RAPE CULTURE
ROBERT WONSER
* Trigger warning:
graphic and
disturbing content
WHAT IS ‘RAPE CULTURE’?
• Rape culture is a concept which links rape and
sexual violence to the culture of a society, and in
which prevalent attitudes and practices normalize,
excuse, tolerate, or even condone rape.
ELEMENTS WITHIN RAPE CULTURE:
OBJECTIFICATION
• What is sexual objectification? If objectification is
the process of representing or treating a person like
an object (a non-thinking thing that can be used
however one likes), then sexual objectification is the
process of representing or treating a person like a
sex object, one that serves another’s sexual
pleasure.
• Sexual objectification of women – turning a person
into an object, a thing, or a part.
1) DOES THE IMAGE SHOW ONLY
PART(S) OF A SEXUALIZED PERSON’S
BODY?
• How to spot it:
• Headless women, for example,
make it easy to see her as only
a body by erasing the
individuality communicated
through faces, eyes, and eye
contact:
2) DOES THE IMAGE PRESENT A SEXUALIZED
PERSON AS A STAND-IN FOR AN OBJECT?
• The breasts of the
woman in this beer
ad, for example, are
conflated with the
cans:
Or sometimes objects
themselves are made to
look like women, like this
series of sinks and urinals
shaped like women’s
bodies and mouths and
these everyday items, like
pencil sharpeners.
3) DOES THE IMAGE SHOW A
SEXUALIZED PERSON AS
INTERCHANGEABLE?
•
Interchangeability is a
common advertising theme
that reinforces the idea that
women, like objects, are
fungible. And like objects,
“more is better,” a market
sentiment that erases the
worth of individual women.
The image below advertising
Mercedes-Benz presents just
part of a woman’s body
(breasts) as interchangeable
and additive:
This image of a set of
Victoria’s Secret
models has a similar
effect. Their hair and
skin color varies slightly,
but they are also
presented as all of a
kind:
4) DOES THE IMAGE AFFIRM THE IDEA OF
VIOLATING THE BODILY INTEGRITY OF A
SEXUALIZED PERSON THAT CAN’T CONSENT?
• This ad, for example, shows
an incapacitated woman
in a sexualized positionwith
a male protagonist holding
her on a leash. It
glamorizes the possibility
that he has attacked and
subdued her:
5) Does the image suggest that sexual availability
is the defining characteristic of the person?
• This ad, with the copy
“now open,” sends the
message that this
woman is for sex. If she
is open for business,
then she presumably
can be had by
anyone.
6) DOES THE IMAGE SHOW A SEXUALIZED
PERSON AS A COMMODITY (SOMETHING THAT
CAN BE BOUGHT AND SOLD)?
• By definition, objects
can be bought and
sold, but some images
portray women as
everyday
commodities. Conflatin
g women with food is a
common subcategory. As an
example, Meredith
Bean, Ph.D., sent in this
photo of a Massive
Melons “energy” drink
sold in New Zealand:
7) DOES THE IMAGE TREAT A
SEXUALIZED PERSON’S BODY AS A
CANVAS?
• In the two
images
below,
women’s
bodies are
presented as
a particular
type of
object: a
canvas that is
marked up or
drawn upon.
ELEMENTS OF RAPE CULTURE: VICTIM
BLAMING
Victim
blaming is the
phenomenon
in which a
victim of a
crime or an
accident is
partially or
entirely
attributed or
responsible for
the
transgressions
committed
against them.
ELEMENTS OF RAPE CULTURE: SLUT
SHAMING
• Slut shaming is defined as the act of making a
woman feel guilty or inferior for engaging in certain
sexual behaviors that deviate from traditional or
orthodox gender expectations, or that which may
be considered to be contrary to natural or
supernatural/religious law.
• Some examples of behaviors which women are
"slut-shamed" over include:
• dressing in sexually provocative ways,
• requesting access to birth control,
• or even for being raped or sexually assaulted.
ELEMENTS OF RAPE CULTURE:
TRIVIALIZING RAPE
• Comedy and jokes
LINK WITH MASCULINITY
LINK WITH RAPE MYTHS
• ‘no means yes’
• ‘she really wanted it’
Hand stamp
to gain entry
into a bar.
LINK WITH ADVERTISING
FASHION ADS IMPLYING RAPE
DOLCE & GABBANA
“Apply generously to
your neck so he can
smell the scent as you
shake your head ‘no’”
Implied
gang rape
in a Calvin
Klein ad
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