For hundreds of years, women have been seeking rights for themselves in all kinds of aspects, ranging from suffrage to owning businesses; therefore, feminism was roaring. When the 21st century arrived, they had accomplished in obtaining most of those rights. However, I want you to be aware of the word “most.” To this day, patriarchy’s prevalence very well exists. Rape culture is the range of beliefs that includes the normalization of sexual violence against innocent people. This can be formed due to vacuous societal stigmas, norms, and traditional gender roles.
Victim blaming is a malicious example of rape culture. The victim receives partial or complete blame over what occurred to them, mainly based on their actions. “While his intention might have been to protect women, his comments…long-standing myth that victims are responsible, or somehow ‘are asking’ for the violence used against them” (Mendes, “How ‘SlutWalk’ Has Transformed the Rape Culture Conversation”). If someone is robbed, is the victim usually told they were irresponsible for not locking their house? If someone is murdered, is the victim usually told they encountered the wrong person even if they are already deceased? If someone is kidnapped, is the victim usually told they were in the wrong place at the wrong time? If not, why should you hold the victim blameworthy if they were raped? This crime definitely does not associate with the injured party’s apparel (however provocative it is), amount of drinking, coquetry skills, or dating history. It is deplorable for you to even surmise that it is the victim’s fault for getting raped. Just because they did one of the actions mentioned above, definitely does not mean they want “it.” You must be required to grasp the fact that the rapist is the one a hundred percent at fault, and people should certainly have the autonomy to do what they desire and enjoy without getting pathetically shamed or raped. If this does not happen, assailants will receive the notion that it is acceptable to rape others since they know they would not face a legitimate number of consequences. If you assume rape survivors will learn their “lesson” after dehumanizing them, I would appreciate you to consider this. The blaming of victims is equivalent to flinging an already broken glass on the floor instead of fixing it with glue. They (the casualties) will not heal, but only get further demoralized.
Another reason why rape culture should disappear is that the perpetuation of this obstructs justice in supreme courts. The mindset of some judges gets ridiculously manipulated by rape culture that they announce an extremely contentious vengeance to the criminal. “Prosecutors filed an appeal Friday questioning the controversial 31-day sentence imposed on Stacey Dean Rambold, whose victim took her own life” (Smith, “Montana Appeals Former Waiter’s One-Month Sentence for Rape of Teen”). Understand that this predicament did not occur in the medieval times, or even the twentieth century. It tragically happened when about ninety-eight percent of you were already born. Although this judge reversed his verdict later, not everything ended well: the underage victim committed suicide. For a crime which the severity levels are homogenous to that of manslaughter, the equitable sentence should have been AT LEAST a lifetime. Just because you are the one holding authority, it absolutely does not indicate you can misuse your powers. Consequently, there is no doubt rape culture can generate execrable and infuriating events such as this.
Additionally, rape culture can be strongly perceived in an immensely influential song and music video which attained millions and millions of views. Only a couple years ago, pop star Robin Thicke released a song called “Blurred Lines” which glamorizes the uncertainty between consent and no consent. In simple words, it normalizes violence and subordination towards females. “Robin Thicke’s summer hit Blurred Lines addresses what he considers to be sounds like a grey area between consensual sex and assault” (Koehler, “From the Mouths of Rapists: The Lyrics of Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines – Sociological Images”). Due to the intensity of this song’s popularity, it is more likely for some people to conjecture rape culture as conventional. Nonetheless, you should not get brainwashed by dreadful mindsets of popular culture, media, and the things they feed you and then apply it in real life. I cannot accomplish the process of destroying rape culture alone, because I am not prodigious. The culture of rape rests in your hands, and together as a society you can stop any type of primitive ideologies that obstruct peaceful coexistence filled with sovereignty.