Rape Culture 101

[Behind the Aegis]

158. Some of her points are spot on, others are not, and some are just ignorant.

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.

No, that is not and example of 'rape culture.' That is heterosexism and homophobia, which is not a part of rape culture. Furthermore, her definition is simply absurd. I am sick and tired of people trying to co-opt the LGBT experience into their own and excluding us, that is heterosexist!

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."

No, this is simply the evolution of a word, not dissimilar to the word "slave." "Rape" is also defined as "to spoil, to plunder, to abuse." It just so happens it also means "sexual assault." There are, of course, those who use it in a mocking manner, and that usage would be an example of 'rape culture.'

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."

This is an overgeneralization. I have never heard the term 'grey rape' and looked at the link provided. There is nothing "grey" about those situations. If some use the term it is likely to make a distinction, and in doing so, doesn't necessarily mean the user is saying one type of rape is worse or better than another. Similar distinctions are made in murder and other crimes, it does not diminish them. Does she think "statutory rape" also diminishes rape?

Rape culture is television shows and movies leaving rape out of situations where it would be a present and significant threat in real life.

This is flat out STUPID! So it is rape culture to not portray every situation in which men and women are alone, that she must fear being raped?!

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.

Despite leaving out men as victims, this is a paragraph that many need to read and commit to memory. There have been some recent posts about DU victims of rape speaking out, and some of the responses were beyond the pale. Like every rape, every victim has their own way of dealing with the assault and the journey to becoming a survivor. NO ONE should EVER be shamed for how s/he handles the after-the-fact of a rape!