Does The USAti-Rape Affect The Civil Rights Movement?

Historically, the term “rape” has been mainly understood as having sexual intercourse with a woman against her will. During times of conquest, rape was considered a political consequence; when certain groups claimed land, wartime sexual violence included the raping of women. Although it could have been in the back of minds that this was wrong, no one truly stood up for victims until the late 1960s, at the forefront of the civil rights movement. This essay focuses solely on the U.S. anti-rape movement and considers the evolution of the original beliefs, agendas, and definitions of the men and women who spearheaded the cause. The anti-rape movement developed nationally, but had niche activist communities within different geographic parts of the

They exposed cultural codes, ways in which “culture instructs us to feel and act in particular ways” (Dunn 5) so that the public was more aware of their actions. These codes, if broken, have consequences, and American meritocracy supports that citizens should be held accountable for their actions. This mindset leads to victim blaming. Feminists’ biggest job was to convince people that victims should never be acceptable; there cannot be “blameless” and “blameworthy” victims. This labeling mechanism is a “social constructionist approach toward ‘deviance’...a matter of definition rather than of ‘fact’ or the inherent qualities of an actor or action” (Dunn 12). For example, a woman wearing revealing clothing may be considered a “blameworthy” victim because her clothing was suggesting. However, this assumes that “men can’t control their sexuality enables society to give men a ‘Get out of Jail Free’ card, a pass to commit sexual harassment, assault, and rape with the ready-made excuse” (Cappiello and McInerney 181). According to feminists, rape is a direct result of our culture’s differential sex role socialization and sexual stratification” (Rose 78). Because men cannot see women as human, sexual assault persists.

Feminists have also challenged notions that only women can be sexually assaulted. Although men are also abused, they are less likely to report, because they are worried of what their peers

Although original feminists did not want the government involved, this became necessary when funds ran low and more women began to report and go to their centers for help. These crisis centers became an “accepted part of service provision...as [they] adopted more moderate goals that could be translated into state-supported programs” (Matthews 161).

However, there is some pushback from government officials. Financial support is “reluctantly granted and often only after considerable conflict as a result of pressure from rape prevention forces” (Rose 79). Some lawyers are worried that women will give false allegations. On the contrary, feminists argue that most allegations will be true (about only 2% of allegations are false) because the “victim’s status degradation throughout her entire ordeal in the criminal justice process demonstrates that disincentives outweigh the temptation of making a false accusation” (Rose