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Lorena Wright
Composition I
Pamela Reed
14 Oct 2015
Rhetoric Analysis (Visual) Rape Culture in Consumer media
Rape culture is an ingrained societal behavior taught from adolescents to
adulthood. It is reinforced through consumer culture. Alcohol is one of the leading date
rape drugs at social gatherings. It impairs decision-making, sensory and motor skills
when under the influence. Through consumer media, rape culture is reinforced through
advertisements that do not just include alcohol, but also the advertisement industry of
clothing, food, cars, and even through music. Rape culture is reinforced through men
taking advantage of women in some way that is impaired, the subtext of no means yes,
and the over sexualization of a situation.
Through alcohol consumption, your decision-making skills and sensory motor
skills are inhibited. An example being the Belvedere Vodka ad where the woman shown
is blind folded. As one is blind folded, they, of course, cannot see, and cannot walk as
well as one could since sight is being impaired. Woman are four times more likely to be
drugged at social gatherings through alcohol alone than any other actual date raping drug
such as Ketamine, Flunitrazapam, and other dissolvable, tasteless substances. (Bureau)
Other substance include prescription medicine that may have been taken beforehand,
other date rape drugs may have been put into the drink, or other drugs mainly used at
social events such as acid, marijuana, and ecstasy/molly as it could cause black outs,
memory loss, liver damage, or even death. (Abbey) Although Belvedere is an alcohol ad,

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it isnt the only kind that exhibits this kind of advertising. Other examples of men taking
advantage in some way are the Amherst and The Game of Broomsticks. Where as the
first mentioned shows a man taking advantage of a sleeping or passed out woman, and
the Game of Broomsticks poster of a women in her underwear with a bag over her head
while being surrounded by a group of men. These are just a couple of examples being
shown. In consumer culture, advertisements like these are almost normal, making it seem
as if behaviors exhibited in the advertisement is normal. Another behavior that is
exhibited as normal is the no mean yes.
As advertising industries make harmless jokes saying something or implying that
no means yes can actually be very harmful. As youth are impressionable, they will take
this as a joke at first but then escalate it to seriousness. The Dominos ad is obviously a
joke, but can taken in a harmful way as it contributes to harmful behavior and rape
culture. Presentation exposes the manipulative marketing style through ironic tactics and
strategies to keep people hooked on continuously consuming these kinds of products. No
means yes are mainly exhibited through visual art media such as music. As many people
are in love with the catchy Robin Thick song Blurred Lines, they forget the harmful
undertones the song has. Saying that consent is a blurred line and continues with rape like
undertones with lyrics such as I know you want it with the word consent even being
blurred in the music video. Not to mention the over sexualization of the women in the
video wearing nude skintight suits, and occasionally throughout, nothing at all.
The over sexualization of the women in question or the situation in general also
contributes to rape culture. As stated before, behaviors through social media and
advertisements in consumer culture becomes a norm. The behavior is imprinted on the

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viewers as normal. Implied sexual references and sexual genitals to phallic objects
become what seem to few critics as unnecessary. (Greer) To other critics it is seen as a
joke. (Greer) The Burger King ad is perfect example of an over sexualized situations and
a sexual reference to a phallic symbol. It references the woman giving oral sex to the
sandwich. In this case the sandwich is an implied penis. Although ads like these may
seem like a joke, when they are in almost any kind of industry such as cars, an example
being the Pontiac ad with spreading your legs, music industry with blurred lines being
only one example, alcohol of course, and clothing, it becomes a culture and a behavior
that is being normal to see and act upon. Some advertisements in consumer media even
contribute to sexual violence. The Belvedere Vodka ad that was released on Facebook
contributes and references heavily to sexual violence. The Amherst ad, though very
subtle, references sexual violence as well. Firstly referencing a woman as an object, and
trash, and then contributes to date rape like behaviors in which a person has sex or
sexually harass someone passed out or asleep.

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Rape culture has been conditioned so much into consumers, and some proof of the
behavior becoming a norm is that even people on the internet make memes and pictures
of jokes with pictures of people asleep and commenters saying things like tape and
rape, just rape, and other blunt rape culture contributing comments. But some
advertisements have even take advantage of the awareness of rape culture. An example is
Victoria Secrets Pink, and their consent lingerie line released around 2013-14. If more
industries like Victoria Secret/Pink were to become more rape culture conscious, and
create advertisement rebuking rape culture behaviors, it could possibly change how many
consumers view rape culture and change the behavior to something that isnt a norm, but
is extremely dangerous and hurtful.Citations
Abbey, A., Ross, L. T., McDuffie, D., & McAuslan, P. (1996). Alcohol and Dating Risk
Factors for Sexual Assault among College Women. Psychology of Women Quarterly,
20(1), 147-169.
Bureau of Justice Statistics. (1984). Criminal Victimization in the United States, J982
(Publication No. NCJ-92820). Washington, DC: Department of Justice.
Koss, M. P., Gidycz, C. A., & Wisniewski, N. (1987).
Greer, Scott. "ANALYSIS: Here's One Rape Culture the Media Wants to Be Fake | The
Stream." The Stream. The Daily News Caller Foundation, 3 July 2015. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.

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consent