Rape culture and victim blaming

Lately we have heard two horrific stories about gang rape – one in California and one closer to home (for me) on Phillip Island, Australia.

In Richmond, California a 15-year-old girl was gang-raped for more than two hours during a high school homecoming dance earlier this week. Police suspect that 10 men attacked the girl, who was on her way to be picked up from the dance by her parent. One of the most sickening things is not only was the girl raped by 10 men, but there were at least 10 other witnesses to the crime who watched and did nothing. No-one present at the rape called the police. The police arrived two and a half hours after the rape began – after a person who heard of the rape second-hand called 911.

“This just gets worse and worse the more you dig into it,” [Lt. Mark Gagan of the Richmond, CA police department] said. “It was like a horror movie after looking at the evidence. I can’t believe not one person felt compelled to help her.”

Unfortunately, stories like this should be all too familiar to those who keep an eye on the news. While this story has attracted a lot of coverage, because of its brutality and the number of participants, sexual violence has become such a common occurrence in many Western states that it barely rates a mention any more.

1 out of every 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime. 1 out of every 5 Australian women have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15. Overall 45% of Australian women sexually assaulted since the age of 15 had been victims of more than one sexual assault (ABS Women’s Safety Survey, 1996).

Already, rape apologists have been spilling onto the internet to begin the victim-blaming that will no doubt form part of the defence’s arguments. See these internet comments:

“shes 15 and drinking outside on a bench by herself in a dress…. if your not gunna be smart about the choices you make, im not gunna feel bad for what happens.

“I’m a 15 year old girl in New York, and I’m sorry to say this, but isn’t it possible that witnesses saw her get drunk with alcohal and belived she willingly participated as an effect? I’m sorry, but she shouldn’t have drunk alcohal to begin with. I’m not saying she deserved it, but she should’ve been much, much wiser.”

So far, the girl’s school has promised to “hold a safety meeting for parents and students Wednesday evening to address the assault”. But, as Shaker commenter ClioBluestocking points out: “This girl wasn’t brutalized because she wasn’t practicing good ’safety’ techniques. She was brutalized because at least 20 young men thought rape was a sport. The school should be having meetings with parents about that: how not to raise misogynists, rapists and rape apologists.”

The second rape happened on October 10 Phillip Island in Australia – about half an hour from where I grew up. Two young women were taken away from a party, locked in separate rooms and at least one of the girls has alleged rape. Sixteen men, aged between 17 and 20, have been interviewed by police in relation to the crime. The men were participating in an end of season football trip.

There is victim-blaming galore with this case too. According to The Age, more than 700 people have joined a Facebook page supporting two of the perpetrators. One of the comments: ”Oh I feel for them . . people can be so judgmental. So not fair. Makes me sick too. I only hope that when it is all over, the boys can move on.”

Now obviously, both these cases have yet to go before court, so the men involved have a presumption of innocence for now. But unfortunately, too often the court system betrays victims of sexual assault. In the UK, for example, the government estimates that as many as 95% of rapes are never reported to the police at all. Of the rapes that were reported from 2007 to 2008, only 6.5% resulted in a conviction, compared with 34% of criminal cases in general.

Many people have expressed shock at these attacks, but, in general, few link them to the wider societal problem of the rape culture that is endemic in many societies. These men should bear full personal responsibility for their actions, but these attacks also happen in a society which normalises violence against women. See this definition of 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.

So to combat the inevitable inaction ’safety’ messages that will accompany these attacks (which place the onus on women to protect themselves, rather than society and men in general to prevent the attacks from happening in the first place), see this list of handy hints for would-be attackers:

• Men should stay in their houses, and lock their doors
• Men should not walk alone late at night, and should stay in populated areas where they can be seen
• Men should stay in groups of people they trust to not let them walk off alone
• Men should refrain from telling or laughing at sexist jokes, perpetrating violence against women
• Men should refrain from attending parties and drinking
• Men should refrain from intimidating women
• Men should refrain from following women
• Men should refrain from putting drugs in women’s drinks
• MEN SHOULD STOP SEXUALLY ASSAULTING WOMEN

~ by anarchofemme on November 3, 2009.