Gradually, more and more stories have begun to plague the news with rape and sexual violence at their center. There have been several instances as lately in which rape was the prevalent form of violence.
The definition of the term ‘rape culture’ is a concept used to describe a culture in which rape and sexual violence are common and in which prevalent attitudes, norms, practices and media normalize, excuse, tolerate or even condone rape. This is a term some people would use to describe the way our country currently handles rape. Now before you stop me, before you say that’s an unreasonable claim to make, let us look back.
Flashback: March 17th, in a trial that divided the football-crazed town of Steubenville, Ohio, two high school football players were found guilty of raping a 16-year-old girl while she was too drunk to consent, (the two boys also took compromising pictures, which were distributed throughout the school via text and email). Despite the guilty verdict, conversations regarding the case were far from over. Not only has Reno Saccoccia (the high school football coach, who allegedly tried to cover up the reports of sexual abuse) been offered a two-year contract re-securing his spot as coach, but also the female victim has suffered harassment and threats from classmates and members of the community.
Following the court’s ruling, tweets from all over the country poured in, from teenagers and parents alike, from numerous people who had no trouble placing the blame squarely on the shoulders of an unconscious girl.
In even more recent news, two teenage girls from very different backgrounds, one a 15-year-old from California, and the other a 17-year-old from Canada, both committed suicide after photos and videos of their sexual assault were distributed throughout their schools and communities leading to constant bullying and harassment. In all three of these cases, large amounts of blame were placed on the girls, which leads us to wonder: When will we, as a society, stop placing the blame of the crime on the victim?
The change needs to come from the way we discuss and teach children about rape. For the longest time, we’ve defaulted to teaching how not to get raped. We girls (although guys can be an exception to this) are taught how to prevent putting ourselves in situations where we could be raped. Discussions consist of not drinking too much or not wearing revealing clothes that could be seen as “inviting.”
Let’s think about this though; men had no problem raping women back when women still wore woolen tights, long skirts, petticoats and during a time when it was seen as “scandalous” to show your ankles. The fact that a woman is walking around in say, a miniskirt, does not make her a target for rape. The crime has to do with the mindset of the attacker, not the decisions of the victim.
We, as a society, should be focused on teaching healthy, smart decisions such as not to rape, instead of how not to get raped. (You would think considering rape is such a violent, horrifying act, that no one would commit it. But that continues to prove not to be the case; keep in mind, according to studies from RAINN (Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network), every two minutes someone in the United States is sexually assaulted.
Once we start trying to make a big point on just how morally unjust the crimes are, we can take a greater stance on dismantling our rape culture.
-By Meredith Norman