Setting the Stage

This is what my words are for..
                     To make  a statement, to educate the masses and start the change.

Do what the words tell you, but do it with your eyes.  This blog isn't auditory.

So, to get the ball rolling I would just like to introduce the point of this blog and why I've decided to say something about this topic.

Rape Culture Is.  It exits as a part of social order.
It's part of the way we as a society think and react.  It influences the way we interact with the people around us everyday.  It shows up in our media and in our politics and in our interactions with other people.  The problem is that it negatively influences all of those things.  Rape culture is detriment to civilization and we should be working to eradicate it.

One of the biggest problems with rape culture as I see it is that awareness of rape culture as an issue is limited.  I only learned about the idea of rape culture as a college student.  I had seen the effects and recognized behaviors caused by rape culture as being detrimental to society, but I did not have a name for it.  There are still time when I catch myslef reacting with the prejudices that rape culture teaches.  So as way to combat that in myself by expanding my own knowledge of the subject and hopefully others as well

Next up:  What is Rape Culture?

Definitions:

 In feminism, rape culture is a concept that links rape and sexual violence to the culture of a society
,- Williams, Joyce E. (31). George Ritzer, J. Michael Ryan, ed. The Concise Encyclopedia of Sociology. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 493. ISBN 978-1405183529.

Rape Culture is an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual violence against women is normalized and excused in the media and popular culture.  Rape culture is perpetuated through the use of misogynistic language, the objectification of women’s bodies, and the glamorization of sexual violence, thereby creating a society that disregards women’s rights and safety.
Rape Culture affects every woman.  The rape of one woman is a degradation, terror, and limitation to all women. Most women and girls limit their behavior because of the existence of rape. Most women and girls live in fear of rape. Men, in general, do not. That’s how rape functions as a powerful means by which the whole female population is held in a subordinate position to the whole male population, even though many men don’t rape, and many women are never victims of rape.  This cycle of fear is the legacy of Rape Culture.
-  http://www.marshall.edu/wcenter/sexual-assault/rape-culture/

A complex set of beliefs that encourage male sexual aggression and supports violence against women. It is a society where violence is seen as sexy and sexuality as violent. In a rape culture, women perceive a continuum of threatened violence that ranges from sexual remarks to sexual touching to rape itself. A rape culture condones physical and emotional terrorism against women as the norm . . . In a rape culture both men and women assume that sexual violence is a fact of life, inevitable . . . However . . . much of what we accept as inevitable is in fact the expression of values and attitudes that can change. 
- Emilie Buchwald, author of Transforming a Rape Culture,

I know that was a lot of words, just a few more and you can take a nice little nap before a big day affecting social change.

Examples:  Rape culture is the way when a girl gets raped her wardrobe is part of the discussion as a cause.  Rape culture is the way the media is so sad for the lost futures of the rapers, 'they had such promising futures.'  Rape culture is the way people believe about half of women lie about being raped when only about 2% of claims are false.

Rape culture is wrong because it teaches everyone that men are sexual aggressors that can not control their own sex drives and that women are victims just waiting to be assaulted.  As it is rape culture promotes the idea that rape and sexual assault are a regualar part of our culture and is presented so in media and popular culture.  Lack of awareness of rape culture and its effects on our thinking and way of life make it harded to affect positive change
So I decided I wanted to say a couple things about the subject, maybe share some of the knowledge that I've come across.  The intent of this blog is to take a look at current events through the lense of rape culture and examine the presence and effects of rape culture on civilization.

I couldn't resist.  EXAMINE!!

For those of you who are interested here's a link to my other blog for more of this, but with less words.  http://www.tumblr.com/blog/fatalisfemina