Rape culture normalizes sexual violence through societal attitudes and cultural perspectives that addresses the sex roles and patriarchal views.[1] Behaviors commonly associated with rape culture include victim blaming, slut-shaming, sexual objectification, trivializing rape, denial of widespread rape, refusing to acknowledge the harm caused by sexual violence, or some combination of these.[2][3]
Rape culture was developed by second-wave feminists, who were situated in the United States at the beginning of the 1970s. There is a rising and prevalence of violence among individuals ([4]). There have been many movements that been made in order to address the pervasiveness of rape culture, such as SlutWalk, #Metoo, #YesAllWomen and #WhyIStayed, these movements help share people’s stories through the use of hashtags which are embodied and connected to rape.
Why didn’t she report it? Because rape is not just an act committed by one person, but also a pervasive culture that feeds on silence. Find out more from @UN_Women & stand with #GenerationEquality. It’s on all of us to make sure every woman and girl can report perpetrators of sexual violence and seek justice by creating an environment where they feel safe to speak up: https://medium.com/@UN_Women/16-ways-you-can-stand-against-rape-culture-88bf12638f12
1 Suzuki, Yumi (26 March 2014). "Rape: Theories". Encyclopedia of Theoretical Criminology. doi:10.1002/9781118517390/wbetc045.
2 Herman, Dianne F. "The Rape Culture". Printed in Women: A Feminist Perspective (ed. Jo Freeman). McGraw Hill, 1994. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
3 Attenborough, Frederick (2014). "Rape is rape (except when it's not): the media, recontextualisation and violence against women". Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict. 2 (2): 183–203. doi:10.1075/jlac.2.2.01att.
4 Stern, Danielle M. (3 April 2018). "Embodied Interventions: Feminist Communication Pedagogy and Rape Culture". Women's Studies in Communication. 41 (2): 108–112. doi:10.1080/07491409.2018.1463769. ISSN0749-1409.
