Rape Culture Exists: The Fight Against Victim Blaming

What was she wearing? What time was she out at night? Why didn’t she tell anyone? Why didn’t just scream for help? She could’ve easily saved herself.

These are the questions rape victims shouldn’t face. In society, we often resort to deconstructing these incidents and considering factors and irrelevant variables such as measuring the modesty of how the victim dressed to the time she was out later that night. But these are all just excuses and it’s never the victim’s fault.

There’s also a denial that rape culture exists and it remains as an issue in third world countries. But it’s still an issue, regardless of geography, and is very much a problem in first world nations too. Here are a few chilling examples circulating in the media:

The Stanford Rape Case
What made headlines in early 2016 was the story of Brock Turner, a former Stanford University swimmer who was convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman outside a fraternity house. He only spent half of six months sentence and was given parole on good behaviour. This event sparked an outcry – and Brock’s lack of remorse and extreme denial of his crimes (blaming ‘party culture’ to justify his rape) showed a good example of the injustice and modern day rape culture.

Ke$ha and Dr. Luke Case 
In 2014, Kesha took her producer to court suing him for sexual, verbal, emotional and physical abuse. The assault was so bad that Kesha almost took her own life. With her objectives being to end her contract with Sony in concern for her safety, the Judge refused due to a “breach of contract”.

Artists like Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift and also fans have shown their support for Kesha, holding rallies outside boardrooms and courtrooms.

We need to stop slut-shaming and telling our women to dress or behave a certain way or implement a curfew for their safety, we should teach our sons and the men in our lives to not commit sexual assault crimes.