[Trigger warning for rape and sexual assault.]
The words “rape culture” have been bandied around a lot in the past 12 months. From the so-called Roastbusters at the end of last year, to a series of assaults in central Wellington at Easter, to Tanya Billingsley’s calls on the Government, the term has gone from feminist blogs to mainstream discussion. Even Rodney Hide has “reluctantly concluded” that rape culture exists in New Zealand.
But what is it, exactly?
Speaking to RNZ National last year, feminist academic (and Labour Party candidate for Rangitikei) Deborah Russell said rape culture is the cultural and social framework that enables violence against women. “It’s the whole set of ideas we have around sexuality and violence and rape that normalise rape and make it acceptable, and at the same time, almost invisible.”
Rape culture is manifested in victim-blaming: the idea that someone’s outfit or route home had a part to play in their being assaulted. That they did something to deserve it.
It’s the term ‘frape’, as though someone’s posting a joking status to your Facebook profile is the equivalent to a brutal assault.
It’s the chorus of ‘Blurred Lines’ (“I know you want it”).
"I know you want it." In rape culture, women get naked, while men get fancy suits, and to blur the lines of consent. Photo: Unknown
It’s #notallmen, but #yesallwomen.
It’s the idea that there’s “legitimate rape”, with the implication that some is illegitimate.
It’s the fact that jokes about rape and violence against women are considered not only acceptable, but funny.
It’s the sexual objectification of women, like street harassment or being groped in a bar, and the fact that is seen as at best something to be tolerated and at worst complimentary, instead of grounds for a sexual assault charge.
Rape culture doesn’t mean that all men are rapists, but it does explain the pervasive myth that rapists are strangers hiding on dark alleys, when according to a 2009 study, 92 per cent of victims know or could identify the person who sexually assaulted them.
And it doesn’t mean all victims are women and all offenders, men. One in nine men are themselves likely to suffer some kind of sexual violence. Queer and trans* people are significantly more likely to suffer violence, as are Maori and Pasifika women.
Rape culture isn’t easy to articulate or explain because it isn’t just one thing: it’s all around us, at the highest levels of government, police, the justice system and media. As blogger Julie Fairey writes, we’re soaking in it:
Most women (and I suspect many men) have rape stories; their own, or those of others who have shared with them, things they have seen, things they themselves have done. For me they are the stories of others, or near misses, but the chance that I will be raped at some point in my life is really very high – one in four women and girls in New Zealand have had that awful dehumanising experience. I read once that one in five New Zealanders have asthma. Amongst women being a victim of rape is more common than being asthmatic.
What’s more, given low rates of reporting to the police, that statistic of one in four women is likely to be conservative. It means the vast majority of women live with the fear that they’re at risk, and it’s the reason why they travel in packs, are wary of taxi drivers, hold their keys in between their fists when they’re walking at night, and text each other when they arrive home. It’s the pervasive fear that they’ll be next.
For help and support with any of the issues raised in this story, or for more information about sexual and domestic violence, here are some of the services available:
Rape Crisis
Women’s Refuge
Victim Support
Sexual Abuse Help Foundation
Shine
Shakti NZ
NZ Police diversity liaison officers