Rape Culture is more than overt sexual violence, it is comprised of cultural and societal norms that allow for grooming, exploitation, assault, and rape to be perpetrated with little to no consequences for the perpetrators. As mentioned in the quoted definitions, responsibility is unjustly placed on victims/survivors to prevent harm. It is upheld by many institutional failings like those of the criminal justice system, churches, and academic leaders.
Rape culture normalizes assault by protecting perpetrators instead of survivors. Rape and sexual assault is also normalized when it is used by authors as character growth for their fictional characters.
Although many conversations around Rape Culture center cisgender women, it is important to note that other demographics of individuals are affected by Rape Culture as well. RAINN reports that about 60,000 children are sexually assaulted every year. There are staggering rates of sexual violence against individuals who identify as trans and non-binary. LGBTQ+ individuals face higher rates of sexual violence than their cisgender and heterosexual counterparts.
It is crucial that conversations about Rape Culture and sexual violence be broader than just cisgender women in order to make lasting cultural change. There are links for the articles these quotes came from and additional resources on Rape Culture and statistics on sexual violence at the link in my bio. Future posts will explore the intersection between Rape Culture and Purity Culture.
Rape Culture:
https://time.com/40110/rape-culture-is-real/
Statistics on sexual violence:
https://www.rainn.org/statistics/scope-problem
https://www.csbsju.edu/chp/health-promotion/sexual-violence/rape-culture
https://vawnet.org/sc/serving-trans-and-non-binary-survivors-domestic-and-sexual-violence/violence-against-trans-and
https://www.hrc.org/resources/sexual-assault-and-the-lgbt-community
