About

"Rape Culture" is the concept that sexual assault and rape is normalized or encouraged by society through biases regarding sex and gender, including forms of victim blaming like "slut shaming." The theory has been hotly debated within and outside of feminist academic circles over what constitutes rape culture and whether it is overemphasized as a cause of rape in Western society.

Origin

On October 31st, 1974, the book Rape: The First Sourcebook for Women by New York Radical Feminists was released, which contained the first published use of the phrase. In 1975, the documentary film Rape Culture was released, which investigates the concept cultural normalization of rape of men and women (shown below).

Spread

On November 26th, 2001, The Michigan Daily^[3] published an article titled "Fraternities and a heightened rape culture." On March 4th, 2008, YouTuber Tyler Funk uploaded a video titled "Rape Culture Warning: Contains Potential PTSD Triggers," which contained a series of video clips with voice-over narration about rape culture (shown below, left). On December 12th, 2012, feminist comedian Jamie Kilstein uploaded a video of his stand-up titled "Rape Culture and Glenn Beck Doesn't Like Me" (shown below, right).

On March 20th, 2013, YouTuber Laci Green uploaded a video titled "WTF Happened in Steubenville?", which argued that the events surrounding the Steubenville rape case were evidence of a pervasive rape culture (shown below).

Critcism

On October 25th, 2013, The Amazing Atheist uploaded a video titled "There's No Rape Culture," which criticized the way Internet feminists use the phrase "rape culture" (shown below, left). In February 2014, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) issued a press release^[2] which criticized blaming "rape culture" for the cause of all sexual violence committed on campuses, arguing that it had "the paradoxical effect of making it harder to stop sexual violence." On May 19th, the American Enterprise Institute YouTube channel uploaded a "Factual Feminist" video titled "Rape culture panic is not the answer," in which host Christina Hoff Sommers argued that feminist activists at universities were overwmp

Search Interest

External References