If you have any interest or involvement in
the area of sexual assault prevention, most likely you have been exposed to the
raging ideological battles revolving around the existence or non-existence of
Rape Culture and its effect on the rate of rape and sexual assault in society.
Briefly, the concept behind Rape Culture
is that society’s systemic sexual objectification of women creates an environment
that both promotes male sexual aggression and condones sexual assault. These cultural
norms and attitudes of society effectively create more men with ‘bad intent’. Since
men are the primary perpetrators of sexual assault, more men with ‘bad intent’
leads to more incidents of sexual assault. Therefore, reducing the rate of
sexual assault in society requires changing society’s attitudes regarding the
objectification of women.
This approach is Macro or Top Down. It is
very appealing to many for its simplicity. It puts the blame for sexual assault
on men. Women are simply the victims with no agency to influence the outcome of
male sexual aggression.
On a theoretical level, Rape Culture makes
logical sense. The flaw in this explanation is that it is exclusionary and
simplistic. The overall problem of sexual assault in society is the aggregate
of multiple individual or micro incidents. Besides male perpetrators and female
victims, incidents include, but are not limited to:
1.
Sexual assault among the LGBT community.
2.
Sexual assault of people with disabilities.
3.
Sexual assault of children by both men and women.
4.
Sexual assault in the prison system.
The victims in these above four categories
are not sexually objectified by cultural norms. In fact, particularly with children
and people with disabilities, these victims are traditionally viewed as asexual
by society. Therefore, Rape Culture is exclusionary in that its explanation
excludes many victims of sexual assault.
Rape Culture is simplistic because it only
focuses on ‘Intent’ as the primary factor of sexual assault. There are also two
more factors present during incidents of sexual assault. They are Inequality of
Relative Power/Control/Status (RPCS) and the victim is Isolated from support
systems such as family, friends, bystanders, and protective agents and
institutions. These three factors occur in all categories of sexual assault
regardless of the gender of the perpetrator and victim.
These 3I’s of Intent, Inequality, and
Isolation are analogous to the Fire Triangle. It takes Fuel, Heat, and Air to
create and sustain fire. Fighting fire requires eliminating one or more of
these elements. Rape Culture focuses only on the element of male sexual Intent
and ignores the presence of Inequality and Isolation as additional elements
that allow for sexual assault.
The goal of society is to reduce the
overall incidents of sexual assault by all available means. That requires minimizing
both systemic Inequality and Isolation. Firefighters use all means available to
fight fires. They don’t promote and use exclusionary and simplistic tactics
that only focus on one type of fire with only one solution. They evaluate all
the elements on a case by case basis, and focus on the most appropriate
solution for the circumstances.
An opposing view to Rape Culture is that
incidents of sexual assault are the result of perpetrators that don’t conform
to the norms of society. Therefore, reducing sexual assault involves taking
into consideration all the factors involved including the victim’s
vulnerabilities and pre-assault behavior, not just the aggressor’s bad intent.
The extremists of the Rape Culture Wars
loudly denounce the opposing side’s view. A Rape Culturist sees any perspective
that doesn’t focus solely on the perpetrator as “Victim Blaming”. Those that don’t conform to the Rape
Culturist view are denounced as Victim Blamers and Rape Apologists. On the other hand, those that deny the
existence of Rape Culture, ignore the reality of ingrained societal beliefs and
institutions that don’t support victims of sexual assault and poorly enforce
violations. All of which leads to low levels of reporting and lack of
confidence in the system by victims.
Rape Culture doesn’t take into
consideration that systemic sexual assaults requires Inequality in the form of
the availability of disempowered potential victims who are targeted and
successfully victimized. The underlying belief of Rape Culture is that ALL
women are equal opportunity targets. And
simply because they are women, no matter what they do or how they behave, they
have no ability to effect the outcome of an encounter with any given male.
Therefore, ALL males are potential rapists. All men are in need anti-rape
education.
Rape Culture effectively creates two
uniform categories, vulnerable female victims and male perpetrators, where all
males have dominance over all females.
In such an environment, the arguments of Rape Culture make sense.
But in actuality, in the high sexual
assault environment of colleges and universities in the western world such a
division doesn’t exist. The majority of
men and women have equal Relative Power, Control, and Social status (RPCS). But
there also exist some High RPCS men and some High RPCS women, and some Low RPCS
men and some Low RPCS women. Rape Culture is describing what systemically
occurs when High RPCS men are combined with Low RPCS women (Inequality) and the
High RPCS male has Intent to violate and the Low RPCS female is Isolated from
protective resources.
Violations result from the 3I’s of
Inequality, Isolation, and Intent regardless of which gender is the High RPCS
and which gender is the Low RPCS individual.
A culture that:
1.
promotes Inequality by creating High RPCS and Low RPCS
individuals
2.
promotes and rewards the existence of violating Intent, and
3.
allows for Low RPCS individuals to be systemically Isolated
from and unsupported by institutional protections and enforcement by High RPCS
individuals,
is a Violating Culture. A Violating
Culture is a non-exclusionary and multifaceted explanation of systemic sexual
assault whereas Rape Culture is exclusionary and simplistic. Violations need
not be only sexual assault. They include bullying, abuse, sexual harassment,
dating and domestic violence, and more.
In terms of the systemic problem of sexual
assault on colleges. Any and all factors that contribute to greater Inequality,
Isolation, and Intent increases the overall rate of sexual assault.
Here are some examples:
1.
Actual gender inequality increases the rate of sexual
assault. But so does learned helplessness created by intimidated victims conforming
to the lowered expectations of gender equality.
2.
Consuming alcohol by a male increases the chance of his
committing a sexual assault if the alcohol gives him a feeling of greater RPCS
and less moral resistance to assaultive behavior.
3.
If consuming alcohol lowers a woman’s RPCS, it places her
in the victim pool of Low RPCS potential victims. The greater the size of the
victim pool, the greater the opportunity for sexual assault. Conversely, if drinking
makes her less likely to be intimidated and more willing to enforce her personal
boundaries, she is less likely to be sexually victimized in the most common fashion.
4.
Social rewarding and encouraging aggressive male sexual
behavior from individuals with High RPCS increases Intent and the rate of sexual
assault (i.e. certain athletes and popular Frat boys).
5.
Poorly communicating and enforcing the rules and laws of
behavior in regards to sexual consent by both victims and protective
institutions (college administrations, local law enforcement) increases the
rate of sexual assault.
6.
Disempowered bystanders who do not intervene to obvious
situations of assaultive behavior increase the opportunities for successful
sexual assault.
These are only some of the overall factors
involved.
The above list shows that most western college
campuses are indeed Violating Cultures. These Violating Cultures combine both the
elements of traditional Rape Culture and expanded factors (decried by Rape
Culturists as Victim Blaming) such as systemically (binge drinking is a
systemic problem) disempowered victims with minimal ability to deter assaults
through strong communication and enforcement of personal boundaries.
The solution to systemic violations lies
in tackling all the factors that increase the 3I’s of Inequality, Isolation,
and Intent on both a macro and micro level, not just the factors which conform
to an agenda driven ideology.
It requires a concerted effort to increase
respect for victims of sexual assault. Not only by society, but also by the potential
victims themselves so they do not fall into the Low RPCS victim pool. It
requires increasing respect for the Rules of Behavior through both clear
communication (consent education) of the Rules and appropriate enforcement of
the Rules by individuals and Institutions.
High RPCS individuals must learn to
respect both Low RPCS people and the Rules of Behavior. The overall effect of
increasing Respect, Communication, and Enforcement of the Rules will decrease
Inequality, lower the ability to create Isolation, and reduce Intent to do harm. Thereby decreasing the overall rate of sexual
assault and all other forms of unwanted behavior on college campuses and elsewhere
in society.
In summary, Rape Culture exists as a smaller
subset of the larger problem of a Violating Culture. Reducing Violating Cultures
effectively reduces Rape Cultures, but the reverse is not true.
Why we need to keep talking about ‘rape culture’
25 Everyday Examples of Rape Culture
Rape Culture Is Real
RAPE CULTURE DETRACTORS:
It’s Time to End ‘Rape Culture’ Hysteria
Rape culture’ fanatics don’t know what a culture is
Is America A "Rape Culture"?
OTHERS
RAINN comments and recommendations to the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault.
How Not to Talk About a Culture of Sexual Assault