Heres a joke.

A guy says: I am a male prostitute. I say that, but really I just rape girls and steal their
money
Funny, right?
A nice, fun fact to go with that joke: 250,000 cases of rape or attempted rape are recorded
by police annually, though research shows that between 75 percent to 95 percent of rape
cases are never reported to the police.
Still funny?
We tend to treat rape with a limited amount of seriousness because it appears distant
from ourselves, irrelevant- unimportant, even, but is that true? What if I told you that just
under half of all victims of rape are under the age of 18? That 1 in 6 females today will be
assaulted within their lifetime- is it relevant then? And if its so relevant, why is it still so
normal, so easy to disregard it, to downplay it?
Its simple: rape culture. It has stunted our progress in society, and it has reached a point
in which it is so ingrained within us that we are unable to perceive it as the problem it is.
Rape culture is a poison, and it it needs to be stopped.
What exactly is rape culture, though? Now, it comes under many denitions, but broadly
speaking, it refers to an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual
violence is normalized and excused in media and popular culture.
Think about every rape joke youve ever heard, every story on the news. Every time youve
heard hushed whispers about someone asking for it- the cheap TV gags, bad t-shirts,
insults thrown. Theyre all a part of it.
(point 1) But maybe this is all too hypothetical, not quite visceral enough, so let me show
you how the media perpetuates this. An intoxicated teen at a party. Found unconscious,
she was taken to various places and raped by multiple people throughout the night. Two
students were found to be guilty of orchestrating the event, and they were taken to court.
This was where the story should have ended- the offenders prosecuted, the victim cared
for and beginning to rehabilitate.
This wasnt the case.
The media twisted the situation, calling it unfortunate, describing the males as
misunderstood and having lost a bright future due to this incident. On the other hand, the
victim was shamed for the incident for making the town look bad. Despite the fact that the
victims basic rights were violated. Despite the fact that it reected nothing on her part. The
media chose to utterly downplay the incident in favor of painting a more sentimental
picture. As something more innocent. Ironic, isnt it?
Rape is one of the most invasive acts a human can do to one other, and yet we are so
complacent within this state in our culture that we are often reluctant to do something
about it. Those who are raped are often condemned and told to keep quiet about it- those
that do speak out are ostracized, deemed promiscuous and therefore deserving of the act
as well as attention seeking. The statistics dont lie- of every 100 rapes, 60 will go
unreported, and only 3 rapists will spend even a single day in jail.
(point 3) We dont want to acknowledge how close these events are to our daily lives, and
so we shroud the truth, always avoiding that oh so dangerous r word. It wasnt rape, they
were drunk. It wasnt rape, they didnt ght back. It wasnt rape, they were already in a
relationship.
Never mind that your rapist is someone you know two thirds of the time. Never mind that
were still not having open, frank discussions about this. Never mind that we dont even
have a clear image of how often rape happens due to the complete lack of information. If
rape is so undenable, what extent must people go to for it to count?

Rape culture is dangerous because its a result of us being complacent in our places in
society. It is a poison so saturated that we are completely unable to acknowledge it. It has
seeped into almost every crevice, every little corner of our lives, and as obvious as it is, it
still remains completely ignored.
So I urge you all to open your eyes. To see rape culture as the threat that it is. To
acknowledge its presence within our lives. To put an end to rape culture at last.