The Role Of Masculinity In Rape Culture

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The portrayal that boys and men are given in regard to how they should behave in order to blend in and be accepted within the norms that are placed within society is very often a toxic form of masculinity, that which in turn grooms boys into hyper masculine adult men. This global acceptance and incentive of hypermasculinity has devastating recoil that results in disastrous self-image, higher levels of aggression, compensation of emotions, and spiked levels of violence.
The concept of masculinity is encouraged and reinforced to young boys before they are able to comprehend what they are being taught. Society regurgitates these ideologies of what is an acceptable form of masculinity, and passes them on to other men and boys. The exposure that …show more content…

This attitude begins to tread on catastrophic territory if not accounted for accordingly. Rape culture is an excellent example of this occurrence. As defined by the Women’s Center, rape culture is violence perpetuated against women that is normalized and dismissed by mainstream media and pop culture. Rape culture has been dragged on through the use of misogynistic language, objectification of women’s bodies, and the glamorization of sexual violence, causing society to turn a blind eye to the violence women endure. Rape culture is another way men can project a problem to the other party, instead of reflecting on why the problem is occurring on a wider spectrum. Victim blaming is a significant illustration of this. As explained by Rape Culture, Victim Blaming, And the Facts; victim blaming is accusing the victim that their experience was false, so others can feel and see themselves different from that person. This includes sayings like, “she did this and that is why that happened to her, I would never do that, so it would never happen to me”. It is a way to deflect from the actual perpetrator and discourage the person who spoke out. This is hazardous since it lets men who perpetuate violence against women off the hook by blaming it on how the woman was dressed, how she was acting with the man, and why was she there in the first place, rather than examining why the man assaulted the woman. It also keeps men from sharing their own experience with harassment or assault. In fact, one out of every ten rape victims is a man, and men from eighteen to twenty-four years old that attend a college are at a greater risk of being the victim of sexual violence (Victims of Sexual Violence: Statistics). However, very few will ever come

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