Rape Culture

Rape culture represents a social environment in which sexual assault is normalized and thus tolerated. Here, victims are ascribed guilt or complicity based on various reasons, such as appearance or actions (cf. Irmschler 2017). The result is a trivialization of the acts in society, which is also reflected in the media and pop culture.

Inequality in interpersonal relationships

The definition of rape culture cannot be applied or generalized to all social systems. It does not always have clear boundaries, but it is based on inequality in interpersonal relationships (see Aosved/ Long 2006).

Sexual assault as part of a whole society

The word culture suggests that it is not only individuals who have these experiences, but the realities of societal culture make many sexual assaults possible. Sexual assault is thus part of an entire society, such that entire institutions, systems, and attitudes protect perpetrators and encourage assault (see Williams 2015).

As early as the 1970s, American feminists attempted to raise awareness of this rape culture, which had previously been hushed up, primarily through their own accounts of experience (cf. Rutherford 2011).

America and the university fraternal sorority culture.

The term is primarily associated with American society, and a focus here can be placed on university fraternal sorority culture. There is an appearance of systematic legitimization and even encouragement of sexual assault (see Jozkowski/ Wiersma-Mosley 2017).

Literature

Aosved, A. C./ Long, P. J. (2006): Co-occurrence of Rape Myth Acceptance, Sexism, Racism, Homophobia, Ageism, Classism, and Religious Intolerance. Sex Roles, 55 (7-8), 481-492. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-006-9101-4.

Irmschler, P. (2018): Good Tips. https://www.neues-deutschland.de/artikel/1105872.rape-culture-gute-tipps.html.

Jozkowski, K. N./ Wiersma-Mosley, J. D. (2017): The Greek System: How Gender Inequality and Class Privilege Perpetuate Rape Culture. Family Relations, 66 (1), 89-103. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/fare.12229.

Rutherford, A. (2011): Sexual Violence Against Women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 35 (2), 342-347. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0361684311404307.

Williams, J. E. (2015): Rape Culture. The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, 177-201. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781405165518.wbeosr019.pub2.