Leave Veena Malik Alone
Posted: January 28, 2011 Filed under: Political | Tags: Feminism, Media, Pakistan, Sex, SexGenderBody 8 Comments »Under ordinary circumstances, a Pakistani actress participating in an Indian reality TV show would not be a newsworthy scandal. One assumes there are more pressing issues for pundits and experts to pontificate on. The debate over Veena Malik and her stint in Bigg Boss in India, however, is extraordinary and reflects changing currents in the mass discourse on women in Pakistan.
Currently, the argument is framed as an issue of whether or not Veena Malik was participating in an Indian show as an ambassador of Pakistan. And if so, does she have to act and behave with a decorum that is in accordance with the image Pakistani Muslims at large want to portray to the world? The allegation against Veena is that she did a poor job of representing Pakistan in the same sense that say, the cricket team represents Pakistan.
This is in itself a loaded accusation with many implications that need to be deconstructed. Firstly, within the debate, Pakistani and Muslim are employed as interchangeable identities, as if representing Pakistan and representing Islam is one and the same thing. The proponents of this idea claim that someone who claims to be a Pakistani Muslim should uphold the ideals that the Islamic Republic was founded upon. But Pakistan is not a monolith and Pakistani Muslims are certainly not a homogenous creed.
In a courageous act, Veena held her own on a late night TV show last week. She was composed and articulate at first, tearful and resigned by the end. She could not even dare to talk about individual liberties and her freedom of choice to act and dress as she pleases. To placate the Mufti who was called upon to decide what she, as a good Muslimah, should have done, she towed the same line and argued that in fact she had been a good representative of Pakistan and Islam both. She tried to beat them at their own game by citing examples of her creating bonds of friendship with India, working hard to earn a living and bringing business to the Pakistani entertainment industry. It was a rare display of gumption, spirit and poise against opportunistic, fatwa-loving clerics.
But what celebrity represents Pakistan satisfactorily? The match-fixing cricket team? Or the corrupt and venal politicians? Or the drinking, socializing, heir-to-the-Bhutto-throne, Mr Bilawal himself? What is this singular identity all Pakistani Muslims are expected to be projecting overseas? Or is it, as Veena Malik herself asks, because she’s a woman and therefore, “a soft target”?
That is the crux of the matter isn’t it? Presenting herself as a Westernized, independent, beautiful, forthcoming, lustful, coquettish, sexually empowered Pakistani woman, Veena Malik has shamed the entire nation. She should be blamed and shamed on national television because she asked for it by behaving like a “vulgar slut (sic)”. In a deeply misogynistic society, where slut-shaming is a national sport, this is not a surprise. Our esteemed journalists, anchors and political analysts have taken it upon themselves to identify and insult “sluts” publicly.
Slut-shaming is basically the idea of insulting and/or attacking a woman for being sexual, having one or more sexual partners, acknowledging sexual feelings, and/or acting on sexual feelings. In socially conservative segments of South Asia, the conception of sexuality is closely linked with sanctimony, social propriety and honour. Sexuality is hidden and protected, not flaunted and celebrated. Even a man who appears excessively flirtatious or lascivious in public would not be approved of. A woman who indulges in massages from an Indian man, goes swimming with bare legs around men, and claims it is her “right to look good”, is nearly impossible to stomach.
In this bizarre state of affairs, one thing is consistent. The apparent chasm between the self-identified liberals and the conservatives continues to deepen. After the recent murders of Salman Taseer and the young reporter Wali Khan Baber, both unrelated events with different histories, liberals perceive themselves to be under some renewed existential threat against their ideals. Opinionated, urban and educated Pakistanis have pitted themselves against each other on every thing from the blasphemy laws to banning Facebook.
Conservatives perceive the other as godless heretics while the liberals view the other as unintelligent and medieval. Dozens on opinion pieces have been published asking where the liberals went wrong and what they should do next. Yet others analyze why Pakistani is headed for devastation because of forgetting its Islamic foundations. Liberal newspapers, for an English speaking audience, applaud what Veena Malik did and deem her a hero. Yet others writing for the Urdu speaking masses call for her ban. Thus widens the troubling dichotomy that leaves no room for so many lying in the grey area.
The speed with which the educated class jumps on one bandwagon or the other when an incident occurs makes it seem like being liberal or not is the most urgent concern in the country. Ironically though, the term liberal has numerous meanings depending on history and place and, by and large, these terms are irrelevant to identity politics here. Pakistan is a polarized society over so many fault lines, it is not easy to see that the binary may be false.
Feminism is on a unique trajectory in Pakistan treading on many unchartered territories. Lots of exciting opinions are emerging in the public narratives that talk about the oft-neglected complexity surrounding the debate. It remains to be seen whether so many of our self-righteous experts are also capable of self-reflexivity.
Till then, leave Veena Malik alone.
Framing Rape Survivors As National Celebrities
Posted: September 16, 2010 Filed under: Political | Tags: Feminism, Media, Rape, Sex, Sexual Harassment, Violence 5 Comments »This was originally published in Viewpoint Online magazine.
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If for no other reason, Parvez Musharraf definitely lost some fans in Pakistan when, bemoaning the negative attention in international media received by the gang-rape of Mukhtaran Mai, he remarked “”if you want to go abroad and get a visa for Canada or citizenship and be a millionaire, get yourself raped.”
He was of course worried that this high profile rape that made Mukhtaran a household name overnight was a bit at odds with his ‘enlightened moderation’ in Pakistan spiel. Wherever and whenever her experience was recounted, be it courtrooms, talk shows, university halls or in presentations in development conferences with feminist agendas, her name became ubiquitously associated with rape and victimisation. No one would be able to recall the names of her rapists who are forever erased from the public memory.
Dr. Shazia Khalid has earned her place in the echelons of public consciousness for similar reasons. She has the second most popular meme associated with women who are rape survivors in Pakistan. She even has her own Wikipedia entry. Her claim to fame? She was raped. The New York Times columnist Nick Kristof wrote repeatedly about it urging readers to lobby for her asylum in Canada. In all the news reports, articles and drawing rooms where her story is recounted, her rapist is identified to allegedly be some army officer. His name, honour and prestige remain unscathed.
Any victory in the court then becomes hollow for a rape survivor who gets picked up by the media to forever be etched in people’s memory through a singular lens. It is her name and not the criminals that becomes public property for discussion, deconstruction and discourse.
More and more evidence suggests that when the mainstream media profiles rape survivors and their cases become public information, it causes complex problems for the family of the survivor. Little heed is paid to the consequences of publicising these cases on the family who by and large would want to leave their name out of it for security, honour and cultural concerns.
This suggests that there may be an increasing disconnect between women who are raped and people who represent them, speak for them, claim to fight for their social justice. These well-intentioned women’s movements, government ministries and evangelical journalists end up not understanding what their beneficiaries really want.
This is not to suggest that rape survivors or their families do not want the help or compensation that can potentially come with the media attention; more often than not, it is their only hope for legal recourse. It would, however, be helpful if the media, civil society and the government highlight the identities of the rapists rather than the victims if the aim is to attain social justice.
Today Mukhtaran Mai and Dr. Shazia are powerful images that become symbolic of violence against women in the third world. They don posters appealing for more aid and serve as examples in feminist discourse, while their complex personal histories get lost in larger rape story. What these representations mean for the survivor and her family versus what it means for the perpetrator of the crime in terms of justice or retribution and rehabilitation, are necessary complications that must be deliberated and problematised.
Queer Resistance Emerging In Pakistan
Posted: July 22, 2010 Filed under: Political | Tags: Homosexuality, LGBT, Pakistan, Sex 2 Comments »This post was originally published in View Point Online
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Last year, in a landmark ruling the Delhi High Court decriminalized homosexuality, overturning a centuries old discriminatory, repressive law installed under the British Raj. Next door to India, one does not find similar support for a consolidated movement to support rights for sexual minorities in Pakistan. Despite this lack of support on the state level or within the mainstream civil society groups, several resistance groups have emerged out of Pakistan that are largely anonymous and maintain an online presence through blogs and social networks.
OPPRSM
Organization for the Protection and Propagation of Rights of Sexual Minorities started up in Lahore in March 2009 to offer protection to LGBTQI community and education on rights to queer communities and the population at large. The activists at OPPRSM anonymously exist online. They can only be reached through emails. At the moment it is engaged in two projects: a) collecting and disseminating news related to the LGBTQI community, and b) maintaining an archive of people’s “stories of self-realization, coming out to family and friends, fighting oppression and anything else that [they] consider part of the community’s collective story.”
CHAY
An online magazine on sex and sexuality in Pakistan, Chay is a platform for news, views, artistic expression and dialogue on a range of topics that include stories of coming out and homoerotic art. The word ‘chay’ is a derogatory term commonly used as a shortened version of a vernacular word that literally translates to female genitalia. This is a deliberate reclaiming of what is otherwise an offensive term used as an insult, to underline the taboos and patriarchal hijacking of terms describing female sexuality.
Al-Fatiha
Outside of Pakistan, many LGB supporters with ties to Pakistan have set up support and protection forums. Al-Fatiha was set up in UK to offer safe-space to the queer Muslim community and to conduct research on LGBTIQ issues, experiences and concerns. Its mandate is heavily tied into Islam and the promotion of peace and human rights for all with a particular emphasis on reconciling religious identity and sexual preference under Islam.
It is apparent that most of these forums, while contributing to online education and expression, stay away from actual advocacy and awareness work for the LGB community in Pakistan. There is no organization that can be contacted for protection or legal support when someone faces persecution, shame and harassment for being a sexual minority. Any help offered by the good Samaritans has to be legally cloaked under women’s rights or criminal abuse. In a society where homosexual acts are criminalized by the constitution and likened to sexual promiscuity, pedophilia and disease, it is a long and uphill battle that needs a mass resistance and grass-roots education campaign.
American Connection to Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda
Posted: December 3, 2009 Filed under: Political | Tags: Homosexuality, International Politics, Religion, Sex, SexGenderBody Leave a comment »You know the drill. There’s news on homophobia from an African country and most bloggers, journalists, talk show hosts jump on the self-righteous bandwagon. Something similar happened when last week an anti-homosexuality bill was introduced in the parliament in Uganda imposing death penality on gays [Full Text Here]. As expected and rightfully so, there was no dearth of tirades against the Ugandan government, developing world politics and homophobes everywhere.
What was not covered (or at least not as avidly) was the presence of an American fundamentalist group in Uganda called The Family that is supporting it and lobbying for the bill to pass. The Family has operated secretively with the help of influential congressmen and senators who are members of the group to promote their anti-gay, anti-abortion, pro-free-market ideas in America and other parts of the world.
Jeff Sharlet, author of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power
And it’s not just a group of cantenkerous Republicans. The Family also has key players in the Democratic Party as well, including Stupak, the name that is now synonymous with anti-abortion legislation and failing healthcare reforms in the States (Stupak Stupak added an amendment to the health care reform bill so that abortion may not be covered by insurance)
Transcript of Sharlet’s interview on Terry Gross’s show and commentary are available here and here.
This is a potentially critical development in Ugandan politics that needs to be investigated more so that there’s concrete evidence of the alleged American connection to anti-homosexuality legislation in Uganda.
Bloggers and journalists, please step on it.
The Male Gaze & The Beauty Of The Female Form
Posted: November 18, 2009 Filed under: Political | Tags: Love, Media, Sex, SexGenderBody Leave a comment »this post is taken from Femininisting.com and was originally published here
The assertion that women’s bodies are inherently beautiful, while men’s bodies are strange and ugly is frequently invoked by straight, cisgendered men. It is used as a justification for the objectification of women, and as a reason for the idea that straight women should enjoy going to strip clubs with their partners. It justifies the expectation that straight women “experiment” with other women, while simultaneously excusing homophobia. Many straight men believe there is something intrinsically alluring and sensual about the female form. More importantly, they think that this sensual quality is inherently lacking from the male form. They tend to state this stance openly, and take it for granted as fact rather than as subjective preference. That this viewpoint blatantly excludes the possibility of trans, intersex, or other non-gender conforming bodies is self-evident and highly problematic. Furthermore, it systematically marginalizes every concept of sexuality that does not exist from the straight, cisgendered male perspective.
Of course I’ll include the usual disclaimer: this does not apply to all straight, cis men. There are exceptions. But the general trend and the cultural acceptance of it as a “norm” remain problematic, despite the individual men who oppose this way of thinking. Dirty Silver also has a recent post (NSFW) on this topic.
It seems simple. Heterosexual men, by definition, find the nude female form more sexually stimulating than the male. It stands to reason that the inverse of that statement applies to straight women and gay men. The widely accepted straight male viewpoint that “naked women=beautiful, naked men=funny lookin’ “ is dripping with privilege. I find it amazing that it has never occurred to men who share this belief that their personal perspective does not necessarily constitute a reality for those with other sexual orientations. This should be common sense. Some people are physically attracted to women. Others are physically attracted to men. Some are attracted to both. None of this has any logical bearing on the inherent attractiveness of any body, or of any primary or secondary sex characteristics.
This notion is deeply damaging to women. Not only does it excuse blatant objectification under the guise of “admiring the female form,” but it also promotes the age-old double standard against female sexuality. Female bodies are viewed as public property. They are consumed visually through misogynistic porn and lad mags, and they are the perpetual targets of rape and sexual harassment. With the opinion that female bodies are intrinsically irresistible, however, qualities innate to the female form become the acknowledged cause of these problems—not the actions of the men who devour them. The male perpetrators are thereby absolved of responsibility, and women are expected to take violence, harassment, and objectification as some kind of compliment.
Moreover, this serves to devalue female pleasure even further. After all, someone who assumes that the sight of a naked man cannot cause arousal is clearly not concerned with the arousal of his own sexual partners. The assumption that the male body cannot be a turn-on for anyone shows a total lack of interest in whether a man’s sexual partners even want him. Needless to say, this is dangerous territory. Indifference to the arousal and desire of one’s sexual partners is at the very least a promotion of rape culture, and in the worst cases, can actually lead to rape.
Furthermore, this increases the pressure on heterosexual women to “perform” bisexuality for men. Brian Safi’s take on it is hilarious and spot-on. The idea that women’s bodies are innately sexually appealing makes it acceptable to pressure straight women into engaging in sexual acts with other women. After all, if your girlfriend protests or if she says she isn’t comfortable, she’s just being coy. Deep down, she can’t resist a woman any more than you can, right? This is yet another example of the normalization of an utter lack of concern for women’s comfort and arousal in our society. And rape culture grows.
And of course, this attitude isn’t only harmful to straight women. It contributes to the Othering of gay, bi, and asexual men. After all, according to men who espouse these views, men’s bodies are, at best, uninteresting and at worst repulsive. What other argument do homophobes need to label homosexuality “unnatural”? As for lesbians and bi women, their sexuality is interpreted not as a legitimate expression in itself, but rather in terms of its relation to straight male arousal and gratification. These men are quick to label girl-on-girl “natural,” but still expect it to be performed for the viewing pleasure of men. Straight, male, cis privilege enables many men to deny the legitimate existence of any conception of sexualtiy outside of their own limited perspective.
Worst of all, all this is wrapped in a complimentary guise. In my opinion, two of the greatest challenges facing feminism today are the widespread misunderstanding of what constitutes sexual power and the inability of many men to distinguish between loving and hating women. Tucker Max dodges charges of misogyny and the perpetuation of rape culture with the insistent remark that he “loves ” women. Megan Fox has been famously quoted as saying that “women have the power because we have the vaginas.” By framing this whole concept as a self-deprecating comment on their own gender, cis men simultaneously absolve themselves of misogyny and bolster the myth that being objectified gives women any real sort of power over men. Our bodies are just so pretty that they can’t help themselves, or so the story goes. With one “compliment,” men can easily evade charges of sexism, harassment, and even rape. They are quick to cite the proliferation of female nudes throughout the history of Western art as proof that naked women are indeed more appealing than naked men. It does not occur to them that this, too, is a symptom of a centuries-old problem.
When it’s taken for granted that only the female form is visually stimulating, straight women are silenced, gay and bi men are dehumanized, gay and bi women are turned into little more than novelties, asexual and non-cisgendered persons are erased entirely, and rape culture is strengthened. In short, many cis het men need to realize that this mindset is not a compliment to women. It is an assertion of privilege, which only causes women and LGBT people to become even more marginalized, Othered, and dehumanized.
Rape Culture 101 – A Comprehensive Guide
Posted: November 4, 2009 Filed under: Political | Tags: Rape, Sex, SexGenderBody, Sexual Harassment Leave a comment »This post was written by Melissa McEwan and originally published at Shakesville on October 09, 2009
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The definition provided in Transforming a Rape Culture:
A rape culture is a complex of beliefs that encourages male sexual aggression and supports violence against women. It is a society where violence is seen as sexy and sexuality as violent. In a rape culture, women perceive a continuum of threatened violence that ranges from sexual remarks to sexual touching to rape itself. A rape culture condones physical and emotional terrorism against women as the norm.
In a rape culture both men and women assume that sexual violence is a fact of life, inevitable as death or taxes. This violence, however, is neither biologically nor divinely ordained. Much of what we accept as inevitable is in fact the expression of values and attitudes that can change.
But my correspondents—whether they are dewy noobs just coming to feminism, advanced feminists looking for a source, or disbelievers in the existence of the rape culture—always seem to be looking for something more comprehensive and less abstract: What is the rape culture? What are its borders? What does it look like and sound like and feel like?
It is not a definition for which they’re looking; not really. It’s a description. It’s something substantive enough to reach out and touch, in all its ugly, heaving, menacing grotesquery.
Rape culture is encouraging male sexual aggression. Rape culture is regarding violence as sexy and sexuality as violent. Rape culture is treating rape as a compliment, as the unbridled passion stirred in a healthy man by a beautiful woman, making irresistible the urge to rip open her bodice or slam her against a wall, or a wrought-iron fence, or a car hood, or pull her by her hair, or shove her onto a bed, or any one of a million other images of fight-fucking in movies and television shows and on the covers of romance novels that convey violent urges are inextricably linked with (straight) sexuality.
Rape culture is treating straight sexuality as the norm. Rape culture is lumping queer sexuality into nonconsensual sexual practices like pedophilia and bestiality. Rape culture is privileging heterosexuality because ubiquitous imagery of two adults of the same-sex engaging in egalitarian partnerships without gender-based dominance and submission undermines (erroneous) biological rationales for the rape culture’s existence.
Rape culture is rape being used as a weapon, a tool of war and genocide and oppression. Rape culture is rape being used as a corrective to “cure” queer women. Rape culture is a militarized culture and “the natural product of all wars, everywhere, at all times, in all forms.”
Rape culture is 1 in 33 men being sexually assaulted in their lifetimes. Rape culture is encouraging men to use the language of rape to establish dominance over one another (“I’ll make you my bitch”). Rape culture is making rape a ubiquitous part of male-exclusive bonding. Rape culture is ignoring the cavernous need for men’s prison reform in part because the threat of being raped in prison is considered an acceptable deterrent to committing crime, and the threat only works if actual men are actually being raped.
Rape culture is 1 in 6 women being sexually assaulted in their lifetimes. Rape culture is not even talking about the reality that many women are sexually assaulted multiple times in their lives. Rape culture is the way in which the constant threat of sexual assault affects women’s daily movements. Rape culture is telling girls and women to be careful about what you wear, how you wear it, how you carry yourself, where you walk, when you walk there, with whom you walk, whom you trust, what you do, where you do it, with whom you do it, what you drink, how much you drink, whether you make eye contact, if you’re alone, if you’re with a stranger, if you’re in a group, if you’re in a group of strangers, if it’s dark, if the area is unfamiliar, if you’re carrying something, how you carry it, what kind of shoes you’re wearing in case you have to run, what kind of purse you carry, what jewelry you wear, what time it is, what street it is, what environment it is, how many people you sleep with, what kind of people you sleep with, who your friends are, to whom you give your number, who’s around when the delivery guy comes, to get an apartment where you can see who’s at the door before they can see you, to check before you open the door to the delivery guy, to own a dog or a dog-sound-making machine, to get a roommate, to take self-defense, to always be alert always pay attention always watch your back always be aware of your surroundings and never let your guard down for a moment lest you be sexually assaulted and if you are and didn’t follow all the rules it’s your fault.
Rape culture is victim-blaming. Rape culture is a judge blaming a child for her own rape. Rape culture is a minister blaming his child victims. Rape culture is accusing a child of enjoying being held hostage, raped, and tortured. Rape culture is spending enormous amounts of time finding any reason at all that a victim can be blamed for hir own rape.
Rape culture is judges banning the use of the word rape in the courtroom. Rape culture is the media using euphemisms for sexual assault. Rape culture is stories about rape being featured in the Odd News.
Rape culture is tasking victims with the burden of rape prevention. Rape culture is encouraging women to take self-defense as though that is the only solution required to preventing rape. Rape culture is admonishing women to “learn common sense” or “be more responsible” or “be aware of barroom risks” or “avoid these places” or “don’t dress this way,” and failing to admonish men to not rape.
Rape culture is “nothing” being the most frequent answer to a question about what people have been formally taught about rape.
Rape culture is boys under 10 years old knowing how to rape.
Rape culture is the idea that only certain people rape—and only certain people get raped. Rape culture is ignoring that the thing about rapists is that they rape people. They rape people who are strong and people who are weak, people who are smart and people who are dumb, people who fight back and people who submit just to get it over with, people who are sluts and people who are prudes, people who rich and people who are poor, people who are tall and people who are short, people who are fat and people who are thin, people who are blind and people who are sighted, people who are deaf and people who can hear, people of every race and shape and size and ability and circumstance.
Rape culture is the narrative that sex workers can’t be raped. Rape culture is the assertion that wives can’t be raped. Rape culture is the contention that only nice girls can be raped.
Rape culture is refusing to acknowledge that the only thing that the victim of every rapist shares in common is bad fucking luck. Rape culture is refusing to acknowledge that the only thing a person can do to avoid being raped is never be in the same room as a rapist. Rape culture is avoiding talking about what an absurdly unreasonable expectation that is, since rapists don’t announce themselves or wear signs or glow purple.
Rape culture is people meant to protect you raping you instead—like parents, teachers, doctors, ministers, cops, soldiers, self-defense instructors.
Rape culture is a serial rapist being appointed to a federal panel that makes decisions regarding women’s health.
Rape culture is a ruling that says women cannot withdraw consent once sex commences.
Rape culture is a collective understanding about classifications of rapists: The “normal” rapist (whose crime is most likely to be dismissed with a “boys will be boys” sort of jocular apologia) is the man who forces himself on attractive women, women his age in fine health and form, whose crime is disturbingly understandable to his male defenders. The “real sickos” are the men who go after children, old ladies, the disabled, accident victims languishing in comas—the sort of people who can’t fight back, whose rape is difficult to imagine as titillating, unlike the rape of “pretty girls,” so easily cast in a fight-fuck fantasy of squealing and squirming and eventual relenting to the “flattery” of being raped.
Rape culture is the insistence on trying to distinguish between different kinds of rape via the use of terms like “gray rape” or “date rape.”
Rape culture is pervasive narratives about rape that exist despite evidence to the contrary. Rape culture is pervasive imagery of stranger rape, even though women are three times more likely to be raped by someone they know than a stranger, and nine times more likely to be raped in their home, the home of someone they know, or anywhere else than being raped on the street, making what is commonly referred to as “date rape” by far the most prevalent type of rape. Rape culture is pervasive insistence that false reports are common, although they are less common (1.6%) than false reports of auto theft (2.6%). Rape culture is pervasive claims that women make rape accusations willy-nilly, when 61% of rapes remain unreported.
Rape culture is the pervasive narrative that there is a “typical” way to behave after being raped, instead of the acknowledgment that responses to rape are as varied as its victims, that, immediately following a rape, some women go into shock; some are lucid; some are angry; some are ashamed; some are stoic; some are erratic; some want to report it; some don’t; some will act out; some will crawl inside themselves; some will have healthy sex lives; some never will again.
Rape culture is the pervasive narrative that a rape victim who reports hir rape is readily believed and well-supported, instead of acknowledging that reporting a rape is a huge personal investment, a difficult process that can be embarrassing, shameful, hurtful, frustrating, and too often unfulfilling. Rape culture is ignoring that there is very little incentive to report a rape; it’s a terrible experience with a small likelihood of seeing justice served.
Rape culture is hospitals that won’t do rape kits, disbelieving law enforcement, unmotivated prosecutors, hostile judges, victim-blaming juries, and paltry sentencing.
Rape culture is the fact that higher incidents of rape tend to correlate with lower conviction rates.
Rape culture is silence around rape in the national discourse, and in rape victims’ homes. Rape culture is treating surviving rape as something of which to be ashamed. Rape culture is families torn apart because of rape allegations that are disbelieved or ignored or sunk to the bottom of a deep, dark sea in an iron vault of secrecy and silence.
Rape culture is the objectification of women, which is part of a dehumanizing process that renders consent irrelevant. Rape culture is treating women’s bodies like public property. Rape culture is street harassment and groping on public transportation and equating raped women’s bodies to a man walking around with valuables hanging out of his pockets. Rape culture is most men being so far removed from the threat of rape that invoking property theft is evidently the closest thing many of them can imagine to being forcibly subjected to a sexual assault.
Rape culture is treating 13-year-old girls like trophies for men regarded as great artists.
Rape culture is ignoring the way in which professional environments that treat sexual access to female subordinates as entitlements of successful men can be coercive and compromise enthusiastic consent.
Rape culture is a convicted rapist getting a standing ovation at Cannes, a cameo in a hit movie, and a career resurgence in which he can joke about how he hates seeing people get hurt.
Rape culture is when running dogfights is said to elicit more outrage than raping a woman would.
Rape culture is blurred lines between persistence and coercion. Rape culture is treating diminished capacity to consent as the natural path to sexual activity.
Rape culture is pretending that non-physical sexual assaults, like peeping tomming, is totally unrelated to brutal and physical sexual assaults, rather than viewing them on a continuum of sexual assault.
Rape culture is diminishing the gravity of any sexual assault, attempted sexual assault, or culture of actual or potential coercion in any way.
Rape culture is using the word “rape” to describe something that has been done to you other than a forced or coerced sex act. Rape culture is saying things like “That ATM raped me with a huge fee” or “The IRS raped me on my taxes.”
Rape culture is rape being used as entertainment, in movies and television shows and books and in video games.
Rape culture is television shows and movies leaving rape out of situations where it would be a present and significant threat in real life.
Rape culture is Amazon offering to locate “rape” products for you.
Rape culture is rape jokes. Rape culture is rape jokes on t-shirts, rape jokes in college newspapers, rape jokes in soldiers’ home videos, rape jokes on the radio, rape jokes on news broadcasts, rape jokes in magazines, rape jokes in viral videos, rape jokes in promotions for children’s movies, rape jokes on Page Six (and again!), rape jokes on the funny pages, rape jokes on TV shows, rape jokes on the campaign trail, rape jokes on Halloween, rape jokes in online content by famous people, rape jokes in online content by non-famous people, rape jokes in headlines, rape jokes onstage at clubs, rape jokes in politics, rape jokes in one-woman shows, rape jokes in print campaigns, rape jokes in movies, rape jokes in cartoons, rape jokes in nightclubs, rape jokes on MTV, rape jokes on late-night chat shows, rape jokes in tattoos, rape jokes in stand-up comedy, rape jokes on websites, rape jokes at awards shows, rape jokes in online contests, rape jokes in movie trailers, rape jokes on the sides of buses, rape jokes on cultural institutions…
Rape culture is people objecting to the detritus of the rape culture being called oversensitive, rather than people who perpetuate the rape culture being regarded as not sensitive enough.
Rape culture is the myriad ways in which rape is tacitly and overtly abetted and encouraged having saturated every corner of our culture so thoroughly that people can’t easily wrap their heads around what the rape culture actually is.
That’s hardly everything. It’s merely the tip of an unfathomable iceberg.
This post was taken from finallyfeminist101.wordpress.com without asking for permission.
