Rape culture

Feminists are fond of claiming we live in a rape culture. The Rape Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) in the United States has written a letter to the White House, objecting strongly to claims about rape culture by stating:

In the last few years, there has been an unfortunate trend towards blaming “rape culture” for the extensive problem of sexual violence on campuses. While it is helpful to point out the systemic barriers to addressing the problem, it is important to not lose sight of a simple fact: Rape is caused not by cultural factors but by the conscious decisions, of a small percentage of the community, to commit a violent crime.

While that may seem an obvious point, it has tended to get lost in recent debates. This has led to an inclination to focus on particular segments of the student population (e.g., athletes), particular aspects of campus culture (e.g., the Greek system), or traits that are common in many millions of law-abiding Americans (e.g., “masculinity”), rather than on the subpopulation at fault: those who choose to commit rape. This trend has the paradoxical effect of making it harder to stop sexual violence, since it removes the focus from the individual at fault, and seemingly mitigates personal responsibility for his or her own actions

While RAINN may still be focussing on the the problems facing women and girls at the expense of similar problems facing men and boys, they are making a courageous stand against ideological feminism by objecting to the notion of rape culture and made an excellent point that this seemingly mitigates personal responsibility from those few individuals who choose to engage in this abhorrent behaviour.

See Also

• Rape

External Links

• City Journal on campus rape