Changing Rape Culture

Changing the Shape of Rape Throughout centuries, rape culture has been persistent in various societies, whether it is from the meager boondocks or the more established elite nations, it has been perpetual amongst human beings regardless of any reasoning as to why this practice transpires in the first place. Currently, one would define rape culture as a typical practice where males sexually objectify or violate women who do not first handily consent to the course of action. Stereotypes are constructed from rape culture primarily because there tend to be gender roles embedded within who the culprit and the victim may be. Julia Serano, a transgendered activist and author of “Why Nice Guys Finish Last,” elaborates on the topic of why certain stereotypes

As stated by Julia Serano “Men can only ever be viewed as sexual aggressors and women as sexual objects” (415). This is a result of the double binds established by societies where men tend to be the predators and women the prey. However, this is not particularly true since it is feasible for women to be the aggressors instead of men. The idea that give men and women these stereotypes are mainly rooted from how one is raised to think and view these scenarios based on the cultural norm established in their society. Kwame Appiah goes over cultural norms and stereotypes in his except “Making Conversation” by stating “The recent history of America does show that a society can radically change its attitudes—and more importantly, perhaps, its habits—about these issues over a single generation. But it also suggests that some people will stay with the old attitudes, and the whole process will take time” (58). This corrolates with the fact that generations have issues changing their instinctive/learned thoughts about these ideas regarding social norms because of how one grew up learning about certain social issues. It is possible for these binds regarding predator and prey to become less popular, if news outlets and the media, for example, were to outsource stories having to do with women being predators and men being prey. All things considered, stereotypes

As stated by Serano, “Just as women are expected to fulfill the stereotype of being sexual objects in order to gain male attention, men are expected to fulfill the sexual aggressor stereotype in order to gain female attention” (418). This can result from the fact that most women lean toward guys who classify as jerks because they desire masculinity and power. Ideas like this stem from the media, like television and music, and how it portrays the “ideal man” as being one who is more aggressive than a “nice guy”, who in vice versa, treats women respectfully. Appiah states, “Depending on the circumstances, conversations across boundaries can be delightful, or just vexing: What they mainly are, though, is inevitable” (50). This relays the idea that, because of conversation, one’s perception of something could change based on what is going on in other societies. That being said, if the media portrays women being attracted to jerks instead of nice guys, women will essentially believe that it should be desired amongst themselves, and men will have the tendency to become that “jerk” in order to attract females. The media has so much influence on today’s world because everything is beginning to connect with one another, and because of this, other societies will see what women of different countries are attracted to, and thus, be influenced