Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Rape Culture 101

Melissa McEwan does a great job pointing out what rape culture is, even though there is no concrete definition. Most people associate rape as an act of violence in which sex is forced. For some reason, however, our culture creates a certain criteria that one must meet in order to claim that they were actually raped. According to our rape culture , you can only count rape as rape if you are a woman, if you are a virgin, if protection was not used, etc. There also tends to be a lot of victim blaming involved, where the victims are considered at fault for maybe dressing too provocatively or being intoxicated. Regardless of how many sexual partners a person has had or whether or not they are in a committed relationship, rape is rape. If consent was not given, it is rape, and it should not be taken as lightly as it is in today's society.

1 comment:

  1. It's sad that society gives people a criteria to meet in order to consider themselves a rape victim. If someone feels they have been sexually violated, they are a victim. They shouldn't have to prove themselves to anyone. No victim should have to justify their actions or clothes to people to prove they were not asking for it. McEwan's article is really informative and covers all different kinds of victims.

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