Mythology Of Rape

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"Rape myths are attitudes and generally false beliefs about rape that are widely and persistently held, and that serve to deny and justify male sexual aggression against women" (Lonsway and Fitzgerald, 1994:133). These false beliefs can be about rape itself, rape victims, or rapists. People learn rape myths in the same way that they acquire other attitudes and beliefs - through friends, family, movies, from the media and so on. These myths are a mechanism which are used to justify or dismiss incidents of rape and sexual assault. They often shift the blame of rape from the offender to the victim which is unjust and harmful to the victim; but it also avoids confronting the realities of rape and sexual assault in society. These myths impair societies …show more content…

The issue with victim blaming in incidents of acquaintance rape is that that the victim has often engaged in some sort of voluntary interaction. This seems to allow people to make assumptions that the victim consented. "The problem is determining whether a 'real' rape occurred then becomes perceiving that the voluntary interaction ended and coercion began" (Burt, 1998: 130). The National Crime Victimization Survey (N.C.V.S.) reported that stranger rape accounts for only 22% of all sexual assaults, meaning the majority of assaults are committed by an acquaintance (Mallicoat, 2015). There is still confusion around the legal definition of rape and the myths associated with it. It has historically generated much debate, particularly in relation to acquaintance rape and rape within marriage. Up until recently it excluded marital partners and some victims are still unsure about spousal rape. It was only in 1991 that rape within marriage became illegal within the common law system (Silvestri and Crowther-Dowey, 2014). Within marital rape it is easy for victims to disassociate themselves with the term rape and in turn blame themselves due to their own perceptions of what rape is, which often come from persistent rape …show more content…

This ideology enforces the idea that rape victims deserve their misfortune because it reflects their bad behaviour; reaffirming other individuals false sense of security that they are somehow immune to rape. Burt (1991) also made note of this myth that only 'certain types of women' get raped, primarily women with 'bad reputations'. Walklate (2001) claims that women on the jury or elsewhere often believe that 'they would not let rape happen to them' or that 'they would never get themselves into such a situation' - this also ties in with the 'just world' theory many people choose to believe. "Any group of women stereotyped as being sexually active outside of marriage...run the risk of being dismissed as unworthy of the law's protection or sympathetic concern when they press a charge of rape" (Burt, 1991:133). Women who are stereotyped within this group are often questioned on whether it was 'real' rape, particularly women who wore revealing clothing or acted promiscuously. Prostitutes in particular were treated by many as if their claim of rape was implausible - "prostitutes are a special case of open territory victim, so devalued that many people believe that prostitutes cannot be raped" (Silbert, 1988, cited in Burt, 1991:133). On a whole women do

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