TRIGGER WARNING

Assault, abuse, sexual assault

Rape culture in The West is something commonly misunderstood. The act of rape does not have to be widely supported for a rape culture to exist. Though this is a widespread misconception. Yes, we have rape culture in The West.

No, it is not a myth and I will gladly explain in great detail why. Let’s take a closer look at common behaviors that are normalized in a rape culture. This mini series will look at five different behaviors in depth, along with multiple examples of each.

“Twitter has taught me more about feminism,women rights,rape culture , slut shaming..etc. more than school ever had. Grateful for every woman/man out here challenging the dominant social, political and cultural system that values masculinity over femininity.”

Sex objects

Objectification is the act of treating someone as an object. More specifically, as a sex object. This amounts to viewing them as an object that exists merely for sexual pleasure. There are many examples to point to within the realm of sexual objectification and I challenge you to keep thinking about it after you finish this article and see if you can’t find more examples.

If you’re a girl or women, you have likely experienced at least a few occasions where you have prioritized your physical appeal to men over your physical comfort. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to look nice, the concern lies in sacrificing your comfort for the sake of looking good.

Who hasn’t worn a dress that was itchy, but looked hot? Who hasn’t worn heels that hurt, but made us look incredible? I’m simply pointing these behaviours out, not placing blame.

“Idk if someone else has said this, but the hypersexualization and objectification of Asian ladies has to do with the huge export and marketing distribution of Anime to global consumers.”

Media

Women aren’t the only sex objectified though. You don’t have to look hard in advertising to see irrelevant placement of people being sexualized in order to sell a product. Have you ever heard the expression, “sex sells?”

How many movies or TV shows have you seen where a female (or even a male) actor was wearing revealing clothing that serves no purpose to advancing the plot? Or had a scene where they strip down and it did nothing for the plot? What is the purpose of having that content?

There’s nothing inherently wrong with people expressing themselves and nothing wrong with people wearing little to no clothing. But the volume at which we consume content that sexually objectifies does have an impact on our desensitization towards acts of sexual violence. THAT is the problem. Not the content itself, but the context and the copious amounts of it.

“BTW slut shaming is part of rape culture and you just called someone a ho, guess you’re part of the problem.”

Normalizing double standards

Consider socialy normalized examples of sexual objectification outside of media. Think, bikini contests, bike shows, car shows, wet t-shirt contests, firefighter calendars etc, what are they accomplishing beyond the obvious?

Studies have shown that there is a correlation between exposure to anything in life (good or bad) and desensitization to it. However, there have been studies done specifically on how sexual objectification of women creates greater thresholds for violence towards women.

Unfortunately, I was unable to find studies on the sexual objectification so it’s difficult to say concretely what the ramifications are for them. However, given what we know about the results for women and human nature to become desensitized to exposure, I am comfortable in speculating that it’s likely men who are sexually objectified would experience the same increase in violence that women do, though it’s hard to guess at what rate.

How many times have you heard someone tell a man he looks attractive today? Or that he looks pretty with his hair done like that? Or that he would be a lot more handsome if he smiled more often? How many times have you heard someone tell a woman these things? Why do you think that might be?

“If you treat a woman with disrespect. If you base your marketing strategy around objectification. If you’re a misogynist prick. Get fucked.”

Policing girls & women’s bodies

How often have you heard someone remark that a little girl is too grown? Or that an outfit is too mature for her to wear? Surely you have heard of girls being sent home from school due to dress code violations? Violations for things like wearing shorts, tank tops, showing, etc?

Connecting girls to sexuality via their clothing sends a clear message that somehow clothing communicates to us. It doesn’t because clothing is not consent. The sexual objectification of kids is a symptom of a rape culture. There is nothing inherently sexual about a child, regardless of what they wear.

The only reason someone looks sexy in an outfit is because we are sexually attracted to them. We’re attracted to physical attributes and personalities, not clothing.

There are still in this day and age companies that have a dress code for female employees that includes articles like heels, short shorts, crop tops etc. This is archaic treatment of women, but incredibly exclusionary to non-binary people as well.

There is a marked difference between a uniform and sexual objectification. There’s no reason outside of sexual objectification that men and women can’t have the same uniform. Yet again, it’s worth mentioning that sexually objectifying an entire group of people is inherently dehumanizing.

“As gents, we need to understand rape culture. It’s beyond forcing yourself onto a woman. Victim blaming, slut shaming, sexual objectification, trivializing rape, denial of widespread rape, refusing to acknowledge the harm caused by sexual violence are all part of rape culture!”

The Next Step

This is part two of a five part mini series. Click here to read on to part three.