of California Davis public document alleged that major causes of rape were the enforcement of women having to follow social rules and the conditioning of gender roles. Others say in a rape culture women are conditioned to assume responsibility for male sexuality, and gender roles are socially constructed and enforced on women through fear.