What is "Rape Culture"?

Discussion in 'Ethics, Morality, & Justice' started by Bowser, Nov 8, 2015.

  1. Secular Sanity Registered Senior Member

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    That 'Mattress Girl', Emma Sulkowiczis is really bizarre, isn’t she? She made a sex tape. I didn't know that. That’s really weird, don’t you think?
    The link below doesn't open up the sex tape but contains a link to it?
    http://www.cecinestpasunviol.com/



    The guy involved, Paul Nungesser is suing Columbia. [Source]
     
    Last edited: Dec 17, 2015
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  3. pjdude1219 The biscuit has risen Valued Senior Member

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    and this right here is rape culture in action people
     
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  5. Secular Sanity Registered Senior Member

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    You're a smart one, eh?
     
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  7. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    What do you think is the relevance, Secular Sanity?
     
  8. Secular Sanity Registered Senior Member

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    Rape Culture’s Biggest Victim May Be Honesty and Truth

    “All we can know for sure is that Sulkowicz had her day in “court” and lost, but because she is a woman with a dramatic story of sexual victimhood and people can’t get enough of rape culture, however innocent the man in the story may be in fact, in the court of public opinion, he will never win. Unless, of course, the media start doing their job on rape-culture file, and our cultural elites give their heads a giant shake to get rid of the irrational moral panic that is taking up the space where reason belongs.”
     
  9. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    What is the relevance, as you see it, of an editorial by a Canadian conservative?
     
  10. pjdude1219 The biscuit has risen Valued Senior Member

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    well yes but thats really besides the point, my above average intellect is not really the question here. you'd have to be functionally retarded not to see how smear a rape victim about there sexual history to attack their credibility is a symptom of rape culture.

    are you really sure you want to play this game secular. If you keep asking to be treated like an idiot people are going to take you up on the offer. and given your penchant for rather childish temper tantrums are you really sure you want to invite people to treat you as if you the same intellectual capacity as an underachieving box of rocks? but hey i'm not going to judge.
     
  11. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    This is just more of the same bullshit, PJ; look at what she's doing. Posting information without making any sort of rational argument. The expectation is that everyone else will do all the work, and she gets to sit back and lazily pretend to have a point.

    Leave her to write a coherent argument for once, and spare yourself the frustration of trying to communicate with someone who so refuses communication.
     
  12. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    Appalling, Perhaps, But Not Surprising

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    It is one thing to note that Alaska is the "Rape State"↱; it is another to count off all the reasons why this is true. Still, though, we ought not wonder about this part of the list:

    A Superior Court judge has admitted to violating the state’s code of judicial conduct by making bizarre, flippant remarks about rape and domestic violence. In sentencing a man convicted of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl, he reportedly said, “From what I’ve read, this was not someone who was — I hate to use the phrase ‘asking for it.’ There are girls out there who seem to be temptresses, and this does not appear to be anything like that.”

    Judge Timothy Dooley of Nome, Alaska admitted to making the comments during a disciplinary hearing, KTOO reports. The original complaint was brought against him in May, after the state Commission on Judicial Comment said they’d received several anonymous complaints about his conduct. One complaint came after he told his courtroom that he couldn’t “slap around” a witness in a domestic violence case to get her to speak up on the stand.


    (Merlan↱)

    Here's one more, just to keep you retching: "Has anything good ever come out of drinking other than sex with a pretty girl?"

    In a courtroom.

    During sentencing.

    Still, though, Judge Dooley is hardly alone; we might recall Judge Derek Johnson:

    A Southern California judge is being publicly admonished for saying a rape victim "didn't put up a fight" during her assault and that if someone doesn't want sexual intercourse, the body "will not permit that to happen" ....

    .... Johnson made the comments in the case of a man who threatened to mutilate the face and genitals of his ex-girlfriend with a heated screwdriver, beat her with a metal baton and made other violent threats before committing rape, forced oral copulation, and other crimes.

    Though the woman reported the criminal threats the next day, the woman did not report the rape until 17 days later.

    Johnson, a former prosecutor in the Orange County district attorney's sex crimes unit, said during the man's 2008 sentencing that he had seen violent cases on that unit in which women's vaginas were "shredded" by rape.

    "I'm not a gynecologist, but I can tell you something: If someone doesn't want to have sexual intercourse, the body shuts down. The body will not permit that to happen unless a lot of damage is inflicted, and we heard nothing about that in this case," Johnson said.


    (Associated Press↱)

    Apparently, Judge Johnson was upset with a prosecutor's request for a sixteen year sentence; the AP report notes, "Johnson sentenced the rapist to six years instead, saying that's what the case was 'worth'."

    Alaska, California ... how about Georgia?

    A state Court of Appeals judge has come under fire from Fayette County prosecutors for ordering a new trial for a man convicted of raping a woman with Down syndrome.

    Judge Christopher McFadden overturned the jury’s guilty verdicts against William Jeffrey Dumas, who was convicted of repeatedly raping the 24-year-old woman on Oct. 18, 2010 ....

    .... In his ruling, McFadden said when the woman first complained about being attacked the day after the alleged rape occurred, she did not behave like a victim. “Nor did Mr. Dumas behave like someone who had recently perpetrated a series of violent crimes,” McFadden wrote.


    (Rankin and Visser↱)

    And then let's swing back west on our dizzying tour and check in with Montana:

    A Montana judge will be censured and suspended for comments he made about a 14-year-old rape victim, the Montana Supreme Court ordered on Wednesday. Yellowstone County District Court Judge G. Todd Baugh became famous after he sentenced a teacher who raped one of his teenaged students to just 30 days in jail, because he believed the victim "seemed older than her chronological age" and was "as much in control of the situation" as her rapist. The victim later committed suicide.

    (Olheiser↱)

    So here's a question: What, are they teaching this in law school, or something?

    Oh, wait. No. Then there would be a problem with the prosecutors.

    Oh, fuck.

    On Friday, the Department of Justice sent a letter to the Missoula County Attorney's Office in Montana, alleging that it has found "substantial evidence" that prosecutors there systematically discriminate against female sexual-assault victims. According to the DOJ, the office considers sexual-assault cases involving adult women a low priority, often treats these victims with disrespect—quoting religious passages to one woman who reported assault, in a way that made her feel judged—and declines to prosecute some cases in which it has confessions or eyewitnesses, including a case in which Missoula police obtained incriminating statements from a man who admitted to having sexual intercourse with a mentally ill woman, who had asked him to stop ....

    .... According to the Justice Department's letter, in one instance, a deputy county attorney in Missoula allegedly quoted religious passages to a woman who'd reported sexual assault "in a way that the victim interpreted to mean that the Deputy County Attorney was judging her negatively for have made the report." In another case, the Justice Department spoke to a woman whose daughter was sexually assaulted, at the age of five, by an adolescent boy, who was sentenced to two years of community service for the crime. A prosecutor handling the case allegedly told the mother that "boys will be boys." Another sexual-assault victim discussing prosecution options was allegedly told by a deputy county attorney, "All you want is revenge."

    The Justice Department reported that some women claimed they declined to pursue prosecution because of negative reports they'd heard about the prosecutor's office. A young woman who was gang-raped as a student at the University of Montana allegedly told the DOJ that her friend decided not to report her own rape to the police or prosecutors after hearing about her experience dealing with the prosecutor's office. In another case, a clinical psychologist who had counseled numerous sexual-assault survivors in Missoula allegedly told the Justice Department that after she, herself, was sexually assaulted, she was reluctant to have her case prosecuted, given the "horrendous" stories she'd heard.


    (Liebelson↱)

    No, really, are they teaching this in law school? Because inasmuch as I have asserted↑ that rape culture is a term to describe collectively beliefs and behaviors within a societal culture contributing to rape, you'll have to convince me that they're only teaching this in the law schools; maybe the terminology is a little different―shredded? really?―but there is nothing these judges and prosecutors are saying that I wasn't aware of in my teens at the latest.

    And don't get me started on the police.

    Oh, right. There is that. Earlier I mentioned a case in which local police in Lynnwood, Washington, decided to take it out on a rape survivor, and as a result the rapist was only caught several states away after raping four more women. That case has now drawn national↱ attention↱. A little late for the survivor, but society has to stop doing so much to lend rapists a hand.
    ____________________

    Notes

    Associated Press. "Judge Derek Johnson's Rape Comment: If Sex Isn't Wanted, Body 'Will Not Permit That To Happen'". The Huffington Post. 13 December 2012. HuffingtonPost.com. 17 December 2015. http://huff.to/1JdpL4p

    Bernard, Sara. "Rape Culture in the Alaskan Wilderness". The Atlantic. 11 September 2014. TheAtlantic.com. 16 December 2015. http://theatln.tc/1lhzYan

    Liebelson, Dana. "Montana Prosecutor Allegedly Told Mother of 5-Year-Old Sexual-Assault Victim That 'Boys Will Be Boys'". Mother Jones. 16 February 2014. MotherJones.com. 16 December 2015. http://bit.ly/1km8IaE

    Marcotte, Amanda. "They charged a rape victim for 'lying': Chilling case deserves same attention as Rolling Stone scandal". Salon. 16 December 2015. Salon.com. 16 December 2015. http://bit.ly/1NyaD3p

    Merlan, Anna. "Alaska Judge Censured for Comments About 'Temptresses' Who Are 'Asking For It'". The Slot. 16 December 2015. TheSlot.Jezebel.com. 16 December 2015. http://bit.ly/1mpaY1z

    Miller, T. Christian and Ken Armstrong. "An Unbelievable Story of Rape". Pro-Publica/The Marshall Project. 16 December 2015. ProPublica.org. 16 December 2015. http://bit.ly/1O7rg5b

    Olheiser, Abby. "The Montana Judge Who Blamed a 14-Year-Old for Her Own Rape Will be Censured". The Wire. 4 June 2014. TheWire.com. 16 December 2015. http://bit.ly/1Ymw24x

    Rankin, Bill and Steve Visser. "Appeals court judge under fire for ordering new rape trial". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 26 February 2014. AJC.com. 16 December 2015. http://on-ajc.com/229mVsB
     
  13. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    Thumbnail Sketch

    With apologies to Shannon Ridgway↱ for borrowing so much of her article on rape culture in everyday life.

    We should probably start with the basics:

    To understand rape culture better, first we need to understand that it’s not necessarily a society or group of people that outwardly promotes rape (although it could be).

    When we talk about rape culture, we’re discussing something more implicit than that. We’re talking about cultural practices (that, yes, we commonly engage in together as a society) that excuse or otherwise tolerate sexual violence.

    We’re talking about the way that we collectively think about rape.

    And then move on to the examples:

    Rape Culture Is…

    1. A university in Canada that allows the following student orientation chant: “Y is for your sister. O is for oh-so-tight. U is for underage. N is for no consent. G is for grab that ass.”

    2. Pop music that tells women “you know you want it” because of these “blurred lines” (of consent).

    3. A judge who sentenced only 30 days in jail to a 50-year-old man who raped a 14-year-old girl (who later committed suicide), and defended that the girl was “older than her chronological age.”

    4. Mothers who blame girls for posting sexy selfies and leading their sons into sin, instead of talking with their sons about their responsibility for their own sexual expression.

    5. Photo memes like this:

    [What she says/What she means]

    6. Supporting athletes who are charged with rape and calling their victims career-destroyers.

    7. Companies that create decals of a woman bound and gagged in order to “promote their business.”

    8. People who believe that girls “allow themselves to be raped.”

    9. Journalists who substitute the word “sex” for “rape” – as if they're the same thing.

    10. Politicians distinguishing “legitimate rape” and stating that rape is “something that God intended to happen,” among other horrendous claims.

    11. Calling college students who have the courage to report their rapes liars.

    12. The ubiquity of street harassment – and how victims are told that they're “overreacting” when they call it out.

    13. Victims not being taken seriously when they report rapes to their university campuses.

    14. Rape jokes – and people who defend them.

    15. Sexual assault prevention education programs that focus on women being told to take measures to prevent rape instead of men being told not to rape.

    16. The victimization of hospital patients, especially people with mental health issues and the elderly, by the very people who are there to protect them.

    17. Reddit threads with titles like “You just have to make sure she's dead” when linking to the story of a 13-year-old girl in Pakistan being raped and buried alive.

    18. Reddit threads dedicated to men causing women pain during sex (I'm not going to give the thread credence by linking to it).

    19. Twitter hashtags that support accused rapists and blame victims.

    20. Publicly defending celebrities accused of rape just because they're celebrities and ignoring or denouncing what the victim has to say.

    21. Assuming that false reporting for sexual assault cases are the norm, when in reality, they're only 2-8%, which is on par with grand theft auto.

    22. Only 3% of rapists ever serving a day in jail.

    23. Women feeling less safe walking the streets at night than men do.

    24. 1-in-5 women and 1-in-71 men having reported experiencing rape.

    25. The fact that we have to condition ourselves not to use violent language in our everyday conversations.

    So, here's the thing. There are some who rant about some straw man indicting all men as rapists or potential rapists, but they tend to miss the point by trying to burn sosobra; after all, the indictment of all men comes in the Infinite Prevention Advice offered by police departments and well-meaning guardians of female chastity who argue that if women just restrain themselves enough they won't be raped. And there are some among those who burn sosobra who will turn around and offer evolutionary explanations that, you guessed it, indict all men.

    And there are some who would have us believe each incident of sexual belligerence occurs in a circumstantial vacuum, yet none of these can account for how one arrives at that behavior.

    And there are some who would pretend complete ignorance of their own lifetimes. Or hide behind excuses that a mountain of rape jokes doesn't matter because one doesn't think the jokes are any good.

    There comes a point at which all this is unbelievable. There is a reason I use the term rape advocate.

    When people have to run themselves ragged building straw men in order to pretend they are slaying the idea of rape culture, they aid and abet to rape culture. And, you know, a gaffe here and a gaffe there is one thing; as I've said, we all do our part, whether we want to or not. But there comes a point at which one's only excuse is psychiatric or cognitive disability. When people struggle to present a façade of knowledge in order to sit back and never write a coherent argument while complaining about the proposition of rape culture, they aid and abet rape culture.

    When you put that much effort into telling people rape culture doesn't exist, or trying to debunk it as a political conspiracy, or otherwise demand people look away, you are a rape advocate.

    So let me ask, please, that you stop fucking around with this subject. The damage you do is not worth whatever petty thrill you think you get from it. If you labor to perpetuate rape culture, then you are a rape advocate. And, you know, if that's what it takes for you to feel comfortable in your own skin, well, that's your problem and you certainly shouldn't take it out on others.
    ____________________

    Notes:

    Ridgway, Shannon. "25 Everyday Examples of Rape Culture". Everyday Feminism. 10 March 2014. EverydayFeminism.com. 17 December 2015. http://bit.ly/1YmCOqY
     
  14. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    24,690
    I see a striking similarity between rape culture and racist culture. After all, denying/ tolerating/ excusing/ redefining/ downplaying/ ignoring/ doubting rape is just one component of the assumption that women are inferior. Isn't this equivalent in all the important ways to the assumption of our not-s0-distant ancestors (and many people of our own age and even younger ones) that people of African ancestry (and Native American, Irish, Italian, Jewish, Japanese, Mexican, Arab... shit, don't let me get started) are inferior?

    This superiority complex does not simply allow or even encourage us to doubt their accounts of mistreatment. It allows and encourages us to practice that mistreatment--so their accounts are of no importance because that mistreatment was perfectly allowable, even deserved. We were/are encouraged, even expected, to exterminate the Native Americans, enslave the African Americans, round up the Japanese Americans, keep the Jewish Americans out of our toniest neighborhoods, limit the Irish Americans to careers in law enforcement (obviously we were a little mixed up about that one

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    , but after all they were the first immigrant group who already spoke English), assume that the Italian Americans are criminals, treat the Mexican Americans like dogs, and keep the Arabs out of the country so there will never even be any Arab-Americans.

    Rape culture is simply the most visible and disgusting component of the human race's millennia-long campaign of misogyny. Well, in our country anyway; in other countries they can simply be killed.
     
  15. Secular Sanity Registered Senior Member

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    Yes, differences have always been used as an excuse for injustice. Sorry, Fraggle, but I just don’t see a 'rape culture' here in the United States.

    Perhaps, it is you and Tiassa, who are in denial. We are not weak or inferior. I think we are doing great, surpassing men, in fact. Technology is the campfire now, and we’re not just joining in, we’re building them. The human future will be female.
     
  16. Beer w/Straw Transcendental Ignorance! Valued Senior Member

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    Rape culture exists more where woman are more free.
     
  17. Secular Sanity Registered Senior Member

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    No, it doesn't. Where did you get that? Do you have a problem with liberty for women or something?
     
  18. pjdude1219 The biscuit has risen Valued Senior Member

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    no its you whose in denial. and this shit again about how awesome and amazing you are as a women while at the sametime pushing that women are weaker.
     
  19. Secular Sanity Registered Senior Member

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    Uh?
     
  20. Beer w/Straw Transcendental Ignorance! Valued Senior Member

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    I'd rather be treated like a sexual object than no object at all. You don't have a clue what "rape culture" is, do you?
     
  21. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    Apparently I didn't express myself well because I don't either. It's a culture of misogyny, and unreported/unapologized/unbelieved/unpunished rape is simply one aspect of it. Opposition to abortion is obviously another. As my ex used to say (and if you've been here very long you've probably already read this quote) "I'll give a flying fuck about men's opinions on abortion, the first time one of you assholes gets pregnant."
    Sorry if I gave the impression that I think you are.
    Obviously it would be best if both genders could work as equals--which of course is not the same as identical. But after (well-documented) 8,000 and (almost certainly) 250,000 years of male supremacy, it would be foolish to assume that there won't be a backlash.

    Regardless of advances in technology, this is the only planet we'll be able to live on for quite a long time. (Simply finding another one that can support human life, getting us there and building an infrastructure will surely take at least a millennium.) So at some point, humanity is going to have to accept the fact that we can't keep reproducing without limit. This means that the average woman will give birth only once in her lifetime. A member of a well-organized society will not need to have her stature, income or professional credentials diminished to compensate.
     
  22. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    Which assertion of rape culture are you failing to see?

    I don't know whether to wonder about the non sequitur here, or the further evidence that you aren't paying attention to the posts you purport to argue against.

    In either case, it's probably a futile question. Your "secular sanity" is nothing more than basic human cowardice.

    What are you so afraid of?
     
  23. iceaura Valued Senior Member

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    The human past, and all its campfires, has always been largely built by women. That has not been enough to rid afflicted cultures of their structural dependence on the threat of rape.
     

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