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This Is Rape Culture
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<h1 id="this-is-rape-culture">This Is Rape Culture</h1>
<p>In the last couple of years, I've been interacting with folks who take a more
active hand in gender and social issues, and it's changed the way I see the
word “rape.” It didn't entirely make sense to me how so many people could be
self-identified victims of rape culture while so few people are, even in a
euphemistic way, identifiable as rapists, so I dug a bit at my assumptions.</p>
<p>Growing up immersed in what I now recognize as the early stages of modern
“news” culture, rape was always reported as a violent act. Something so black
and white that if you committed rape, you would know yourself to be a rapist.
Media descriptions of rape and of rapists focussed on acts of overt violence:
“she was in the wrong neighbourhood and got raped at knifepoint,” “held down
and raped,” and so on.</p>
<p>Reading more recent postings on the idea of “rape culture,” however, paints a
very different picture of the same word. “Raped at a party,” “too drunk to
consent,” and other depictions of rape as an act of exploitation (or,
appallingly, convenience or indifference) rather than violence.</p>
<p>Let me be perfectly clear here: without <em>active consent</em>, any sexual contact
is rape or is on the road to it. In that sense, violence, exploitation,
intoxication and other forms of coercion are interchangeable and equally vile.</p>
<p>However, when the public idea of rape is limited to rapes with overt violence,
it's really easy to excuse non-violent coerced sex as “not really rape.” After
all, you didn't hit her, did you? She never said <em>no</em> and <em>meant it</em>, right?</p>
<p>I don't know what I'm going to do with this insight, yet, but I think it's an
important piece towards educating the next generation to be more awesome and
less dangerous to each other and un-learning any bad habits and beliefs I
already have.</p>
<p>Relevant reading:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://captainawkward.com/2012/08/07/322-323-my-friend-group-has-a-case-of-the-creepy-dude-how-do-we-clear-that-up/">“My friend group has a case of Creepy Dude,” by Captain
Awkward</a>
(which also reminded me that it's possible to be a creep to your girlfriend)</li>
<li><a href="http://yesmeansyesblog.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/meet-the-predators/">“Meet the Predators,” from the fantastic Yes Means Yes</a>, cited in the Captain Awkward article but worth a read on its own well-researched merits.</li>
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