Rape culture is prominent everywhere throughout society, whether it is through social media, our social practices (language), politics, or advertisement. Nowadays, with the internet being easily accessible, rape culture has been able to strive. Rape has been trivialized, and popular culture has created a mindset where sex has been detached from any significant emotional meaning. By repeatedly dismissing the rape, both women and men have been negatively affected in the way they are perceived and through victim blaming.
Everyone, regardless of gender or age, is affected by rape culture, and may even be reinforcing it themselves without knowing. Men and women are portrayed in very gender- specific ways in media that make them fit into the common stereotype that women are supposed to be weak and dominated, and men are to be strong and dependent. Rape culture has made it so that women and men are unable to speak out if they have been victimized. It has created an uncomfortable and undesirable situations for many people, yet everyday rape culture is reinforced.
in advertisement Women are always seen posing in very seductive or vulnerable poses, and being portrayed as weak. The ritualization of the subordination of women in has defined women as passive and powerless. Women are often shown
lying down, in vulnerable, sexualized, and innocent poses. They give an impression of being defenseless, accepting of their subordination to the viewers or the male counterpart of the advertisement if there is one present. Women also often have their necks exposed, with their eyes slightly off focus, and are shown to be gentle or delicate.
in advertisement Men are presented with their face down and eyes directly looking at the viewer. It gives a sense of power and domination, showing that they are assertive, controlling, and independent. They are portrayed as fierce and in control of everything surrounding them, and are often the ones
dominating in the scene.
People know rape is not something to be taken lightly when the crime occurs; however, many use it in common conversation because it’s been so normalized through our everyday language. Students say remarks about how they ‚raped that test‛, or how their sports team was ‚raped‛ in the last match. The word rape has become a metaphor for defeating or overcoming something or someone easily. It’s turned to a term for power and domination, and using rape as a metaphor distracts us from the significance of the actual act.
Rape has been trivialized in the political world. Politicians have made wrongful claims about rape, and what’s worse is that some people support their claims. An example is Todd Akin and his stance on ‚legitimate rape‛. He stated that victims of ‚legitimate rape‛ cannot get pregnant because their bodies will shut down and prevent the sperm from fertilizing her egg. There is no scientific evidence for his claims, and labeling some rapes as ‚legitimate‛ makes it clear that he thought in order for rape to be legit, certain criteria must have been met. Not only is this offensive, but it further shows how ignorant he is on the issue. This furthers stigmas surrounding rape and victim-blaming, making it harder for victims to seek help.
Ever since popular social media sites such as Tumblr, Reddit, Imgur, and many others have come to be popular, rape culture has become more reinforced. Jokes are thrown around concerning rape on social media constantly, yet no one seems bothered by it because it has been normalized. We are so used to seeing them that they pose no offense or sense of abnormality to us. Memes like ‚the rape sloth‛ display rape in a comedic fashion, trivializing rape.
Women are hypersexualized in advertisements, meaning that they are overly sexualized in a context that has no reason for them to be sexualized in the first place. Women in advertisement are often shown in a provocative pose or revealing clothing, or both, while marketing the item. For example, in an advertisement for Burger King, there is a woman in a bikini lying down on the beach eating a burger. In another advertisement for DirecTV, there are three women in seductive poses next to couches and a TV. These advertisements subtly indicate that it is normal for women to act like this, and that women might even want to be portrayed like this. As a result, men expect women to act similarly to the women they see on social media. They expect women to be sexual objects, and that’s how it reinforces rape culture. Recently, some companies have been hypersexualizing men; however, it is still very small compared to the amount of times women have been sexualized in advertisement, and has not done much to help the issue of hypersexualizing women.
The consequences for women are the more common ones. Because rape is joked about and is often blamed upon the victim, the people affected are hesitant to report or talk about it. Victims are often immediately blamed for the rape, overtly or subtly. Rape prevention tips are almost always saying what the victim should do to protect themselves, rather than telling people not to rape in the first place, which causes a number of problems. Women are often asked, ‚What were you wearing?‛ and, ‚Are you sure you were raped?‛ after they are victimized, which makes the victim feel at fault for the crime. Because women are often shown in seductive, submissive, and vulnerable positions in media within our culture, it may reinforce the misperception that women are ‚asking for it‛, despite anything they might say.
It is even harder for men to report incidents of rape. It’s often said that rape is ‚just one of those things that guys can’t help doing because girls can’t stop provoking them,‛ which implies that some people do not consider men capable of being victims. Nowadays, people are recognizing that there are multiple of cases of rape where men are the victim, but it is still not enough. Because people do not acknowledge that men can be victims, it makes it harder for them to report it. When men do report it, they are ridiculed and shamed by their peers because it is just out of the norm. Men are supposed to be powerful and dominant. They are supposed to be the ones that are emotionally collected, capable of overcoming any situation. Stereotyping men in this way make it harder for them to admit to being a victim, but this stereotype is reinforced and very much prevalent within our culture’s media, as are feminine stereotypes.
Andrew Bailey’s monologue tells a story of a boy who was sexually assaulted when he was 13, but when he came out about it, he was ridiculed and harassed.
It got to the point where he was forced to pretend he enjoyed it in fear being rejected by society. His monologue makes a powerful point about the stigma surrounding sexual assault of men. Men are expected to be the perpetrator of rape, not the victim. As a result, if a man is raped, then it surely must have been something he wanted. If not, he is often seen as weak or vulnerable. As a result, men do not often report the crime.
The song addresses a situation where there are uncertain boundaries between consensual sex and rape, and the lyrics itself even portray some statements that rapists have said. ‚I know you want it,‛ is a phrase that many victims report their rapists saying while trying to justify their actions. It is also a part of the hook for the song. ‚The way you grab me. Must wanna get nasty,‛ are also lyrics from the song that is a case of victim blaming. It’s saying that just because the women did some provocative, it signifies consent, which is wrong. Despite this song being so disturbing in a sense, it’s still widely accepted because of the way women are always portrayed in media. The concept that women are to be dominated and men should be the ones dominating have been so normalized within our society that it’s hard to notice.
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