Essay Three - Rape

In our society, rape is not just a crime. Through various forms of media, rape has
submerged into our culture. In the article Introduction by Sarah Projansky, the author states,
popular culture redeems rape by transforming it into a consumable product (13-14). Whether it
is in a novel, song, or television, rape is used as a theme, a plot or someones story. In the
television drama Law & Order: SVU, rape is the theme, the plot, and someones story. Rape
becomes the social experience in different situations.
In Law & Order: SVU, the show creates the idea of rape as sensational. The heightened
suspense, action, and emotion played out in media-depicted representations of rape create an
experience for the viewer to be apart of. In the episode Penetration, the plot focuses on the
case of a FBI agent who was raped. The layout of the show allows the viewer to consider rape as
a subculture. The television drama has lasted 12 seasons because it succeeded in creating a sense
of familiarity with sensation for the viewer. Through the on-going investigations, trials, and
convictions, people become exposed to the subcultural ideas about rape and its discourse; people
begin to recognize the other ideas the show attempts to portray dealing with themes such a
gender, race, etc.
Through mass media, our modern culture has had the ability to change the idea of rape
into a social experience. Through its depictions in television, movies, novel, or songs, the idea of
rape was able to conform to different social conditions whether it is economic, political, racial, or
gender. As rape becomes affiliated with economic, political, racial, or gender contexts, it is used
as a tool to represent these ideas as well. The versatility rape has developed naturalizes rapes
place in our everyday world (Projansky, 3).

Rape is not just a criminal act, but has become a social idea. It plays an active role in our
modern culture for its use in media. This social idea has developed overtime into the ultimate
social experience. Rape has gained versatility to become someones fantasies, fears, desires, and
consumptive practices (Projansky, 3). It can also be a theme, symbol, or topic. Rape has created
social and political movements, jobs, and even a subculture. How modern culture extracted
different ideas from it is how it became an experience. Rape has become modern in experiences
like catching a cold. It is a subculture, a trend, and an on-going phase.