Conforming A Rape Culture Summary

The collection of publications in Transforming a Rape Culture discusses the role that power, sexuality, gender, and race play in our society. Buchwald, Fletcher, and Roth seek to change the world that we live in to a world without rape. A rape culture is a “complex of beliefs that encourages male sexual aggression and supports violence against women” (Buchwald, Fletcher, & Roth, 2005, p. xi). In a rape culture male and female stereotypes are accepted, such as “men are expected to provide financially and women are expected to provide emotionally” (Buchwald et al., 2005, p. 133). This book is targeted towards undergraduate and graduate students, as well as counselors, clinicians, and social workers. Transforming a Rape Culture does a phenomenal job in relaying the message that we still live in a rape culture, however there are ways to create a future without rate because in our world, anything is possible.

The book is broken up into three different sections: living in a rape culture, strategies and activism, and vision and possibilities. The first section has stories from writers who have experienced a rape culture and strive to spread the

He states that, “the triad of violence in men’s sports [consists of] violence against women, against other men, and against their own bodies” (Messner, 2002, p. 40). These three actions are connected by “misogynist and homophobic [behavior] and the suppression of empathy” (Messner, 2002, p. 40-41). In past news stories, we have seen male athletes treat women off the field and men on the field with violence. Growing up, I remember the cool thing for guys to do were to brag about the girls they were seeing and calling other boys ‘gay’ if they did not follow in each other’s footsteps. This type of environment that male athlete’s participate in, is a poor atmosphere to develop respect and empathy for others (Messner,