'Men have defined the parameters of every subject. All feminist arguments, however radical in intent or consequence, are with or against assertions or premises implicit in the male system, which is made credible or authentic by the power of men to name.' - Andrea Dworkin
I am pissed off, fucked off, at having to write this. This is about rape culture. It's about the ability of powerful and less powerful men to rape with impunity, whilst worldwide everybody looks on and says, 'ah yes, but it's "he said, she said"/it has to be innocent until proven guilty' or just *stereotypical rape apologism here*'.
I am sick and tired of having rape discussions that start from the premise, 'it is terrible for a man to be falsely accused of rape'. Yes. Of course it is terrible to be falsely accused. Can we stop pretending that we currently have a fair system which simply and rightfully attempts to make sure that innocent men aren't convicted?
More to the point, it is terrible to *be raped* And, putting this out there, MANY MORE PEOPLE ARE RAPED THAN ARE FALSELY ACCUSED OF RAPING. THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS MORE. Stop catering to the Daily Mail's victim-blaming mythologies. Can you, for once, put it into perspective??
Shall we talk about the ways in which rape victims are sometimes treated in court? Shall we talk about the victim-blaming preconceptions of jury members? Can we have a discussion about misogyny and how this might affect cases, for fuck's sake? Or do we have to keep acting as if that none of this other stuff happens, that the only thing at stake is deciding upon a legal principle: innocent until proven guilty?
I have lost count of the amount of conversations I have had about rape which have not been about how thousands of people get raped and don't bring convictions, but that instead centre around the tiny minority of cases where a false allegation is brought. Conversations about rape should not start with me having to reassure your fragile ego that in general, *women don't lie about rape*. Any woman (and I'm focusing on woman because men do not face the same kinds of prejudices) who makes a false rape accusation, and who has half a brain cell, knows what she is getting into. She will be disbelieved, mocked, denigrated, shamed and shamed and shamed. People will simply not believe her. People will sympathise with her rapist, not with her. There is nothing so stigmatising as being a rape survivor; except maybe talking about it.
If in conversation you find yourself defending those who are accused of rape on reflex, ask yourself why. Is it because you are scared that one day you may be falsely accused? If the latter, maybe you need to start thinking about what consent is. Are you having sex with people you aren't sure are consenting? The absence of a 'no' is not enough for consent. You need an enthusiastic yes, and if you aren't sure, ASK. It is highly unlikely that you will simply encounter a vindictive psychopath who puts herself through the hell of a legal rape claim just to get at you. It could happen, but equally, you could get struck by lightening.
Or do you sympathise with the accused because you think that in most cases of rape, it is one person's word against another and the most important thing at stake is innocent until proven guilty? (Aside from the rant about to follow, please see Zoe Williams' point here, that as a false allegation of rape is also a crime, the only reasonable presumption is that you don't know .)
What is rape culture?
Rape culture is one in which the default position in a rape case is not just innocent until proven guilty, but I'm sure that *something happened* but it was probably consensual and she just changed her mind or she was probably drunk and regretted it or she was wearing a short skirt and asked for it or she had some reason to blackmail him or she was walking alone at night and shouldn't have been or she's a bit emotionally unstable anyway or she's a sex worker or she got into his bed or they've had sex before or she isn't credible anyway, look, one time she took drugs, or she's into group sex so how can we tell or she's a member of the BDSM community and that's what happens if you get into that kind of situation or she's a slut anyway or he seems like a nice guy, why would he do something like that, or she has lied before in her life or it wasn't that violent so it can't have been that bad. ETC ETC ETC.
Rape culture is where only 6.5% of reported rape cases lead to conviction. (Thanks, The Guardian, for reconfirming that fact here)
Rape culture is where women and men feel too afraid to go to the police when they have been raped or sexually assaulted. They know there is every likelihood that police treatment will be belittling, denigrating and unsupportive. They know that their word will immediately be put on trial. Rape crisis centres and refuges, at least, often *believe what the survivor is saying* - oh, except most of their funding has been cut.
Rape culture is where being a crime victim leads to your credibility being destroyed in any way possible. You'd better have a 100000% perfect memory of the rape, the events before and the events after - if you mix up the details at any stage of the million recountings you'll have to do, you're clearly lying. In fact, you'd better have lived a saintly life, because if you've ever done anything wrong, you're legally unrapeable.
Rape culture is where the media can spread a lie about the survivor across the world in the pursuit of destroying her credibility. See Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Rape culture is when every major news outlet tells this story: 'charges expected to be dropped', 'prosecutor says charges will be dropped, and accused may rejoin presidential race in spite of other rape allegations', 'prosecution says witness unreliable'... can you see a pattern here? I can, it's one in which powerful white men are allowed to rape powerless women of colour.
Rape culture is where sex, in general, is seen as dirty and bad and only to be done in hetero-monogamous marriage. It's where women are shamed for having sex, or for not having sex. It's where men are taught to aggressively pursue potential sexual partners; to see sex as something to be acquired from the initially resistant (dehumanised) target. It's where sex education doesn't really happen. It's where we don't know, or don't care, that yes means yes and no means no.
Rape culture is where media coverage of rape fixates on, amplifies, hypes, endlessly reports on the small percentage of women who (a law enforcement body has decided) made a false allegation.
Rape culture is where rape coverage relays every grisly detail of an attack.
Rape culture is where falsely retracting a rape allegation can land you in jail. (Supposedly Keir Starmer has now put a stop to this)
Rape culture is when women are invariably represented as devoid of subjectivity, sexually submissive, and acquiescent to forceful sexual overtures.
Rape culture is the fact that a husband could not legally rape his wife until 1991.
Rape culture is where copies of soft porn magazines are seen as appropriate reading material for juries waiting to be called into cases. Possibly rape cases. (I'm not making this up, Snaresbrook Crown Court has copies of FHM in the jury waiting area).
Rape culture is where rape is accepted as an inevitable part of male sexuality. Please see Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
Rape culture is where the onus is put on women (men aren't ever seen as victims) to prevent their own rape. Ignoring the fact that preventing yourself from being raped is impossible, however you act. Ignoring the fact that not calling an illegal minicab doesn't reduce the risk of you being raped if your partner, friend or acquaintance decides to rape you.
Rape culture is where you can't withdraw consent after you've given it.
Rape culture is where fucking someone whilst they are asleep, who therefore *cannot* have given consent, is not seen as rape. Rape culture is where preventing someone from using protection is not seen as rape. Please see Julian Assange.
Rape culture is where you can't discuss rape without ending up, or beginning, in a discussion about false allegations.
This list could go on forever. Please feel free to add to it.
What can I do to oppose rape culture?
Make sure you know what rape is and then don't do it, look at these websites, challenge rape apologists. Also give all your money to Rape Crisis:
http://www.scarleteen.com/
http://www.object.org.uk/ (Caveat: I have heard a lot of criticism of OBJECT. They take an explicitly anti-porn and anti-sex work position. You may or may not agree with this, but what they say is nevertheless very much worth your time and thought.)
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/crime/call-end-violence-women-girls/government-stern-review?view=Binary
http://www.rapecrisis.org.uk/
http://www.thehavens.co.uk/advice.php
http://www.aswaterspassingby.org/sexualabuse.html
I leave you with another quotation from Andrea Dworkin, who said some good, invariably misrepresented stuff:
We are very close to death. All women are. And we are very close to rape and we are very close to beating. And we are inside a system of humiliation from which there is no escape for us. We use statistics not to try to quantify the injuries, but to convince the world that those injuries even exist. Those statistics are not abstractions. It is easy to say, Ah, the statistics, somebody writes them up one way and somebody writes them up another way. That’s true. But I hear about the rapes one by one by one by one by one, which is also how they happen. Those statistics are not abstract to me. Every three minutes a woman is being raped. Every eighteen seconds a woman is being beaten. There is nothing abstract about it. It is happening right now as I am speaking.
This also, via @cathelliott:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/1282091-The-entirely-unofficial-MN-rape-and-sexual-assault-survery-RESULTS
(trigger warning)
some random bitch is really mad?
ReplyDeleteah nvm im just gonna go rape the next girl i see on the streets to prove ur argument wrong
Excellent post and great photo x
ReplyDeletesay it again and again until this stops.
ReplyDeleteSuch a good post. Not only does it impart the information, it's written in a way that when people argue with them, even though they are 'just plain speaking' or trying to show another point of view, they will end up with 'rape apologist' sprayed across them like a dye pack on a bank robbery.
ReplyDeleteThis should help those are confused to see how it's rape apologists who provide the camouflage and cover for those who rape. It is they who keep the problem alive and kicking, not women wearing skirts and taking taxis and being alone at work or at home with a man.
Thank you and here's hoping that someone who does not already understand the concept of the rape culture will have their eyes opened by your fantastic article. I would love to find the URL address of 'Anonymous' and distribute his post to his family, friends, and employer.
ReplyDeleteAWESOME that is all
ReplyDeleteMany people's attitudes towards rape - male and female - are odious. No doubt about it. And you have a lot of good points. I take issue with a couple of things.
ReplyDelete"Rape culture is where only 6.5% of reported rape cases lead to conviction."
A RAPE conviction, as I'm sure you know. This is the major point of the entire Guardian article. Other convictions are made in as many cases again. This isn't a trivial point, and the numbers are on your side even if you represent them clearly.
"Rape culture is the fact that a husband could not legally rape his wife until 1991."
Awful, but past ills are fairly irrelevant.
"Rape culture is where rape is accepted as an inevitable part of male sexuality. Please see Dominique Strauss-Kahn. "
I agree, the DSK case has shown quite how fucked up the morality of many on the supposed 'left' is.
But but but - and here is the crux - as incredibly tragic as the situation is, innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt is an inviolate principle. Rape conviction rates are doubtless too low, and more can be done - rape kits are an obvious example. Nevertheless there is reasonable doubt in a huge number of rape cases. A disproportionate number, versus other crimes of violence against the person, because rapes are often committed under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
On the conviction rates point - I continue to think hammering the conviction rate message is unhelpful, in that it convinces many women that pursuing rape charges is pointless. The 6.5% figure has actually been extremely damaging.
Rather, the pressure should be institutional - encouraging the police to encourage women to come forward, and provisioning them to swiftly gather evidence in rape cases. Unfortunately, I have a completely unqualified hunch that police attitudes make this incredibly difficult.
Thanks for an interesting read.
Thanks very much all, minus 'anonymous'.
ReplyDelete@arabella - me too! Unfortunately I could only track the ISP to a country, which doesn't help very much. I'm going to leave the post there though, as even though it was said deliberately to hurt (I hope, rather than as a real threat), I think it confirms what I was saying in the blog.
@samuel - Baroness Stern said something similar in the report I linked to above (about not pushing the 6.5% stat). I understand that point but I continue to think that it is best to keep flagging it up until rates improve. I personally would not want to encourage women (or men) to come forward with a case if they won't receive fair treatment after doing so. Need I mention DSK again?
Brilliant article. I agree with it so much that I feel I must point out two things that hold it back from being perfect for me
ReplyDelete1- Unless I've misunderstood, I think you need to change "Rape culture is the fact that a husband could not legally rape his wife until 1991" to "Rape culture is the fact that a husband *could* legally rape his wife until 1991."
2- I'm not sure how helpful it is to tell people "give all your money to rape crisis." In such a serious article that does such a great job of telling it like it is, this comes across as a very badly thought out statement. People have got to eat!
Sorry for nit-picking here. I couldn't find an e-mail address to message you privately.
@Anonymous
ReplyDelete1. I see what you're saying here - we both mean the same thing. My point is that a husband could not be recognised as having raped his wife *legally* until 1991, which is not to say that wives were not raped by their husbands. Just that it wouldn't have been seen that way in law. It is not that what happened would have been seen legally as rape, and that would have been legally ok, but rather that the physical act of rape would have been construed legally as not-rape. Does that make sense?
2. I absolutely take your comment on board! And thanks for commenting generally :D
Amazing, amazing post.
ReplyDeleteRay,
ReplyDeleteThis is a wonderful post, thank you.
@Samuel Palin
I'd like to take issue with your suggestion that the issue of the impossibility of marital rape up to the recent past is not relevant to the culture which Ray is describing.
First off, in a general sense, its seems really problematic to suggest that laws which have been enshrined for much of history cease to be relevant to ongoing political situations, as if the oppressions which they represent are dismantled the minute they are removed from the statute books. Do we want to suggest for example, that the criminalization and pathologization of homosexuality is irrelevant to the current circumstances of homosexuals, or that the Jim Crow laws have no connection to present race relations in the US?
More specifically, the fact that it was - for a long time - impossible to rape one's wife, tells us something crucial about the structure of patriarchy. Namely, that it revolves centrally around securing men's access to women's bodies, in both their sexual and reproductive capacities, and that, moreover, this access, when not 'secured' by pure domination, is often, as Marina pointed out on Sian's blog yesterday, couched in economic terms.
Marriage, therefore, as if often noted, was traditionally and institution in which, effectively, a man gained permanent access to a woman's body in return for providing economic support, shelter, etc. This tells us a lot about the anxiety which underlies the patriarchial attitude to need, or desire - and specifically the desire for sex (and children), which lingers with us (well, more than lingers) until the present day.
Basically, the construction of a certain type of patriarchal masculinity cannot deal with the fact that it has needs and desires, because that would make it vulnerable, and also, require for it to enter into respectful negotiation with other subjects. In fact, defined as invulnerability, masculinity is almost necessarily driven to feel intense hostility to the thing which it needs, but which belongs, actually, to someone else. For the angry invulnerablist there are a bunch of ways to deal with this, one is to appropriate the thing you need in an economic exchange , and another is to simply take it...and to do so, in a certain sense, feeling self-righteous because really, how dare anyone keep this thing you so transparently need from you?
One of the most basic claims of feminism is that women's bodies are their own, and inalienably so. And that, moreover, heterosexual men really just have to take that on the chin and suck it up if they are in any way serious about no longer contributing to the oppression of women. Now, I know, most men will assent to a statement like 'women own their bodies'...but unfortunately, so much of what goes on on a day to day level belies this assent, from the constant battles over reproductive technology, to lecturing us about drinking, telling us what to wear, and blaming our sexuality for the corruption of civilization. The fact that in so many rape cases the entire momentum focuses on undermining the victim rather than building the facts of the case, that the sympathy is so often with the falsely accused as opposed to the huge number of women who never get anywhere near justice, still reflects a profound unwillingness in the culture to really commit itself to women's control over their own bodies.
And until all men actually think about what that really means, for women, we aren't going to get much further.
Posting to say I agree with Samuel.
ReplyDelete@jayseajay
ReplyDeleteI think I slightly misspoke.
That intramarital rape wasn't legally recognised until so recently is obviously symptomatic of the culture Ray is describing.
What I meant was making that point doesn't help further the argument. Making that point means men will dismiss the notion of rape culture as resolved. I was speaking purely pragmatically - let's focus on what's wrong now and what needs to be fixed.
"Marriage, therefore, as if often noted, was traditionally and institution in which, effectively, a man gained permanent access to a woman's body in return for providing economic support, shelter, etc."
It's a factor, of course, but yours is a fairly reductive view of marriage, past and present. People have always loved each other.
Samuel,
ReplyDeleteThanks for you reply. I agree with you, it is a bit (maybe quite a bit) reductive. But it's hard to pull these things apart...love I get (although, there is also a question of how many men choose to marry the women they are most attracted to, rather than the ones they think will make the best wives, or how often they are attracted to women because they think they will make the best wives), public displays of commitment I get...but it is still really tough to shake off the legacy of legal-economic structure which has also been about appropriating women's bodies and labour. How I wish it weren't so.
Yes yes yes! I wrote a bit about this too, particularly in the kink world- http://purrversatility.blogspot.com/2011/07/i-wish-i-could-safeword-rape-culture.html
ReplyDeleteThank you for this post. It pisses me off too.
really, really great post. refreshing to see thought-provoking, intelligent comments, too.
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ReplyDelete