Sitthichai 1

Isaraporn Sitthichai
December 8, 2015
Professor Celestino
English 1010
Final Argument Essay
A Society that Condones Rape
Rape Culture is a term coined by feminists in the 1970s, and it is the idea that society has
condoned the act of sexualized aggression towards women. It consists of victim-blaming and the
objectification of women. Rape culture is predominant in college settings, where studies have
shown that one in five women are sexually assaulted or raped during their first years attending
(Gray, pg. 22). Pressing problems in relations to this topic are prosecutions of the accused, false
claims, and the high percentage of unreported assaults. In order to raise awareness on the
existence of rape culture and to decrease the national average of assaults happening on college
campuses in the United States, it is vital for students to understand the following: factors that
contribute to rape culture, assault statistics, and preventative measures.
Objectification refers to the act of dehumanization, and this is often portrayed in women
in the media. Female characters in recent television shows and music videos are often
misrepresented by having one-sided personalities and/or are overly sexualized (e.g. Megan Fox
in Transformer; women in Robin Thickes Blurred Lines music video; etc). The news coverage
can also misrepresent women; for instance, people are more likely to know the name of one of
the Kardashians than they are of women like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who serves the U.S. Supreme
Court.

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Social media sites such as Facebook and Instragram majorly contribute to objectification.
The article What You Need to Know About Rape Culture tells a story about Jada, a high school
girl that went to a party and blacked out after consuming a spiked drink. After raping her, the
boys at the party took pictures of her unconscious body and shared it among their friends on the
internet. They captioned the picture #JadaPose in relations to the way her body looked in the
picture, and it went viral on the web. She became a laughing stock in her peer group and the
social media community. To mock such a serious offense showed that people have objectified
Jada, and treated her like she was not a real person.
Objectification is dangerous because it influences how people view and treat women in
reality, and it plays a huge role in the perpetuation of rape culture. It is important to learn that
women are not items used for pleasure nor are they derived of personality and character. To stop
objectification, one can simply give attention to how the media portray women and speak out on
it. It is also vital to discourage the mocking of sexual and/or rape assaults.
Another factor that contributes to rape culture is victim-blaming. In cases of rape
assaults, people often question what the victims have done in order for the assault to have taken
place. Common examples of this are when people ask what was she/he wearing? or was
alcohol involved? These questions show that society has conformed itself to view the victim as
wrongdoers and the consequences can be very detrimental. For example, in a court trial setting, it
is important that jurors are not stigmatizing the situation in the perpetrators favor. By
subconsciously shaming the victim, proper prosecutions cannot be given out, which further
decreases the chance of future assault reports.
Jessica Valenti, the author of the article In Rape Tragedies, The Shame is Ours,
passionately argued against victim-shaming. In the aforementioned article, she described the

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story of two unrelated cases in which two students committed suicide because of victim-blaming.
Rehtaeh Parson, 17 years old at the time of her death, hanged herself as a result of being labeled
a slut after having been raped by four boys at a party. Audrie Pott, 16 years old, killed herself
eight days after a similar situation to that of Parsons. Unfortunately, these cases are not
uncommon. In order to stop victim-blaming, one can start by directing their attention towards the
perpetrators behavior and action, rather than the victims. It is also important to learn the names
of victims and to not hide their struggles by stigmatizing their experiences as something that is to
be ashamed of.
As previously stated, the national statistics is one in five women will either be sexually
assaulted or raped during their first years attending college. A statement that often counters this
is: simply not true. In the article, The Rape Culture Lie, Heather Wilhelm debunked the idea
that the statistics for sexual assault and rape is real, which is the most common and most
prevailing argument against the existence of Americas rape culture. Her main points include the
contents of sexual assault surveys and the creation of fictional rapes which is, in other words,
lying and reporting someone even if they did not actually commit a rape crime. Ms. Wilhelm
concluded in the article: [the term rape culture] dodges logical bullets, performs backflips
around statistical cannonballs, and waltzes right through ground-leveling factual nuclear
bombs And once its settled in, its hard to pry it out (pg. 25).
While it seemed like Ms. Wilhelm made a sound argument to her intended audience, she
actually failed to provide proofs and excused her logic as common sense. She also failed to
consider several important factors. For example, sexual assault statistics often correlate to one
another in relations to what is being reported. RAINN, the nations largest anti-sexual assault
organization, referenced five sources when they gave the statistics: a chilling average of 68% of

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sexual assaults is not reported to the police. Although Ms. Wilhelm refutes studies and surveys
by their contents, it is still undeniably true that a large number of women have experienced a
situation in which they felt like they were assaulted. Denying the existence of rape culture only
further increases unreported incidents. Furthermore, a mere two percent of reported crimes
actually lead to a felony conviction (RAINN) so the percentage of wrong prosecutions, by
default, is less than two percent of all sexual crimes.
Esquire and Cosmopolitan, the former being a mens magazine and the latter an
international womens fashion magazine, conducted an interesting survey that showed males and
females perspective on what is considered appropriate behaviors in relations to encountering a
sexual situation. Example questions stemmed from the articles include: [i]n your opinion,
which of the following physical acts constitutes to rape, [d]o you believe that requiring
someone to attain affirmative consent prior to having sex is a realistic expectation, [d]o you
consider yourself to be a feminist (Sex and America, pg. 82). An informational quote from the
survey that shows the differentiation between mens and womens experiences is:
It gets weird when we talk about sexual harassment not because men and
women define it differently but because women say they witness and
experience it all the time and men tend to say they only hear about it. It gets weird
when we bring up sexual violence not because we cant agree on what it
means but because women think its happening far more frequently than men
do Our survey shows that these gaps in perception between women and men
persist and may, in some cases, explain the current tensions between the sexes.
(Sex and America, pg. 84)

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Rape and sexual assault statistics prove that the existence of rape culture is real. Surely,
there are skewed studies, but in one way or another, many of them correlate to each other. It is
undisputable that the percentage for unreported assaults is high, and numbers of fair trials is less
than should be. In regards to Wilhelms former statement: the term rape culture should be hard to
pry out. The topic is often stigmatized; it is time to change that.
As stated throughout the essay, there are many preventative measures to stop rape culture.
Things such as speaking out on objectification, victim-shaming, and becoming educated in
sexual assault statistics and its counter arguments. Small changes like these can help shape
society in due time, but a drastic measure is also needed. In order to decrease the overall chance
of rapes and sexual assaults from happening is by redefining it.
Jed Rubenfeld, a Yale Law School professor and the author of the article Redefining
Rape, introduced the very idea. He argued that the current definition of rape is counterproductive and is the very result of unreported incidents and the rise of improper prosecutions.
Mr. Rubenfeld gave examples of current sexual assault definitions to prove its misrepresentation.
For instance: any nonconsensual sexual contact, where consent must be a prior unambiguous
agreement to each specific touching, whether or not consented to in the past (pg. 28) can be
countered by a hypothetical situation in which two students with past romantic experiences are
unable to touch each other without verbal consent, because one would then be committing a
sexual assault.
Mr. Rubenfeld presented four steps to improve this dilemma:
First, clear up the rules: sex is rape when procured by violence, threat, physical
incapacitation, drugging or intoxication so great that the victim didnt know what
was happening. Second, at fraternities or similar houses, anyone who knows that

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another person is having sex with someone incapacitated by alcohol (or
surreptitiously drugged) should be subject to discipline if he does nothing to try to
stop it. Third, rape complaints should be heard by independent, trained
professionals instead of school administrators. Finally, when one student is
accused by more than one complainant, special procedures should be triggered
and students strongly encouraged to go to the police. (pg. 28)
Individually, these steps have equal merit, but the fourth step shows great importance.
According to RAINN, 90% of rapes on college campuses are committed by just 3% of college
men that are repeated offenders. Changing the definition on what is considered rape will be
beneficial, because it is something that people will have a general consensus on. Furthermore, a
firm definition will make it easier for actual perpetrators to face time, while the falsely accused
can be given proper prosecutions.
There is a general and moral agreement that rape is wrong. Simple, and yet, there is an
outbreak of rape and sexual assaults happening on college campuses. This topic has been
discussed for decades without coming near to any kind of conclusion, which raises some crucial
questions: why are victims given sympathy only when people are asked to consider if they were
their sisters, or mothers, or lovers? Why should one have to go through the experience
themselves to learn to care about this subject? Why are sexual assault victims afraid to speak out,
albeit, victims of different situations (e.g. a car crash) are allowed such freedom?
It is a dire need for college students, while they are receiving and retaining knowledge
that they are also socially aware of ongoing issues and why they exist in the first place.
Objectification exists due to the medias portrayal of women, and victim-shaming exists due to

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peoples lack of empathy. Statistics exists to show the reality of an issue. Preventative measures
exist and are considered, but never taken into actual account.
The shift from high school to college gives students the chance to formulate questions
towards society without discipline, and to change societys perception on rape culture, one must
also understand the price of ignorance.

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Works Cited
Gray, Eliza. "The College Town Of Missoula, Mont., Saw At Least 80 Reported Rapes Over
Three Years, Earning It The Name America's Rape Capital. But The Nickname Has It
Wrong. Missoula Isn't Special; It Is Fairly Average. The Truth Is, For Young Women,
America's... (Cover Story)." Time 183.20 (2014): 20-27. Academic Search Premier. Web.
19 Oct. 2015. 22.
Maxwell, Zerlina. "What You Need To Know About Rape Culture." Essence 45.7 (2014):
78. Academic Search Premier. Web. 7 Oct. 2015.
"Reporting Rates | RAINN | Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network." Reporting Rates |
RAINN | Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. 2009. Web. 6 Dec. 2015.
Rubenfeld, Jed. "Redefining Rape. Time 183.20 (2014): 28. Academic Search Premier. Web. 19
Oct. 2015. 28.
"Sex And America." Esquire (2015): 82-84. Academic Search Premier. Web. 23 Oct. 2015. 82.
84.
Valenti, Jessica. "In Rape Tragedies, The Shame Is Ours." Nation 296.18 (2013): 10. Academic
Search Premier. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.
Wilhelm, Heather. "The 'Rape Culture' Lie." Commentary 139.3 (2015): 24-29. Academic Search
Premier. Web. 19 Oct. 2015. 25.