America Is A "Rape Culture"

I think I should also define culture, just to get that out of the way. The definition of "Culture" is a refined understanding or appreciation of this. I argue that if something is deemed not socially accepted (ie can't do or say something without being ridiculed by the majority of people for saying or doing that thing) then it isn't culture. Now since I'm attempting to prove a negative I'll have to use facts that go against my argument that I'll refute. According to Marshal University, here are examples of Rape Culture. I've also excluded a few points made by the website that were centered around stereotypes of women and men, and since stereotypes of men and women are so blatantly incorrect (seeing as the majority of humans fall into those two categories) they wouldn't make much of a difference in culture. It should be also said that the same article is quoted saying " Most women and girls live in fear of rape. Men, in general, do not. That’s how rape functions as a powerful means by which the whole female population is held in a subordinate position to the whole male population, even though many men don’t rape, and many women are never victims of rape. " This never references male, transgender, or agender victims of sexual violence since apparently none of those individuals should worry about it. My commentary will be in italics. Blaming the victim (“She asked for it! ”) While blaming the victim is something that encourages rape and puts down the victim, people ridicule those that actually say things like that. Trivializing sexual assault (“Boys will be boys! ") Same as above. It is a negative thing, but people that trivialize sexual assault are always labeled as regressive and idiotic. Sexually explicit jokes This one is just absurd. While jokes that actually trivialize rape ("It's not rape if you yell surprise" "rape is a struggle snuggle" etc) are actually pretty messed up and not funny, sexually explicit jokes that never reference a lack of consent wouldn't ever encourage sexual violence. I'd even say the jokes about rape wouldn't encourage rape either. More on that later. Tolerance of sexual harassment Again, this isn't something socially accepted and is also overly general. Since sexual harassment is illegal and can ruin a perpetrator's personal life as well as their career (see Sam Pepper, Bill Cosby, R. Kelly) Inflating false rape report statistics How this promotes rape, I have no idea. While inflating statistics is dishonest and terrible thing to do, I don't see how this could encourage sexual violence. Publicly scrutinizing a victim’s dress, mental state, motives, and history Once again, this isn't something that's socially accepted. The majority of people that hear someone saying that the victim's clothing meant they were asking for it would refute it, since it's idiotic reasoning. Gratuitous gendered violence in movies and television I'm assuming this means violence against women in movies and television. Refusing to take rape accusations seriously This one is absurd, since rape accusations are portrayed in the media as rape prosecutions. Many people have been accused and found innocent, yet their lives are ruined by the ordeal. HG Legal Resources is quoted saying " . .. the consequences of a false report of rape can be devastating to the life of the one accused. Often, the mere suggestion that a person has done something is enough to convict them in the court of public opinion. With websites that feature arrest mug shots and identify charges, there is no way for a wrongfully accused person to protect their reputation. This can have life changing effects, lead to loss of employment opportunities, public ridicule, and emotional harm. " How are rape accusations not taken seriously in our culture if that's what happens to someone that's accused of rape and found innocent? Assuming only promiscuous women get raped Again, I fail to see how this could possibly be connected to encouragement of rape. It's indeed a misconception of rape, but not one that would make the crime seem any more appealing. Assuming that men don’t get raped or that only “weak” men get raped I find it interesting that they would include this, since earlier they said rape culture affected women substantially more than men. This is another legitimate point, but I don't see how this encourages the crime of rape or sexual harassment. Teaching women to avoid getting raped instead of teaching men not to rape This is the most absurd of all the claims made, since rape is obviously not accepted in any way. It's illegal! Not only that, but it's one of the most serious crimes someone can commit! Also, education isn't going to stop rape. If someone is the type of individual that would rape another person then they most likely aren't reasonable or empathetic. Sadly, the Marshal University article was the only detailed description of rape culture that was a trustworthy website, not a Tumblr blog. RAINN Article I used to fact check the Marshal University Article: . https://rainn.org...Marshal University article: . http://www.marshall.edu... HG Legal Resources article I quoted: . http://www.hg.org...