Rape Culture Statistics

If you didn't want it, you wouldn't let me do this., were the words my rapist said to me in February of 2017 when he forced himself onto me. I've heard that sentiment before in media, conversations with friends, family, and significant others. She was drinking, what did she expect? or She shouldn't have worn a revealing dress, or flirted too much. She was leading him on. Rape culture is a phrase that was originated by feminists in the United States in the 70's. They wanted to talk about it, because they want to bring awareness to the ways in which America's society blames victims of sexual assault and normalizes male sexual violence. Emilie Buchwald, author of a book called Transforming a Rape Culture defines it as: a complex set of beliefs that encourage male sexual aggression andsupports violence against women.It is a society where violence isseen as sexy and sexuality as violent. … A rape culturecondones physical and emotional terrorism against women as thenorm . . .In a rape culture both men and women assume thatsexual violence is a fact of life, inevitable. . . However . . . muchof what we accept as inevitable is in fact the expression of valuesand attitudes that can change.

An example of rape culture is when our media has sympathy for the assailants of sex crimes. It's when, in Ohio, 2012, two high school football players Trent Mays and Ma'lik Richmond raped a 16 year old girl incapacitated by alcohol, allowed more than a dozen others to take photos and post them to social media while making jokes of her assault, others to sexually assault her, transported her around and sent texts about it, and when they were sentenced in March of 2013, CNN's Poppy Harlow said while reporting outside of the courtroom, It was incredibly emotional - incredibly difficult to watch what happened as these two young men that had such promising futures, star football players, very good students, literally watched as they believed their life fell apart. But where is the mention, the sadness, the heartbreak for the girl who has to live every day of her life knowing how those two boys, and many others, treated her that night?

Now let me ask you, how many times has a case like this happened? I can quickly, off the top of my head, think of at least a couple of other cases in which we as a culture have felt sympathy for the perpetrator(s). Why do we keep allowing for such a thing? Rape is an epidemic in our country and we aren't doing a thing about it. We let those who commit these sex crimes in any degree off with a slap on the wrist. Why?

First Main Point: Statistics

Why is 1 in 5 American women surviving rape to attempted rape, 1 in 6 men being abused before the age of 18, considered normal? Why does our society not raise our voices like we do for so many other things? If we had so much of this happening in others ways, such as carjackings, or kidnappings, would it be considered a public crisis? Probably. Out of every 1000 rapes, 994 assailants will walk free.

Rape and sex violence is scary to talk about. It really is. It's uncomfortable to know these statistics, but they aren't just numbers. They represent real human beings, some you might even know yourself.

Main Point 2: Victim blaming, consent, support. How can we stop rape culture and society making it such a normal occurrence? Let's talk about the real problems here. When a report of sex assault this the news, the first questions we ask shouldn't be if the victim had been drinking, what they wore, or even their sexuality. It should be, what made the person who assaulted them think this is ok? Lets think about enthusiastic consent. Pressuring someone to the point where they are uncomfortable enough to have sex with you is part of the issue. Look for an active, happy to do so yes. Silence is not consent, hesitation is not consent, fear is not consent. If we all developed this attitude in this small class, it could become a community value so that next time someone was raped, there will be no question of, well, what was she doing there?, or did she really say 'no'?. There is always going to be the argument of, what about 'false accusations'?. Only between 2 and 8% of all reports are estimated to be false, but what's as important to know as the rest of my facts is that these accusations never usually have serious consequences.

Conclusion

Again, these are scary statistics. It's enough to make you feel uneasy or awkward that's for sure. We have taught women not to get raped, when we should teach not to rape. I was taught as a young girl growing up to not walk anywhere alone at night. Don't accept any drinks from any man you don't know. Use the buddy system.

Speech Weavers, what I know for sure, tonight, on September 12th, 2018 is that we are able to change this vision of these crimes being ok. We as a culture, as humans, as people with compassion, we can stop the stigma towards victims of sexual assaults and rape. It isn't all bad though. We are living in an amazing time where so many people, especially our youth have a platform to share their passion. I've never seen so many women, men, victims, speaking their truth and breaking free of the silence their offender(s) made them feel. We have a window to rise up, every single victim, in the strongest, most courageous, inspired selves and make sure our window to change America's idea of whats ok and not ok doesn't close.

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