Posted on 05/29/2014 2:08:59 AM PDT by Morgana
May 28, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The cover of TIME magazine released on May 15, depicting a university pennant with the lone word “Rape” on it, marks a new height in public awareness (and debate) of what has come to be known as the “rape culture” – a prevalence of male domination, incursion, and violation against the sexual dignity and bodily sovereignty of females through physical actions, verbal harassment, mass entertainment content, structural norms in the workplace, and social behavior. First coined in the 1970s, “rape culture” has only entered the popular progressive vocabulary in recent years, starting in feminist blogs. Now concern about it is finding a place in mainstream policy discussions, notably in efforts to reform the U.S. military’s treatment of sexual assault allegations and the U.S. Department of Education’s investigation of fifty-five universities’ handling of the same. Rape and rape culture are heinous and repugnant beyond literary description, and should be eliminated entirely. Yet most of those who vociferously oppose rape culture, typically progressives, would be loath to challenge one of its most important enablers – the hook-up culture.
Rape is a profoundly destructive violation of the human person that has unfortunately existed for as long as humanity itself. A rape culture, however, wherein that violation or undertones of it are largely accepted in some outlets, and even glorified in others (think the “Blurred Lines” performance at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards), is a relatively recent return to primitive views on the place and personhood of women. Possibly even worse than seeing women as sources of property, progeny, or household assistance (all of which are wrong and insulting of the human person), rape culture harkens back to a most primordial brutishness and sees women merely as objects of pleasure. Its modern prominence is no surprise, however, when one considers the rise of the hook-up culture.
Before the 1970s, rape in the U.S. was considered a marginal and delinquent behavior that was seldom discussed in polite company. Thus, regardless of any prevalence of rape, there was not a rape culture per se. Then various women’s advocates began to raise awareness and public consciousness of the dark realities of rape (coining “rape culture” in the process, though it had been more of a shrouded current and not the brazen phenomenon and public “culture” that it is today). Efforts rightly aimed at persuading the general public to recognize and stop rape were surely a force for good. Unfortunately, their genesis was more or less contemporaneous with the sexual revolution, its instruments, and its progeny. In time, that revolution “matured” into the hook-up culture that we live in today and that regrettably provides the rape culture with a space in which to thrive.
The hook-up culture teaches men that neither women nor sex have any value greater than the temporary physical pleasure that they can be used for. While nearly ubiquitous, its base camp is college campuses (and it is no coincidence that much of the attention against the rape culture has been focused on universities). Though some studies assert that the hook-up culture is a myth because it is not partaken of by a majority of college students, the perception in the public consciousness that “everyone else is doing it and it’s ok” makes it a real culture – and a real danger. That culture suggests to men that they can expect women to be willing and available sexual partners for casual encounters. When individual women do not acquiesce to advances, some offending men act upon these expectations with a sense of entitlement and then pressure, or even physically coerce, women into sexual activity.
Yet while many will rally against a rape culture, few in either policy advocacy or university administration would dare challenge the hook-up culture. This is because many of the tools of the hook-up culture are seen as symbols of women’s liberation and equality. Freely-distributed and brightly-colored contraception products tossed about on campuses are not only supplies but cultural propaganda that encourage pre-marital and casual sexual activity. They desensitize both men and women to the natural consequence, and hence the gravity, of sex. Co-ed dormitories increase the encounters and locations in which compromising situations can arise. College orientation programs preach the modern orthodoxy that sexual choices should be self-guided by the principle of “if it feels good do it.” All of this provides an environment in which the hook-up culture and, ultimately, the rape culture thrive.
Individual women are unequivocally not to blame for the actions of individual men, and men who commit offenses in any form against a woman’s person or dignity should be held responsible. The ruling collective culture, however, makes it difficult for either men or women to make mutually respectful and well-thought-out choices with regard to one another. The hook-up culture, even if existing only in perception, gives many men an expectation of sexual acquiescence from women. Co-ed access to dormitories and excessive drinking, often by underage students and unchecked by university officials, set the stage for frequent and compromising encounters where offending men apply pressure and sometimes violence to enforce their wrongful expectations. Such was the scene for one young woman at Harvard whose brave story went viral earlier this year. Other alumnae of Harvard have candidly told this author that women on campus, even if not physically threatened, often feel pressure to not disappoint or reject individual expectant men. Yet these same women, progressive in their views, would not recognize the role that the hook-up culture plays in pushing women to be the reluctant or unconsenting counterparts to the putative men that its mainstays produce.
The social problem, however, goes deeper than a few university policies. It is reinforced by the entertainment industry through myriad songs like “Blurred Lines” which subtly yet consistently drum a heinous “You know you want it” mentality into young minds. And the entrenchment of rape culture goes beyond that as well. While men are ultimately responsible for their actions and should have a well-formed conscience, Heather Mac Donald argues that the eradication of traditional rules of gentlemanly behavior and chivalry by progressives has undone that which keeps some men’s most primitive and brutish behaviors in check. In addition, the problem of the rape culture may be multigenerational in depth and duration due to the pandemic of fatherlessness (to which the high prevalence of divorce and contraception contribute by desensitizing many men to the gravity of marriage and sex). With more and more children not being raised by their natural fathers especially, or any father-figure at all, more young men have no role model to show them how to be a pubescent and post-adolescent man who handles his hormones, and young women have no point of reference for how they should expect men to treat them.
To be sure, the elimination of the institutionalized hook-up culture on university campuses would not eliminate rape itself. At the very least, such a dramatic pullback would have to migrate with the students into adulthood and also reach non-college-going populations. And even then, a change in cultural acceptance would have to be met with an actual change in behavior. Nevertheless, ending the hook-up culture would make great strides toward stopping the rape culture as such. And that would be a good starting point toward greater recognition of the respect, security, and dignity due all.
Amending the above: screwing a woman who is actually physically unconscious on the frat house floor WOULD be rape.
Favorite quote from PCU:
“What is this? You’re wearing the shirt of the band you’re going to see. Don’t be that guy.”
Same here. But if she agrees on that basis, she should not be allowed to later whine "I was coerced; I feel raped; he should go to prison because he threatened to break up with me".
it is coercion, no question, whether it is criminal coercion is another question
and, just because time passes doesn’t change the character of the act, if it was a crime when committed, it is still a crime though time passes
Also, the movie foisted the egregious Jeremy Piven on an unsuspecting humanity.
Well, current campus codes seem to imply that ANYTHING that could be construed as coercion turns it into "sexual misconduct".
Is it your viewpoint that, if a guy says he's going to stop seeing the woman unless she agrees to have sex, and she has sex with him in response, then (1) he is thus guilty of "sexual misconduct", and (2) should be subject to punishment on that basis?
Women also enjoy sex.
And boys need to be taught about courtship and tenderness and affection.
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Agreed. He was evil.
In a nutshell. It's criminal that while most rational people recognize that boys mature later than girls, the responsibility to refrain from raping a girl with whom you have been drinking illicitly on campus and with whom you then return to your college-sponsored co-ed dorm, rests solely on the boy, according to feminists and college administrators. This ruins lives.
While I have sympathy for the actual victims of aggressive rape, it is a pity that young females can devastate the reputations of males after a "date gone wrong" due to having been "empowered" by feminist logic writ large in university culture. Earlier generations of women going off to college were warned by their fathers not to go to fraternity parties, get into cars or allow themselves to be found alone with males who had been drinking.
I didn’t see it like that. There was a weenie liberal faculty, a group of elitists and a group of “average” students trying to get along without getting caught up in the nonsense. It actually reflected closely what i experienced in college in the late 80’s, early 90’s. Lots of liberal weenies protesting the cause of the week, a few elitists turning up their noses, and a host of special interest groups fighting for the ever growing pot of student association fees. Blacks, mooslimbs, Africans, Caribbean, Asians, Hispanics, gays, trannies, Hindus, and even Norml were all vying for recognition and funding so they could build “social awareness” aka, have bitchin’ parties.
Really it’s “institutionalized”. Sounds like someone needs a dictionary.
institutionalize
verb
: to cause (a custom, practice, law, etc.) to become accepted and used by many people : to establish (something) as an institution
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/institutionalize
One of my favorite live performance of all time by the “Big O”!
You, at least, agree with me on said egregious Mr. Piven.
Given the way he/she/it construes "crime" and that any kind of non-agreement with the female is "coercion", you betcha.
Okay...
Just imagine if this slight substitution were made...
When Claudia and Timothy first met, their relationship was tumultuous. At first, Claudia didn't want to have "a commitment" with Timothy because she felt like "someone else may come along". He kept trying to convince her. He implied that if Claudia did not "marry" with him, he would break up with her. Claudia finally gave in and "married" Timothy. Several months later after speaking with some friends, she realized she had been coerced.
If an ultimatum, is issued, is that "coercion"? I though the saying was "#$@& or get off the pot".
Couples that move in together are as good as married. If a women has lived with 3 partners, it's hard to accept her "first marriage" as some kind of ground breaking ceremony.
It's all about power. The campus feminists feel that only women should have any coercive relationship power, and no guy should ever even think of making any sort of demand on any girl at any time, and the guy should be punished if he does.
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