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Syke: criticism
A Nation of Victims: The Decay of the American Character By Charles J. Syke pp 183 ff

ROBIN E. FIELD
"Rape Culture", Encyclopedia of rape: pp 174-176

RAPE CULTURE. A rape culture is one in which rape and other sexual violence against women and children are both prevalent and considered the norm. In a rape culture, rape and sexual violence are accepted as inevitable and are not challenged. The term rape culture originated in the 1970s during the second-wave feminist movement and is often used to describe contemporary American culture as a whole.

A rape culture, according to the editors of Transforming a Rape Culture, "is a complex set of beliefs that encourages male sexual aggression and supports violence against women." A rape culture believes that sexual aggression in men is biologi- cally determined, rather than learned behavior. In turn, it considers women to be sexually passive and meant to be dominated by men. Consequentially, a normal sexual encounter is represented as a heterosexual man forcing himself upon a woman. Thus in a rape culture, rape is the model for most sexual activity.

A rape culture supports rape and violence by tolerating such abuse. In regard to criminal justice, the number of sexual assaults is high, while the rate of arrests, prosecutions, and convictions of assailants is low. Excuses are often found to ex- plain why men commit rape, or why the violence against the victim is justified. Many times the rapist's actions are implied to be out of his control: He simply could not help himself. This viewpoint positions rape as an expression of sexual desire, rather than the enactment of power, control, and anger. Women are social-

RAPE EDUCATION 175

ized into believing that men are naturally sexual aggressors and that it is a woman's responsibility to take precautions against being attacked. A rape culture blames the assault on the actions of the victim (such as her walking alone, drinking alcohol, or being in a date's apartment), rather than questioning the behavior of the rapist.

A rape culture reinforces its beliefs by promoting rape myths, false or biased information about rape, rape victims, and rapists. Rape myths work to deny that instances of forced or coerced sex are actually rape. Rape myths make excuses for the rapist or minimize the effects of the rape on the victim. As a whole, rape myths elide the phenomenon of rape, refusing to acknowledge that any problem exists. Examples of rape myths include the following: Women secretly want to be raped; it is rape only if a weapon is used; and women are aroused by sexual violence. In a rape culture, rape myths are learned and perpetuated by the general culture, but especially the media: in advertisements, television shows, films, and music videos.

Images of sex and violence are intertwined in a rape culture. The media often portrays normal sex as sadomasochistic, "a dirty, low, and violent act involving the domination of a male over a female" (Herman, 39). Rape, when portrayed as such, is often eroticized and depicted as "rough, unwanted sex, that is nevertheless sexy" (Pearson, 12). At times the rape victim is even portrayed as being aroused by the assault, having subconsciously wanted to have sex with her attacker. This portrayal of rape in the media trains men to become aroused by violent sex. In a rape culture, rarely is sex portrayed as shared, loving intimacy; instead, violent imagery abounds that fosters the mentality that there is little difference between regular sex and rape.

Feminist critics believe that rape culture will flourish as long as women do not realize the same legal, economic, and social privileges as men. In turn, the rape culture will continue to legitimatize rape and sexual violence as normal expressions of male sexuality, and more women and children will be victimized as a result. In order to eliminate rape, many see that the mechanisms of the rape culture first need to be confronted. See also: Advertising; "Blaming the Victim" Syndrome.

Suggested Reading: Emilie Buchwald, Pamela Fletcher, and Martha Roth, Transforming a Rape Culture (Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 1993); Dianne F. Herman, "The Rape Cul- ture," in Women: A Feminist Perspective, ed. Jo Freeman (Mountain View, CA: Mayfield, 1989), 20-44; Alyn Pearson, "Rape Culture: It's All Around Us," off our backs 30.8 (August 2000): 12.

Pearson
Alyn Pearson, "Rape Culture: It's All Around Us," off our backs 30.8 (August 2000): 12.

Last semester, I filled my undergraduate science requirement with a class called "The Biology of Infectious Diseases." Although all biologically caused, many of the diseases we studied were closely tied to social conditions. For example, in the United States and Europe in the early 1900s, typhoid thrived among rural and urban poor. Typhoid is a disease of the intestines caused by bacteria which result from contamination from sewage or feces. In poor urban and rural areas, water sanitation was poor, so often the septic system and the water supply were intermingled, allowing the bacteria to pass to people. These days, with improved sanitation, typhoid in the United States is relatively scarce, but in countries with poor water sanitation, typhoid is still endemic.

Endemic means "part of the natural flora of a place." In nations With poor water and health care, diseases like typhoid are part of the environment. An endemic disease is not a good thing, but people somehow get used to it and deal accordingly. (An epidemic, on the other hand, is an outbreak, often sudden, of a disease that strikes many people severely.) Endemic diseases, ones that are chronic like rainy weather in the Pacific Northwest, tend to spawn folklore explanations as to their etiology. For example, there is a lot of folklore about the common cold. It is common lore that if we get caught in the rain we are apt to "catch cold," that if we are out too long in the freezing weather, we might "get a chill," and that if we go out in cold weather with wet hair we might "catch a cold."

Rape as disease

Rape is the common cold of society. Although rape is much more serious than the common cold, the systems are the same. We have assimilated rape into our everyday culture much as we have the cold. Like the folklore surrounding the common cold, there is folklore about rape, like the notion that if a woman wears revealing clothing or goes to a bar alone, she is likely to "get raped." But in fact a woman is no more likely to be raped from these activities than from simply dating a man or being home alone.

The rape culture

There is a silence surrounding the recognition that we live in a cultural environment where rape is endemic, but it is true. The rape culture is much like the poor sanitation conditions which led to typhoid--it provides an environment in which acts of rape are fostered. Look through any supposed women's publication and notice the ads that display women at the mercy of a man or at the mercy of the male gaze. Notice the articles that emphasize dependence and passivity and avoid portraying independence and strength in women. Watch TV shows that display precocious models of sexually manipulated teen-aged women. Walk into any bar and watch the women primp and the men pounce, and watch, too, as the number of unreported rapes turns into the number of women socialized into accepting this sort of sexual behavior as standard--not even recognizing rape when it occurs. Rape is part of the natural flora of our society and our world.

I go to Bard College, a secluded little haven in New York State.

BRAVE, Bard's Response to Rape and Associated Violence Education, is the group on my campus that deals with rape, incest, sexual assault and harassment, domestic abuse, and gender-related violence issues that arise in our small community and, often, in the community-at-large. The group is not the most popular on campus, in fact, many of the Bard College students refer to us, not-so-lovingly, as Nazis with no sense of humor. Before attending college, I, like much of my generation, tended to not see rape as violence against women, but rather as a removed sort of problem that was often misused by women looking - for sympathy. I was seduced by the post-modem rejection of feminism, believing instead in the inclusion of every opposite. I was socialized not to see the discrepancies, but to accept them. I joined BRAVE to use it as a feminist-resume padder, unabashedly using my admittance as a notch on my activist belt. I thought maybe I could write a cynical article or two after college on the subject of rape and be done with the whole mess.

Sex, rape, and oranges

Before joining BRAVE, I had this incredibly twisted and formed view of rape: specifically, that I was never a victim and I never, could be. I was also convinced that women often lied about rape. Why did I think this way? Because social training, media propaganda, and backlash had me as a dedicated pupil. Fortunately, I was not too far gone in my hipster cynicism to grasp the facts of the matter. Rape, I learned, is not a removed, unrestricted, free flowing sort of problem that …....

Herman
1984 "The Rape Culture" in ''Women: A Feminist Perspective" online scanned PDF http://homepage.smc.edu/delpiccolo_guido/soc1/soc1readings/rape%20culture_final.pdf

Boswell
Boswell and Spade, “Fraternities and Collegiate Rape Culture.” 39. Angela Y. Davis, Women, Race and Class (New York: Random House, 1981).

03 Gender Society 1996; 10; 133 A. AYRES BOSWELL and JOAN Z. SPADE Fraternities More Dangerous Places for Women? FRATERNITIES AND COLLEGIATE RAPE CULTURE: Why Are Some

online: http://girlarmy.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Fraternities.pdf

Buchwald
Transforming a Rape Culture

Not online

Author: Emilie Buchwald, Pamela R. Fletcher, Martha Roth

First Published: 1993

Type of Work: Women’s Issues/Essays Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Women's literature, Social issues TRANSFORMING A RAPE CULTURE gives the readers insightful commentary on rape in America. The contributors include activists, theologians, policy makers, and educators, all of whom view rape as a serious problem and one that has not been adequately addressed by the legal system, the schools, or the culture at large. The essays explore such issues as why men rape, the ways in which rape and other types of violence against women (including sexual harassment) are currently affirmed by the American culture. Other writers evaluate the effects of what they call America’s “rape culture” on women and on relationships between women and men.

Finally, these writers offer solutions to the alarmingly widespread incidents of rape that, in some contributors’ opinion, go unremarked as “ordinary,” everyday occurrences.

The book’s sections analyze the current “rape culture,” propose strategies for eradicating the rape mentality, suggest ways in which people can become antirape activists, and offer visions of a world in which men did not rape women. TRANSFORMING A RAPE CULTURE will challenge many readers, for the essays are strongly worded condemnations of the way things currently are, and their authors do not hesitate to name the causes of what they see as a pervasive form of violence against women. For readers unfamiliar with the issue of rape or with the extent of the current debate, the book will provide thought-provoking insights into American culture and values as well as offer those readers already involved with this issue many useful strategies, analyses, and an extensive list of contact resources.

As an introduction to the current debate about violence against women, TRANSFORMING A RAPE CULTURE gives readers a clear picture of the nature and extent of the rape crisis in contemporary American society.