Rape Culture

Thanks everyone for helping to define "rape culture". So now I'd like to learn what causes it. I think it would be in really poor taste to blame women or their skimpy clothing for it. It would also be poor taste to blame men's attraction for it. So what causes it? I've lived in countries where the women wear sexy clothing and it's not an issue. In fact, in that country there were many more openly gay men so the women were dealing with that as well. There's something about the US... something in the culture... that's unique and makes rape a part of the culture. I haven't quite figured it out yet but I'm almost there.

Whyte Horse wrote: Thanks everyone for helping to define "rape culture". So now I'd like to learn what causes it. I think it would be in really poor taste to blame women or their skimpy clothing for it. It would also be poor taste to blame men's attraction for it. So what causes it? I've lived in countries where the women wear sexy clothing and it's not an issue. In fact, in that country there were many more openly gay men so the women were dealing with that as well. There's something about the US... something in the culture... that's unique and makes rape a part of the culture. I haven't quite figured it out yet but I'm almost there.

I was going to say that this is a complex issue and that pin pointing a "cause" would not be easy. But having thought about it again, I think the underlying cause is actually simple.

A belief that some people are more worthwhile than others. And that is regardless of gender, race, culture. Its simply this, a belief that some people don't deserve the same rights of respect as others.

That and willful ignorance. If I dont acknowledge its an issue, then I dont have to do anything about it.

? Jews do it for religious reasons, as do muslims. Wherever they may live, whichever nationality they may hold. In north america, you guys do it because the holistic enema-loving masturbation-hating vegetarian guy who invented corn flakes told your great grand parents they should. He failed to produce any offspring and was chucked out of his church. There are far more christians outside the US than within it, and they do not practise male genital mutilation. In the US it has to do with national culture, not religion. The majority of those who practise it there merely happen to be christian. The bulk of christianity today sees its roots in ancient europe, and the ancient europeans found circumcision abominable. Only very few christians (with african roots) pratice it religiously.

Wow...what crap! I guess I'll just disagree and move on.

Well if it's crap you may wish to contact everyone publishing it in history books. Just sayin'. Personally I'm untouched by either christianity of Kellog, so it's not like it's part of my history.

What caused it? Good luck. Brenna is right. It would be more worthwhile to focus on ending it. Personal responsiblity. We are Jedi and w seek to improve OURSELVES, so have a sit with yourself, take an honest look at the things you do and say that contribute and make a concious effort to stop.

Finding cause for the purpose of casting blame, or some other form of payback, is pointless. But while I could easily argue that studying events/history is a good way of giving "new" people "old" bad ideas, it's also an excellent way of finding out what causes something to repeat again and again.
It is said abusers were often abused themselves (it's the main "cause" for abuse). If so, the best way to prevent the vast majority of abuse from occurring is to prevent the abused from becoming abusers.

I would like to add a quick wrinkle to the discussion.

Now and again, when this topic arises, the conversation can move in the direction of free speech. Someone may argue that I, for instance, might want to infringe on someone's right to trivialize rape. For me, this is not a question of rights, but of right.

Free speech is a beautiful thing. What I am suggesting is that we can make a choice to respect and nurture people with our speech. If you understand that a choice of words might hurt someone or not, could you make the choice to not harm someone.

Do you have the right to use harmful speech? Sure. But why would you choose to hurt someone so casually? No one wants to infringe on your rights. I would ask you to choose to not harm someone.

I think Brenna's critique is sound. When we decide that one group is less worthy than another, we get things like this. So, we give our heads a good once over and we lead by example.

I want people to feel safer for my presence. One of the ways I can do that is with my choice of speech.

I've been thinking a lot about this thread since reading it.

I actually have three jobs, not to give you a lot of "fluffy details" but one is at an adult novelty store, one is as an adjunct Professor of History/Anthropology and the third is for the local PD as an Animal Control.

How do these three tie into a rape discussion? In the store I see lots of people coming in to purchase adult toys everything from vibrators to porn. Majority of the people we actually serve are couples looking for something to spruce up the bedtime activities. Sure we get the guys "who don't date, they watch tape" who are socially awkward and usually don't date women (or men) but just have an impressive porn collection. Granted I don't like looking at all of the porn all the time as I feel it really objectifies a lot of women and men too! However I also know that generally porn is a heavily regulated industry and I may not agree with "Its okay its My stepdad" as a title, but its made up anyway and do understand that those people have a job too, it just happens to be sex. The sad part is that it becomes an every day thing when a person thinks of it as "just sex". That allows for the mind to stray to "Its okay she wants it, he's wearing that because he knows I like bears.....etc" We have lost touch (as a society) with something as beautiful as making love to another human.

I had a customer the other day in looking for bacholerette items for a party and she sneered at me stating "I feel so dirty and disgusting in here." Now our shop is not a shady hole in the wall but a beautiful old store, dating from the early 1900's. All of the adult stuff is clearly marked and behind walls. All of the staff is trained in keeping everything discrete and as private as possible and our store is full of light and bright. We don't hide that we sell those things but we also don't force it on anyone who doesn't want to be back there. We believe in choices. This person last year looked at my husband while he was at his work place and told him flat out that she hated that store and would personally drag every employee out back and shoot them in the head. She didn't know that my husband was married to an employee of our store. I share this because it is a hypocritical example of how people can take one thing and justify it and then turn around and actually justify something far worse because they don't agree with it and see it as good thing to stop what was bothering them.

There are certain sins (using this term broadly) that should never be okay. I walked my horse in the local 4th of July parade just a day and a half ago. During the 2 mile walk I had three yes three people scream "Can I *%$# your horse!" I had her as a tribute to veterans as a riderless horse. The third time it was screamed was at the end of the parade while we had a lot of children petting my horse as some jerk screamed it driving by. Right in front of kids! How can we ever grow as a society if we cannot even get past the idea that its okay to scream something like that in front of children?!

In my classes that I teach, I assigned a project this last semester that was required to pass the class. The students had to take a current issue going on in the country and learn about it and decide if they were for or against it and argue why with the class. One of my students chose Violence in Video Games and Sterotypes. Her example of how we have turned such a blind eye to even media violence was a game called "Custers Revenge" in that video game (I kid you not, look it up on Youtube) Custer goes around the Native American village and gains points by raping the Native American women. That this game even was green lighted still has me shocked and appalled. Truthfully I had never even heard of this game but apparently it was very popular and they are looking to do a remake of it.

However as an animal control officer I see the absolute worst in humans, because the animals I have to deal with cannot tell me their stories in English, but I can see it in their eyes and behaviors. People seem to get even nastier to things that cannot or do not have the power to fight back or tell someone else what has happened to them. I have three animals myself that we have welcomed to our home and all three have had severe abuse to them. My retired racehorse was beaten so badly she carries scars of hundreds of whip marks on her body. My dog has a massive panic attacks anytime fireworks go off, is terrified of men, and has torn through drywall, doors and windows to get away from anything she sees as a threat. My cat is missing one eye because some teenagers thought it would be fun to cut out her eye and cut her apart. She will forever carry those scars.

I really feel just in these examples we are not just talking about Rape but some even bigger mental health issues that the country (USA and others) needs to address. Until we do, we will continue to experience the horror that is the human mind and what it can cook up when it feels the need to justify itself.

something as beautiful as making love to another human

I don't think of human (or animal) sex as beautiful. Although at least the human female doesn't devour the human male once the deed is done... Sexual plant reproduction however seems a lot more gracious, especially when bees are involved. Imagine that for humans (well actually, no don't, you've got porn)... It's just not "beautiful".

Sorry to reopen this topic and a bit off topic but i recently read something that adds to the hypocrisy of rape.

On top of arranged marriages we also dont mind films.

I read an article on the Evil Dead movies and...(Graphic comments)


Point being that there seems to be a place for rape and murder in our movies but most of us dont really care. True it is just a film and no ones actually getting raped but you are experiencing something that does in fact happen to people. Yes these are powerful events that fill us with equally strong emotions and in some cases drive the movie but are we just getting used to seeing this sort of thing? Movies are made for entertainment. So are we entertainment by rape scenes? In some cases these scenes are everything but rape. :dry:

Are Movies the exception to rape?