RAPE CULTURE

According to the many sources that are capable of altering information on Wikipedia, rape culture can be defined as a sociological concept for a setting in which rape is pervasive and normalised due to societal attitudes about gender and sexuality.

Another formidable source of mine, the Women’s centre at Marshall University, states that rape culture is perpetuated through the use of misogynistic language, objectification of women’s bodies and the glamorisation of sexual violence. Many of you might be wondering what inspired me to write about rape culture today. Frankly, it has been long overdue. Unfortunately, two rape stories that were published this week were the straw that broke the camel’s back.

It is particularly troubling to live in a day and age where mentally challenged women are being sexually violated by the very same individuals who ought to be protecting them. Of course the common notion is that people are innocent until proven guilty and I personally respect that. However, these incidents of rape were specifically disheartening because both women were mentally challenged and incapable of taking care of themselves, and both were impregnated by their alleged rapists.

For the most part, rape is often perpetuated by rape culture. In common instances, some men deliberately disregard women’s rights, they’ve been raised in a society where women are regarded as low class citizens and are generally undervalued. Most, not all, men see women as objects and regard them as less intelligent and do not rate them as equals but instead classify them as under par. This is evident in the behaviour observed in public spaces, where women cannot even walk freely without being subjected to cat-calls and involuntary touching.

Women

From a young age women are objectified and degraded, through forceful proposals where some men threaten young girls into relationships and make derogatory remarks to girls as young as five, such as ‘khula gala siviyele’. In no way am I against love proposals or courting, I am simply highlighting how we have normalised objectifying women such that no one sees a problem with men or boys proposing to girls who haven’t even come of age or better yet, reached puberty. By normalising this, we condone rape culture, which eventually leads to rape. Most men can agree that one thing they hate more than anything is rejection and most of the time when these romantic advancements are initiated; the female is more likely to reject the male. This, therefore, causes resentment from the male, resulting in them doing one of two things, either accepting the rejection or retaliating by assaulting or sexually harassing the victim.

I know most men will instantly approach this article in a negative light but this article is in no way an attack; it is merely trying to enlighten society. In any case, if you are not a perpetrator of such acts, why would you be offended? It is important that we are constantly informed on issues that affect each and every one of us, such as rape. The main issue that surrounds rape culture is ‘consent’.

Not many people are entirely aware what consent is and why it is so important. Sexual consent is loosely defined as a voluntary agreement to engage in sexual activity with another person. If consent is not given by both people, it is considered sexual assault.

Consent must be clearly expressed and articulated in words and behaviour, if this is not the case then the other person is not willing to partake in the sexual act. It is vital that both women and men are aware of this in order to avoid cases of naivety or ignorance. Just last week there was a published statistic where Eswatini was listed as the fourth country with the highest rape incidents worldwide. Mind you, this report is merely based on reported rape crimes, meaning the cases are actually more than that, if we consider rape incidents that haven’t been reported.

It is unsettling to think that sexual crimes are occurring unabated, simply because we are not doing anything to tackle rape culture. How long will women cry out for help with no response? And why are we constantly turning a blind eye on this issue?

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: