Racism, Misogyny & Rape Culture

Rape culture is a sociological concept for a setting in which rape is pervasive and normalized due to societal attitudes about gender and sexuality. Behaviours commonly associated with rape culture include victim blaming, slut-shaming, sexual objectification, trivializing rape, denial of widespread rape, refusing to acknowledge the harm caused by some forms of sexual violence, or some combination of these.

The notion of rape culture has been used to describe and explain behavior within social groups, including prison rape and in conflict areas where war rape is used as psychological warfare. Entire societies have been alleged to be rape cultures.

Women have historically been second-class citizens, as they were not afforded the same rights as men. Rape laws existed to protect virginal daughters from rape. In these cases, a rape done to a woman was seen as an attack on the estate of her father because she was his property and a woman’s virginity being taken before marriage lessened her value; if the woman was married, the rape was an attack on the husband because it violated his property. The rapist was either subject to payment or severe punishment. The father could rape or keep the rapist’s wife or make the rapist marry his daughter.

A man could not be charged with raping his wife since she was his property. By contrast, rape of a single woman without strong ties to a father or husband caused no great concern.