Introduction:
Imagine walking home from work late at night, down the same usual path as every other night, in the same work clothes as always, but this time, pulled behind the bushes by a man who decided he wanted to sexually assault the women on this path tonight. Now picture the feeling that would occur if the police officer filing the report began victim-blaming, saying “women should not dress like sluts if they do not want to be raped.” Men on a daily basis are sexually assaulting women, but whenever a woman tries to bring it to the attention of the police, the case is casually dismissed and seen as though it should be let go, because the woman was obviously asking for it. How was she asking it for it, one may ask? Of course it was either
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25). This all began because of the anger a Toronto policeman had caused by saying women should not “dress like sluts” if they do not want to be raped (Ringrose & Renold, 2012). These women rallied together for a protest to stand up for what they believed in. What was very meaningful is that some of the protestors were in fact rape victims themselves who came out to say for themselves that they were not “sluts” or were not dressed like a “slut” when they were attacked (Ringrose & Renold, 2012). Within the walk, some of these protestors wore similar clothing to what they wore during their attack. Provocative clothing was indeed worn, however so was a lot sweatpants and a hoodies, or even pajamas. This was done in order to show that no matter what they had worn, they still got raped. A lot of the women in these walks also made signs and posters that they held while going about their march through the city. An example of a sign held by a woman had the words, “I was wearing pants and a sweater, and was it my fault too?”
About a year after the original SlutWalk, “Sibling” SlutWalks began to happen across many different communities, cities, and countries, containing different types of people. The creators of SlutWalk do not organize these other
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Logically, it is not natural for people to want to sympathize with the rapist – but the media is always saying, “they had such a bright future ahead of them – they made a mistake – let it go”. So why is the media humanizing the rapist? Why should everyone feel sorry for him, but not for her? This is exactly where gender inequality fits in. Rape stories never concern themselves with the impact on the female, yet she may also have a career in front of her and now because of this incident she may not be able to achieve her life long goals (Rape Culture, Victim Blaming, & Myths, 2015). This is of course because the media in our society revolves around the Male Gaze (Skelton, 2002). Everyone has to see the world through the heterosexual male eyes. Males control the news, gaming and entertainment industry. The portrayal of women in media is one of the most shameful things, while portrayal of men is one of the most powerful things (Skelton, 2002). This is another main reason as to why women have taken the lead in attempting to regain control of how society sees them. The idea of men being the dominant gender readdresses another concept that rape revolves around, power and powerlessness. The women who are considered to be rape victims are considered powerless,
Women of color are treated differently; law does not function as a social mediator between relationships of all people. The focus is on women of colour and how non-white communities are considered inherently violent. By such stereotypes, rape myths create a belief that certain races are more dangerous than others, creating fear based on the social construction of society. Using the ``Slut Walk`` article as an example: women have argued ``it is different for a white middle class women to wear something slutty and march in a parade than a women of colour.`` Due to the social construction black woman are more likely to have their characters stereotype and are seen more promiscuous compared to white woman. (Julie Dowsett Lecture).Stereotyping has even gone so far where a police official made a comment about York university students, referring to the females saying “they should not dress like a slut” to reduce assault (Slutwalk 249). Such rape myths put women on the line, claiming that it is their fault for getting sexually assaulted because they provoke men. “Such stereotypical assumptions find their roots in many cultures, including our own. They no longer, however, find a place in Canadian law” (R. v. Ewanchuck
Do you expect a five-year old boy to be distracted by what a five-year old girl is wearing? Of course not. If you were to ask a child or teen what they thought about school, they would probably say that they dislike school for a multitude of reasons, two of them being: a misogynistic dress code and the stress of balancing schoolwork with the expectations of society. The American educational system is inadequate compared to countries like Finland in which the dress code is nonexistent and the curriculum is more flexible to human needs; it is imperative that we come together to assure Dr. Anna Hinton, director of innovation and improvement, that she can enhance the broken educational system.
One of the most horrible things that has erupted from the subjugation of women is rape culture. Rape culture is the downplaying of the crime of rape to appease the violator, the accusation that the victim made a choice that led to their rape, or even jokes that suggest rape. According to Jessica Valenti’s, “In Rape Tragedies, the Shame Is Ours,” in today's world many people give in to rape culture by participating in these acts that somehow change our mindsets into believing that, “it is more shameful to be raped than to be a rapist”. Once ...
Essentially, victim blaming is the blaming of victims for the crimes committed toward them and it is a malicious act which aids in the perpetuation of rape culture. Victim blaming, according to The Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime, has numerous negative effects for victims and for others. Victim blaming causes victims to become withdrawn and not want to report future crimes because they are fearful that they will be victimized further (George). These victims also are more stressed and worried than before their attacks. According to table 1 (Lila): depressive symptomatology (symptoms of depression), stressful life events, the lack of intimate social and formal support, and low self-esteem all contribute to an increase in self (victim)
In the male typologies there are separate categories for child molesters and rapists, which is largely due to fact that they offend in very different ways. However, for the female typologies there is no such distinction, because all except one of the typologies have victims who are on average less than 15 years old (Vandiver & Kercher, 2004).The Aggressive Homosexual Offender is the only typology with an adult offender, however the victims are female (Vandiver & Kercher, 2004).The lack of a typology for female offenders with male adult victims could be due to certain factors playing a part in society. In particular, in today’s rape culture there is the belief that women cannot physically rape men. One reason why this belief is held is because society views women as physically weaker than men and are unable to overpower men. The male sex drive discourse also adds to this belief if men can never refuse sex than they essentially can never be raped. This belief has various problems for both men and women. The lack of a typology that includes adult male victims minimizes and ignores real men that were victimized by women. Not including men in the victim analysis sends the message that they are not ‘real’ victims. In contrast to that, since these victims are not seen as ‘real’ victims, the female offenders are not seen as ‘real’ offenders. By
Burt explains that “the hypothesized net effect of rape myths is to deny or reduce perceived injury or to blame the victims for their own victimization” (Burt, 217). When men get raped they don't see it as getting raped. Yet, when it comes to women they are more easily blamed because of “poor choices” like walking down an alleyway late at night, wearing sexy clothes or for drinking too much, giving a man a “justifiable” reason for his actions. McMahon also describes how “common rape myths include the belief that the way a woman dresses or acts indicates that “she wanted it” and that rape occurs because men cannot control their sexual impulses” (McMahon, 357). Chapleau, Oswald and Russel also explicate how “benevolent sexism is associated with victim blaming to protect one’s belief in a just world” (602). Benevolent sexism is the reverent attitudes that reward women who are traditionally feminine and is similar to hostile sexism in the idea that hostile sexism is when women are objectified or degraded often presented as anger, resentment or fear, while benevolent sexism is just as harmful, but put into a positive disguise, in a casual nonchalant manner that doesn’t make it so
According to Marshall University, Rape Culture is defined as “an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual violence against women is normalized and excused in media and popular culture.” In American society, it is not hard to find examples of rape culture. In popular movies, music, and current events there is an undeniable notion of victim blaming, and sympathizing with male perpetrators. People have begun to use the term rape as a casual adjective. For example “I just raped him in that game,” could be used to describe two people playing a game and one winning easily against the other. American society uses pop culture and current events to promote and justify the prominent rape culture.
Anthropologists and Sociologists of Kentucky; my research was on Slutwalk, which is an international social movement that challenges assumptions about rape culture, particularly rape myths. This movement empowers women by organizing protest marches, in which the women dress in “slutty” clothing to inform victims of sexual assault that their clothes are not to blame for their own rape. At the conference, I presented my research to an audience during a session called From the Local to the Global. Following my presentation, I received questions concerning why Slutwalk is important to sociologists and why this subject was interesting to me. I explained that I am passionate about understanding why women blame themselves for rape as well as working to change this response. ← A few/a lot of sentences are so complex, how can I break the sentences down so the reader can grasp this information?
Why Rape isn’t the Victim’s Fault Rape Culture is an environment in which rape is prevalent and which sexual violence is normalized and excused in the media and popular culture. Rape culture is perpetuated through the use of misogynistic language, the objectification of male and female bodies, and the glamorization of sexual violence. Is rape due to the own actions and appearance of a person? If you’re like me then, no, it’s not their fault. The victim doesn’t want to be harassed by anyone whether it be man or woman.
Every 98 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted. Sexual harassment towards women is something that has been around for decades, many cases dismissed, many rapists go unpunished. Recently in the news you will hear about an idea known as “victim blaming” where it was the victim’s fault she was raped, and the rapist just simply received the wrong idea, therefore letting him off the hook and leaving her feeling helpless, unsafe, and less trustworthy of our justice system. Out of every 1,000 rapes, 994 perpetrators will walk free.
Rape and sexual violence is a very serious problem that affects millions of people each year. Rape is someone taking advantage of another person sexually. Sexual assault can be verbal, physical, visual, or anything that forces a person to join in unwanted sexual contact or attention. ("Sexual Assault.") Rape is one of the most underreported crimes. In 2002, only thirty-nine percent of rapes and sexual assaults were reported to law officials. ("Sexual Violence: Fact Sheet.") Victims sometimes do not report that they have raped because of shame or feeling that it was their fault. It is never the victim's fault. "Victim blaming" is holding the victim of a crime to be in a whole or in partly responsible for what had happened to them. Most victims believe this. ("Myths and Facts about Sexual Violence.")
Did you know that ninety-seven percent of rapists will never spend a day in jail? (RAINN) This fact is depressing considering the large percentage of rape victims. Things like rape and violence have a severe impact on the mentality level of people. Their lives will change forever after going through an intense situation such as being molested, beaten, or anything along those lines. It has caused people to commit the same crime, become severely depressed and suicidal, as well as many other unfortunate events. People look down on those who have gone through such events, some may say things such as, "you probably deserved it”, “you were dressed provocatively" or "how did you not enjoy that?” As such, rape is an underexplored
As research shows (cite all above research), cognitive processes within our brains lead to the tendency of victim blaming. Starting with rape myths and rape scripts, it is easy to see how our society and culture breeds victim-blaming attitudes. Historically, the United States, like many other industrialized countries, developed from a patriarchal society characterized by men holding the power and women expected to be submissive. With such an atmosphere, crimes against women
Victim blaming takes place at school, at work, and in many more places that we visit in our daily lives. Victim blaming takes place in dress code rules whether it be at work or at school. Mikki Kendall from the Washing Post stated, “ The idea that clothing has anything to do with assault is a global persistent.” The Supreme Court of Appeals in Rome ruled that women should just wear jeans so that they couldn’t be raped because they said that a rapist couldn’t forcibly remove a pair of pants. “Police question victims of sexual assault about what they were wearing, as though the length of their skirt is an indication of consent” (“The Washington Post”
Assigning blame has become an increasingly difficult and complex concept to understand, especially in our legal court system. I associate blame with being held responsible for the consequences of one’s intentional actions. In regards to sexual assault cases, I think the blame should not be placed on the victims, but rather on the perpetrators. Victim blaming justifies the perpetrator’s actions, discourages sexual assault reportings, and can have psychological effects on the victim.