I guess that I really shouldn’t be surprised that this comes up again. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that there’s still clueless idiots who are too stupid to see the forest for the trees to realize the culture of rape, or better known as rape culture, is a pervasive and constant aspect of North American culture. The two go hand in hand, really. And it’s something I’ve talked about before.
And we see this in another area; comic books. We have this very ingrained and stereotypical view of women who enjoy and read comics. Women are questioned and grilled and forced to justify why they read comic books. A woman walks into a comic book shop (for this shop, it may be her first time even though she’s an avid reader). The men in that shop will automatically justify the reason why she’s there. Say there’s ten men in the shop, chances are that only one will think “she’s here to pick up some comics or reserve a pull box for comics for the week”. The rest will think she has either A) come in to meet her boyfriend B) come in to see if there’s some crappy indie comic C) has come into the wrong shop D) needs to get out of the rain/snow/wind and the shop was the closest. There’s probably other automatic instances that come to mind, but for me those things are things I’ve actually thought of in the past.
Rape Culture is pervasive in every culture, Turn the Page, September 29, 2014
But here we are again because the conversation, or rather the demand, that Rape Culture’s existence be proven. If someone needs proof that rape culture exists, then that someone lives in a dank, dark cave with their Fedora (Trilby) squarely placed on their head. Or they’ve already chosen to ignore the evidence and live happily ignorant with blissful cognitive dissonance.
Rape Culture is demanding that women say yes to something when they really don’t want to because saying no may mean someone will die.
So now we have a new school shooting, based solely on the fact some guy couldn’t get laid, and I see men, boys, applaudin him, or if they’re not applauding him, they’re laying blame on women as a whole. Just like my sister’s friends did. Just like the boys in my Criminal Justice class did.
This isn’t something that’s rare. This isn’t something that never happens, or that a select group of men feel as if they are so entitled to women that saying no is not only the worst possible thing a woman can do, but is considered a form of “defence” when they commit a crime upon them (whether it be rape or murder-as-a-reaction-towards-rejection).
Girls are being killed for saying no to prom invites. Girls are being killed for saying no to men. They are creating an atmosphere where women are too scared to say no, and the worst part is? They are doing it intentionally. They want society to be that way, they want women to say yes entirely out of fear. Even the boys and men who aren’t showing up to schools with guns are saying; “Well, you know, I wouldn’t do that, but you have to admit that if she had just said yes …”
Rape Culture is an invisible evil that only a select few are seeing. For everyone else it’s business as usual. It’s normal every day stuff. But that’s slowly changing.
To point out and say that Rape Culture doesn’t exist is incredibly ignorant. It means that you are willing to ignore the injustices in the world. And that’s flat out wrong.
The evidence of Rape Culture existing is huge and it’s hard to ignore. It’s worse than the white elephant in the room, because this elephant is a dying, rotting carcass and can’t be ignored for much longer.
Rape Culture is the constant policing of women’s clothing and bodies. Those who wear religious garb are oppressed; those who wear short cut off shorts and midriff exposing shirts are sluts; those who wear more conservative attire are prudish; those who wear a lot of makeup are tramps.
Rape Culture is asking what the victim was doing and shifting blame from the abuser to the victim. What was she doing in order to get raped? When instead, the question should be, why did he rape her?
Rape Culture is Stubenville, when a young woman is raped, violated, urinated on, and video taped at a party and no one steps in to say “hey, this might not be a good idea”. Rape Culture is the parents, the police, the judge, and the school system defending the two who committed the rape when all evidence said they did rape a young woman.
Rape Culture is defending a football coaching legend instead of letting an investigation go forward into allegations that he molested teenage boys.
Rape Culture is using terms like “bitch”, “cunt”, “pussy”, “don’t act like a girl” and equating weakness to being a woman.
Rape Culture is telling women to carry a gun when the one place that women are subject to rape is the military.
Rape Culture is being a video game and pop culture critic and getting rape and death threats because you don’t agree with how a game or movie is presented and how it presents women.
Rape Culture is being a First Nations woman and knowing that, not if, but when you get raped the chances of the accused being a white male are above 75%.
Rape Culture is an authority figure telling a young boy that he shouldn’t tell anyone because no one will believe him.
Rape Culture is being an NHL player tormented by memories of what happened at the hands of a head coach for a Western Hockey League team in Saskatchewan and taking years to come to terms with it.
Rape Culture is being more offended by a woman breast feeding her child than seeing the exposed breasts of a woman on the cover of a porno magazine.
Rape Culture is telling a little boy to stop crying and be a man, while telling a little girl to let it all out and that daddy’s here to protect her, instilling the attitude in boys that crying is bad, while instilling it’s okay for girls.
Rape Culture is looking at another nation and how they treat rape and saying it is barbaric while ignoring the rape that happens in their own country.
Rape Culture is a Roman Catholic priest who has become such a trusted authority figure that the public ignores the abuses he commits against young boys.
Rape Culture is a justice system that sentences someone found with a gram of weed for more jail time than a teacher who has abused and sexually assaulted dozens of children and teens. A judicial system that believes two years less a day is fine.
Rape Culture is a woman who fires her weapon in the air to protect herself from her abusive partner and receives a life sentence for unlawfully discharging a weapon and is never allowed to use the Stand Your Ground defense.
Rape Culture is calling a woman a bitch or pushy when she’s being assertive, but a man is called a go getter.
Rape Culture is sitting there silently when someone says over xBox Live “we really raped those guys”.
Rape Culture is the culture we live in. It is the normal, everyday things we face. Most men don’t see it because we don’t live with it 24/7.
response to “Why I Think Modern Feminism Is Bullshit“
If you don’t want to admit that these things exist, that they are a part of Rape Culture, then by all means, just admit that you’re against equality and progress.
But stand the fuck out of the way while everyone else tries to move forward. We don’t mind leaving a few dinosaurs behind.
Turn the Page 