Rape Culture: A growing threat - The Beats

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Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Rape Culture: A growing threat



What is rape culture?

Rape culture is when as a society and environment our social attitudes have the effect of normalizing or trivializing sexual assault.

Rape culture exists in our comments and daily vocabulary. Rape culture exists when people tell you not to be raped instead of saying not to rape.

It is not just the high number of rape incidents, but the inappropriate remarks about rape and rape victims uttered routinely that contribute to what is called India's “rape culture.” Phrases like, “boys will be boys” give the idea that males shouldn’t have accountability for their “sexual urges” because that is what’s expected of them.

Women are expected to be mild, meek, feminine, or dainty. They shouldn’t dress provocatively, go out at night or go drinking. Any time there’s an example of a woman not adhering to these standards and she is sexually abused, she gets blamed. Victim blaming is a huge part of rape culture and is also seen far too often.

We all have contributed to rape culture one way or the other:

Rape culture is when you ask your girlfriend to keep quiet about her sexual abuse because ‘what will people think’?

Rape culture is to ask your daughter to keep quiet, about her sexual abuse because ‘who will want to get married to a rape victim?’

Rape culture is to ask your sister to not wear something to college, because boys will get distracted. 

Rape culture is to ask your friend are you sure you he groped you? Because it is possible that they were just being friendly and you misunderstood.

Rape culture is when you ask him why didn’t you just enjoy it when he confides in you that he was raped.

Rape culture is when you laugh at it when he tells you that he was groped.


Now let’s take a look at what goes on in the mind of a Rapist.

Mukesh Singh was one of the men convicted for the 16 December 2012 gang-rape and murder in Delhi, The Nirbhaya Case. He justifies the rape on the grounds that the victim had overstepped the lines of prescribed gender roles and feminine morality.




Now, where did he get the idea that she overstepped or over spoke as a female? The idea that women shouldn’t have strong speech or shouldn’t be strong headed was inculcated in his mind and this made him want to teach her a lesson and show the victim her place. So he raped her. Rape is a crime where the body of the victim is used as a weapon. He believed that raping her would strip her off her sense of dignity and make her feel small.

Why did he believe this? Because he knew that the society would outcast her and blame her for not walking away. The scariest of all is that he doesn’t think what he did was wrong and if put in a similar situation again, he would do the same.

What we speak? What we wear, what we don’t wear, where we are doesn’t give anyone the free pass to rape or sexually assault a human being.

It’s rape culture that makes it so hard for male victims to speak out too, because hand-in-hand with the dismissal of rape as a hilarious joke goes the stigmatisation of male rape victims as effeminate, impotent or non-existent.

How do we end it?

Awareness about consent and how rape jokes and victim blaming silences the victims and discourages them from reporting the culprit should be created. If not reported, it could let the rapist walk free and could be dangerous for another person who could be a possible victim. There has to be a conscious effort as a society to not encourage the perpetrator by shaming the victim.



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