Kelby Watkins
11/3/14
ENG 261
J. Richards

Rape Culture in America

There are many issues women still have to face in today’s society. One of these many issues is the Rape Culture in America. If a woman is raped, she is blamed for the incident. She is blamed for “bringing it on herself” because of the clothing she’s wearing, she’s questioned on whether or not it actually happened or if she said no or not. This problem has to be addressed because instead of teaching men not to rape, we’re teaching our women how NOT to get raped. One of the things that Rape Culture claims is that the woman was raped, because she was bringing it on herself. The woman brings it on herself because of what she wearing, how she was acting, what she was doing, according to the culture in America. If a woman was drinking, she was bringing it on herself and she deserved what she got. Accusations against victims assume that clothing that is more revealing conveys consent for sex and that the only women who are targets of sexual assault are those who wear attention grabbing revealing clothing. Victim Blaming is a big problem, because society views rape victims, especially one who was previously a virgin, as "damaged.” Women may suffer isolation, be disowned by friends and family, be prohibited from marrying, be divorced if already married, or even be killed, because of something that was out of her control. Another problem in the Rape Culture is Some also use this term to describe what they call victim blaming for rape and sexual assault, by stating that the crime was caused by the woman wearing revealing clothing or previously acting in a forward, sexual manner, before not consenting to sex, and thereby absolving the perpetrator of guilt. This coincides with the idea of Victim Blaming. Another problem with Rape Culture, which is very well known as of right now, is street harassment of women. Women in society today walk the streets and are constantly accompanied by catcalls and voices of men. These phrases include, “DAMN MAMI”, “What’s your name, Just tell me your name!”, “I’d tap that”, “Someone is praising you for being beautiful, you should be grateful.” These are just a few examples of what women have to face, just going about their day-to-day lives. This issue is very important to me because my cousin lives in NYC. She constantly faces these catcalls, has come close to being assaulted multiple times. Men seem to think that by saying these things to women, they’re flattering and complementing them, while in reality, women do not welcome these comments. Recently, a video went viral of a woman walking around NYC for 10 hours straight, being completely silent, while capturing the verbal abuse of men. At points in the video she’s followed by strangers for long periods of time, being told that she should be more appreciative of the men who are telling her that she’s beautiful. In response to this CNN had a segment where they invited a woman and a man on to talk about the video. Naturally the woman was fervently against catcalling and verbal abuse towards women, whereas the man says some things that just DO NOT make sense to me. The man says, “The bottom line is this, ladies," he added. "You would not care if all these guys were hot. They would be bolstering your self-esteem, bolstering your ego. There is nothing more that a woman loves to hear than how pretty she is." I’m sorry but that is ridiculous. If I am just going about my daily life and minding my own business, and I hear comments about how a random stranger would want to “get with me,” I would feel SO uncomfortable and angry, whether the man was attractive or not. The man goes onto say that if women fear for their lives because of catcalling and speaking up for themselves that they should just “carry a gun.” Again, I was blown away by this man’s statements and I just wanted to leap through my computer and slap him and say YOU KNOW