The topic of rape culture is very relevant to my life today because I am currently a female freshman in college where one in every five girls will be raped. Nationally, this is an epidemic. The topic concerns everyone. As a college freshman I felt a responsibility to shed a light on the issue and explore this topic into further depth. By looking closely at the problems surrounding slut shaming, women’s oppression and rape culture on college campuses across America we can see that it is not a problem that will be easily solved, or solved by females alone, but rather we must unite a both genders to work towards a common goal of reducing slut shaming and eliminate the equality gap between men and women to intern dismiss rape culture and reduce the number of sexual assaults committed each year. Before coming to college, my high school and family stressed the importance of educating me and my peers on the subject of sexual assault on college campuses across the U.S. In my senior English class, we watched The Hunting Ground, a documentary about rape on college campus. The film had insight into how rape cases are handled by varying universities and strongly emphasized the number of cases each year that go unreported or incorrectly put the victim at fault. Additionally, my high school has an annual senior seminar where my classmates and I took self-defense amongst other classes to learn how to protect ourselves in preparation for coming to college. On top of this my class took a trip into Manhattan one night to see a performance of Slut; an off Broadway play about the negative effects slut shaming and rape culture can have on young women. I do greatly appreciate my high school preparing us with this education and experience, however, I am saddened that all this is necessary. 

Rape culture is a society or environment in which sexual assault and domestic abuse are normalized or trivialized. In United States amongst many other countries rape culture is a very serious problem because it normalizes sexual assault. We turn on our televisions or open our news apps on our phone and hear constantly about rape whether the victims be adults or young men and women on our nations college campuses. When we hear this news we are saddened but not surprised as rape is not uncommon. The environment around which rape culture is created in one in which cat calling and street harassment aren’t uncommon. The words slut and whore are constantly used as insults towards women. In these kinds of cultures there are jokes made about raping people. 

I recently read an article from Buzzfeed in which described rape culture perfectly,

“Rape culture is telling girls and women to be careful about what you wear, how you wear it, how you carry yourself, where you walk, when you walk there, with whom you walk, whom you trust, what you do, where you do it, with whom you do it, what you drink, how much you drink, whether you make eye contact, if you’re alone, if you’re with a stranger, if you’re in a group, if you’re in a group of strangers, if it’s dark, if the area is unfamiliar, if you’re carrying something, how you carry it, what kind of shoes you’re wearing in case you have to run, what kind of purse you carry, what jewelry you wear, what time it is, what street it is, what environment it is, how many people you sleep with, what kind of people you sleep with, who your friends are, to whom you give your number, who’s around when the delivery guy comes, to get an apartment where you can see who’s at the door before they can see you, to check before you open the door to the delivery guy, to own a dog or a dog-sound-making machine, to get a roommate, to take self-defense, to always be alert always pay attention always watch your back always be aware of your surroundings and never let your guard down for a moment lest you be sexually assaulted and if you are and didn’t follow all the rules it’s your fault” (Broderick).

 The people most at risk to be victims of sexual assault are college females. This can be traced back to a few main problems. 

First, women in the United States have been oppressed for the overwhelming majority of our countries history. Women did not have the right to vote until one hundred and forty-four years into America’s existence. As of 2015 (LESS THAN TWO YEARS AGO) women were only paid eighty cents for every dollar men made.  Today only 5.3% of fortune five hundred company CEOS are women. This can additionally be traced back to the lack of female representation in United States government. I am in no way trying to attack men or claim that they aren’t capable and deserving of high paying and powerful jobs, however, I am only attempting to convey the problems with a lack of women’s representation in positions of power. Women’s oppression is one place where sexual violence against women stem from. Women in our country are seen by lesser by many and have been considered lesser for quite some time. and therefore do not warrant the same basic human rights men are granted. With women still not on the same playing field as men it is hardly fair to claim equality between the sexes. In correlation, many times women are seen as objects and taken advantage of them rather than people. 

Where does women’s objectification stem from you may wonder? 

The objectification of women can stem from advertisements, movies, or television shows where women are seen as sexual objects rather than people, and with harmful words such as slut and whore (Dlmeirow). When boys are sexually active it is considered legendary but when girls are more sexual than society expects of them they are considered sluts and whores. This double standard is problematic for many reasons. First, it marginalizes women making them lesser because while legally they have the same rights that men do they are judged and ridiculed in a way that men are usually not. Additionally, when we comment on what women are wearing or how they act sexually in a negative way this is harmful because it opens the door for victim blaming. 

This brings me to my next point, rape culture not only creates an environment where slut shaming is a normalcy but victim blaming is as well. Let me explain this using an example. In the past when women have been raped often time their assaultants have claimed that they “were asking for it” because they were dressed provocatively or under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and should not have put themselves in that position. To be clear, rape is never the victims fault, no one is every asking to be sexually assaulted. Yet somehow we as a society have gotten to a point where we think it’s okay to blame the victims of rape rather than their assaultants for these horrific acts committed against them. 

We must start with our own voices first. One of the most important things we can do as college students is discouraging our peers from slut shaming and stand up for what is right. I cannot tell you how many times a day I hear jokes “I’m going to rape you!” or “I’m being raped” around campus every day. I also hear slut and whore being thrown around constantly. These words are harmful to women everywhere. Slut and whore objective women, in other words they equate women to objects rather than people. In order to reduce the objectification and degradation and increase respect for women and their bodies we must eliminate these harmful words from our vocabulary by explaining to our peers that they are not funny and should not be thrown around as a joke. 

Another way we can solve this problem is by empowering women and continuing to fight for women’s rights. Along the same lines, more women must be put in powerful positions whether they be in business or in government, where we’ve already established women are highly underrepresented. This is important because it gives young girls powerful women to look up to and also allows a larger percentage of people making decisions on women’s behalves to be women. There have been several efforts recently to work towards educating and empowering girls, for example Michelle Obama’s wildly successful Let Girls Learn movement which is working to educate girls all over the country. We need more of this!

Similarly, it is important to have open discussions between both sexes. I understand completely that discussions about sexual assault can be difficult, especially when speaking to a divided audience (Bretz 1). I recently read an article in which the author Andrew Bretz is a professor at a well-known university. He explained that teaching about rape to a divided audience is difficult but it can be done. Along the same lines with having open discussions amongst both sexes it is imperative that we educated people on what rape actually is. What is consent? What are the laws? Why someone who is under the influence cannot give consent. 

In parallel, I recently watched a TED talk, “Our Story of Rape and Reconciliation.”  in which one of the speakers had been raped and the other speaker was her rapist. In 1996, Thordis Elva shared a teenage relationship with Tom Stranger, an exchange student from Australia. After a school dance, Tom raped Thordis, they did not communicate for several years, however, they eventually reconnected and have been talking ever since. The TED talk is an honest discussion which emphasizes the shame and silence Elva felt as well as the global issue of sexual assault. The topic is open and honest. Stranger explains that on the evening he raped Elva he acted on the feeling that men have some unspoken and symbolic claim to women’s bodies. He talks about his influences and how they instilled these beliefs in him, yet it was only him making the decisions on that night and only he can take responsibility for that. He explains that his actions were indulgent and selfish. The two also talk about the importance of transferring the blame from the victim to the rapist as they did by meeting up and discussing what had happened. This video was inspiring to watch and it provides hope for all that men and women really can have open and honest discussions about rape. The two speakers neither attacked each other nor were defense which provided a forgiving and open dialogue. 

I can think of two main opposing points to my argument. Recently, I read an article “The Rape 'Epidemic' Doesn't Actually Exist” written Caroline Kitchens. This article is an argument against the concept of rape culture. The author argues that “the rape epidemic does not actually exist. Kitchens explains that there aren’t enough accurate facts to defend the idea that rape culture is a problem in the United States. Kitchens says that the statistics around sexual assault are so ambiguous because the definition of sexual assault is not clear and people explain sexual assault in varying ways. Kitchens goes on to explain, “During the years surveyed, 1995-2002, the DOJ found that there were six rapes or sexual assaults per thousand per year”. The main point of the article is to explain that while there is a large amount of sexual assault on college campuses the author does not believe that this should be considered an epidemic because the statistics are exaggerated and made to seem worse than they actually are. To me this point of view is both bluffing and incorrect. Rape is clearly a problem on and off college campuses all across America. The article was published in 2013 yet the statistics are incredibly outdated. The main point of Kitchen’s article is to explain that while rape is a problem it should not be considered an epidemic because this is too alarming and incorrect. Considering rape an epidemic and attracting attention and urgency to the issue is one of the only ways we will raise awareness and will be able to properly advocated for the problem. 

Another counterargument I have heard is that we live in a society where rape is normalize so we must teach girls and women how to avoid being raped for their own safety rather than teaching men not to rape because this is an unrealistic expectation of them. This too is incorrect. The first step in solving the problem is teaching both sexes what rape is, and the importance of consent. I do understand it is important to teach women to defend themselves because of the culture we are a part of and I do think that is necessary because of the kind of world we live in both it is even more important that we teach people not to rape. 

I can only hope that one day the education that I received my senior year will not be necessary to young people entering college. I hope for a world where we are taught not to rape not how to not be raped. I hope that we continue to work towards equality among the sexes and eventually there will be. In order to do this, we must start by having open conversations with both men and women. We must not walk on egg shells and we mustn’t worry about ruining a man’s career. Rather, we as a nation need to treat sexual assault with the level or severity it deserves. We must empower women and young girls so that they feel equally as capable and deserving as the men around them, we must remove rigid gender roles and we must significantly reduce the use of negative words such as slut and whore while working to eliminate slut shaming towards women.
