Addressing Rape Culture: Victim Blaming and Stereotypes

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We live in a world where we care more about a rape victim 's clothes than the fact that they were assaulted and it’s time we address that. No one cares about rape victims today. It’s old news; nothing but some exaggerated tale crafted by the dreaded feminazi. These cases are all too easy to dismiss―we have lots of practice at it. For example we’ve coined many phrases such as: they could have fought back. They should have walked a different street. They’re lying. Men can’t be raped they can defend themselves. Even when we try to gain sympathy for these victims we dehumanize them. We should never think of women as our sisters and mothers before thinking of them as human beings. We should never think of anyone as just another rape case.

It’s …show more content…

This is evident in the voices of the victims, who we never allow to speak. It manifests in our own silence as well. No one is the first to admit that they are part of the problem. The everyday person is not a rapist. But they could be the marketing team who uses a woman as an advertising technique, who sells their bodies like a product. They could even be in the top 100 list on iTunes, hiding ugly words behind a catchy melody. The obvious example here is Robin Thicke’s popular Blurred Lines. In which he intentionally degrades women in the most taboo ways possible because he is “the perfect [guy] to make fun of this”. Apparently being married with kids qualifies you to degrade women. You’ve proved that you 're not completely despicable so you get to do whatever you like. It’s not bad enough that one man believes he can get away with this behaviour, but imagine the effect of millions of listeners hearing the lyrics “I know you want it” everyday on the radio and associating it with a song they really like. That message won’t come off as negative to them. It will excuse a harmful ideology in their minds. They will find reasons to justify why they like that song, ignoring the fact that it promotes a dangerous message. Robin Thicke is not the only one guilty of doing this. Turn on the radio for ten minutes and that fact becomes obvious. Imagine the effect of us constantly convincing ourselves that this is excusable. Eventually these themes move …show more content…

A poll by The Atlantic shows that most college presidents know that rape is prevalent in U.S colleges. But yet, they refuse to admit that it might be an issue in their own. They do, however, believe they do a good job providing for rape victims. How can you believe that you are competent enough to solve a problem you don’t even recognize exists in your school? As long as the fine print states that their college gets an A+ score in rape prevention then who cares about the hundreds of victims left to figure it out? Students have to go through great lengths just to gain recognition of the problem. Emma Sulkowicz carried her mattress around her campus until her graduation and her rapist still was not prosecuted. Anna from the previously mentioned case spoke out about her rapist and received threats rather than support because she accused a popular senior football player. Her school is trying its best to silence the whole

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