Addressing Marshall University's Women's Center Regarding Rape Culture

Marshall University Women's Center page on Rape Culture can be found at the previous link, so you can see exactly what it is that I am criticizing. Remarks from the page will be bolded and italicized.

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.

Okay there is already quite a bit to unpack in this, but who in the hell normalizes abuse against women? I know the Brock Turner case is the default in situations like this, but there were hundreds of thousands of people outraged by the decision by the judge in that case. The good thing (for them) is they provide no such examples as to how Rape Culture is pervasive in media and popular culture. This is almost as nebulous as saying "history shows", wherein you actually need no such citation (paraphrased from Stefan Molyneux). There is nothing within this particular claim to follow through, so you just have to "take them at their word", which is something I refuse to do.

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.

My understanding of "rape culture" is that it is derived heavily from the patriarchy theory of feminism. So in that respect, it is already a little problematic (for lack of a better word) to me personally. The patriarchy theory of feminism created a little something called the Duluth Model (used Wikipedia, but that is merely a jumping point), that essentially stated that only men can abuse women because....patriarchy. It completely ignores certain aspects such as abuse of drugs or a wonky upbringing , etc. But this theory is inherently misandrist in nature.

This then goes on to list various examples of what Rape Culture is:

Blaming the victim (“She asked for it!”)

So right away, we get into the first gendered example of rape culture. It makes a faulty assumption that only women get raped.

Trivializing sexual assault (“Boys will be boys!”)

Faulty assumption number two: boys will be rapists.

Sexually explicit jokes
Tolerance of sexual harassment
Inflating false rape report statistics
Publicly scrutinizing a victim’s dress, mental state, motives, and history
Gratuitous gendered violence in movies and television
Defining “manhood” as dominant and sexually aggressive
Defining “womanhood” as submissive and sexually passive
Pressure on men to “score”
Pressure on women to not appear “cold”

If I responded to each of these individually, this would be impossible to read.

Assuming only promiscuous women get raped

No one with higher level brain function thinks this.

Assuming that men don’t get raped or that only “weak” men get raped

This page has absolutely failed to provide any examples of men being raped, so I could argue that you have actually made that assumption.

Refusing to take rape accusations seriously

What's being preached though is "listen and believe" and what is dominant in our culture is that the idea is "guilty until proven innocent", not the other way around. This was evident in the UVA case, which was deemed to be false. The pervasive ideology creates a witch hunt on college campuses.

Teaching women to avoid getting raped instead of teaching men not to rape

There are multiple points to be made on this one. 1) Again, assuming only men are rapists and only women are victims. 2) If a man (or anyone) is willing to rape someone else, why would they ever give a fuck about consent? If they are willing to do that, you cannot restore their moral compass to include "don't rape people". It's like telling a thief "don't steal" or a murderer "don't kill". 3) Why is it such a bad thing to teach people to be responsible for themselves? Why shouldn't a woman learn self defense or travel in groups so as to not be alone? The default response to that position would be to the effect of "They shouldn't have to" and on principle, I agree with that; however, this denies reality. Reality is that there are shitty people who will do shitty things.

The page ends on a how men and women can combat rape culture.

Avoid using language that objectifies or degrades women

Because you can't objectify or degrade men....

Now the response to this might be something to the effect of "Sexism is prejudice plus power, don't ya know?" And to that, I would simply disregard it, as that is not the ONLY definition of sexism.

Speak out if you hear someone else making an offensive joke or trivializing rape

To this, I would suggest you watch George Carlin's set on rape. God, I miss George Carlin.

If a friend says she has been raped, take her seriously and be supportive

Again, every attempt at a gendered example has painted men as rapists and women as the victims. What if my male friend comes to me saying he has been raped? Should I just ignore him? Act like he's not there?

I glossed over the next few just because I don't really have a grievance with them, such as respecting someone's space and not assuming consent (within reason). I am not sure if this is talking about affirmative consent, asking for virtually every button that is unbuttoned or every thrust made. There's a certain amount of ambiguity coming from the page.

Get involved! Join a student or community group working to end violence against women

Finally, this is the last point they make and the only thing I have to say to it is "but fuck violence against men, right?" I'm not making this point to say I support violence against women, far from it. But feminists seem to ignore violence against men and why (look at the usage of the Duluth Model) and it's truly frustrating. Ideas like rape culture (which doesn't exist), the patriarchy (which also doesn't exist), and toxic masculinity (which is simply misandrist) are just a microcosm of the war against men and boys.