Rape Culture: Normalizing Sexual Violence

September 17, 2022

Rape Culture: Normalizing Sexual Violence

“Hello there! I’m here to provide you with a bit of information on what rape culture is and its various facets. What you, as a survivor, are experiencing, post confronting a traumatic experience is normal. What you, as a bystander, are going through while supporting a survivor is absolutely okay and typical too! If you need additional resources or just someone to talk to, feel free to reach out to The Neeti Project."

Written By: Shashank Ramachandran

What is Rape Culture?

Rape culture is a cultural or social environment where rape is prevalent and is normalized by members of societies. This is a culture where sexual violence is not looked at as a crime but rather as the norm, through various behaviors such as victim blaming and slut-shaming.

What Behaviors are Associated with Rape Culture?

There are few distinct schools of thought associated with rape culture. Victim blaming is at the heart of rape culture, where the victim of rape or any other crime, is held responsible for the crime or misfortune that they have had to suffer from. It implies that the perpetrator is not answerable for raping the survivor, which allows them to be free from any legal action.

Slut shaming is an extremely damaging social behavior where people, mostly young women, are criticized for having "loose" sexual morals. People in society perceive them as behaving inappropriately with regards to their appearance and sexuality. A 2017 study conducted amongst Europeans aged 13-17 years old reported that 80% of the participants witnessed the use of “slut” or “sket” to describe women online in a negative light. (Childnet International Young People’s Experiences of Online Sexual Harassment, 2017).

Other behaviors include but are not limited to:

Denial of Rape
Normalizing Sexual Harassment
Trivializing rape (Ever heard the phrase “Boys will be boys”?)
Preaching that manhood is equal to being ‘sexually aggressive’.

Alcohol and Sexual Violence:

Often, female college students are told not to drink or attend parties so that they do not get sexually assaulted. This ‘personal responsibility’ tangent is quite complex. there are direct links between consumption of alcohol by the victim and the likelihood of sexual violence against them. The essence of this is brought to light by Christopher Krebs, who was one of the authors in a 2007 study on Sexual Assault on College Campuses in the US. “I’m not saying a woman is responsible for being sexually victimized. But when your judgment is compromised, your risk is elevated of having sexual violence perpetrated against you,” explains Krebs (Krebs, et al., 2007).

However, this correlation between substance consumption and experiencing sexual assault does not amount to causation. Even though a victim or survivor may be intoxicated during the experience of sexual assault it still makes only the aggressor/s accountable for the harm committed.

Are Men Affected by Rape Culture?

There has been extensive discourse and research about sexual abuse and rape of women but a deaf ear is turned by society to the rape of males. Urge.Org, an American organization that deals with issues regarding gender equity, calls male rape “rare, not mythological.” Though it may seem that rape culture is deep-rooted with patriarchy, it most definitely affects men too. People ignore the fact that males can be victims or survivors too. Men are therefore left without social support as the norms dictate that men be ‘strong’ and ‘powerful.’ This can deeply affect the self esteem of men and perpetuates the cycle harmful of stereotypes which causes power imbalances amongst genders and leads to further violence or violations

How Can We Prevent or Reduce Rape Culture?

Understand the importance of explicit consent. If it isn’t a loud yes, it’s almost definitely a no.
Stop victim-blaming by putting yourself in the shoes of the victim and developing empathy.
Listen to survivors of rape. Ensuring there are ears that will listen non-judgmentally is the only way to get survivors to speak up about their experiences.
Challenge gender stereotypes by reflecting on what masculinity and femininity mean to you.

How Can I Speak Up and Be Heard?

Rape Culture itself is not a crime. It is rather a social behavior and hence there is no legal framework in place safeguarding citizens from the same. However, if you feel you have been a victim or survivor of rape, sexual assault or any crime that has been mentioned in this article, here are some resources that can help you:

1. National Commission for Women. http://ncw.nic.in/