A Few Words About Rape Culture

The following is a *very* slightly edited version of something I posted elsewhere, but wanted to post here so I can look back at it later. This was basically my attempt to educate people about a culture of rape who had never engaged with these issues before. I'll probably recycle it later. Here it is:

What is a rape culture, you ask? Well, I'll tell you. A culture of rape is a system of ways of thinking and acting that legitimize rape. A culture of rape means that people often do things that make rape okay by implication. A few examples:

Catcalling Any man who catcalls or wolf-whistles a woman is saying that he has the right to comment on her body. Why would he have the right to comment on her body? Because it doesn't belong to her. For some reason, people seem to think that women's bodies exist in the public sphere. Therefore, anyone has the right to comment on them or critique them. This makes rape okay because you can do as you please with your own property. If you see women as your own property (read: you catcall them), then it's okay to rape them.

Slut-shaming If you call women sluts and whores, you are contributing to rape culture. Why? Because you are putting women down for expressing their sexuality. When you label women whores, you aren't just talking about any women. You are talking about "those women" specifically. The ones who enjoy sex too much (or really, at all). You are separating them from the "normal women" and saying that these whores are worth less in your eyes. And if they are less valuable, it's more okay to rape these women than "normal" women. Of course, you can really slut-shame any women on the planet because here's a secret: if you call women who enjoy sex sluts, and all women enjoy sex, then all women are sluts. Hmm. Of course, slut-shaming wouldn't be quite as problematic without...

Victim Blaming This is one of my favorites. Victim blaming is when people entertain the fallacious and offensive notion that women who are raped wanted it or deserved it. People who say things like, "she was asking for it" or "what did she think was going to happen??". Obviously this contributes to a rape culture because people act like rape is the fault of anyone but the rapist. If women who dress like sluts (see slut-shaming above!) are asking to be raped, then who can blame some poor unsuspecting guy who assumes that she wants to have sex and doesn't wait for consent? It wasn't his fault, she led him on!! She was dancing seductively! Shit like that is victim blaming. In case you were wondering, rapists cause rape. Alcohol doesn't cause rape. Miniskirts don't cause rape. Dancing doesn't cause rape. RAPISTS DO.

Those are just a few things that contribute to the culture of rape. There are also many others.

Note: I don't want you to think that I came up with these ideas myself. As someone who is subject to male privilege, I have had to learn about these things from feminists. I had to learn these things from women. I had to challenge myself to really understand why this is such a big deal and how I, as a man, have contributed to these things. I am aware that many men probably haven't done all of that, and probably won't agree with me. They need to get educated.