The Rape Culture

THE RAPE CULTURE Recently, I was asked to write about a cultural icon, that is, something in our society that has become a constant or standard. Fraternities, Supermodels, Drugs, Hollywood, Gangs: the choices seemed endless. Yet among these artifacts, one seems to have come from the operation of the others: Rape Culture. This term has been used in the feminist circles for many years, and I think it aptly describes the combination of several mechanisms …

…or considered the culture we share to be aiding and abetting in the victimization of women and children. Through media presentations of women as object, by scapegoating minority men for rape, by diverting women's attention from the most common quarters of assault, and by teaching children that rape is sometimes acceptable, the Rape Culture cultivates a system in which no woman is truly safe and in which no man can trust his perceptions of women.