Does rape culture exist? (POLL)

I think it is because society is willing to destroy them one a accusation alone and they are protecting themselves.

Absolutely yes
Not just in every day society but especially in the military (particularly the U.S military) where many military staff still think of rape as a tactic/strategy, and not a crime. The invasion of Iraq and the war crimes that occurred there not only show the elements of rape culture that are stagnant within society and military but also the colonial and imperialist undertones of it. Today there was an article about the fact that a Spanish judge asked a rape victim 'if she tried closing her legs'. I think that's pretty strong evidence of the rape culture in Europe and other places today.

You raised some excellent points, but I vehemently disagree. The rape culture in countries such as Iraq, India etc... is well known (with women being blamed for rape consistently), but in Western countries, no.

All you need to do is look at the utter uproar, both in the media and on social networks, every time a rapist is "named and shamed", and rightly so. They become a public disgrace. It is rare these days for proven rapists to avoid jailtime, and there, they face even further retribution from fellow prisoners/staff. In these times, rape hotlines are offered, rape shelters are running, universities are getting stricter and stricter on what constitutes "rape", and victims are offered more support. If we, in the West, truly lived in a rape culture, none of these would be offered, and offenders would not receive the punishment they do.

On top of this, the growing awareness that yes, men can face sexual assault and rape, and the fact that society as a whole still laughs at and ridicules male victims, moreso than any female survivors, seriously dents the credibility against the flat, traditional, feminist: "rape culture against females".

Could we do more to stamp out rape altogether? Yes. Should victims of all genders be recognised and offered even more support? Yes. But are we, in the US, Canada, UK and other developed, civilised Western countries living in a big, bad rape culture designed to crush women? Hell no!

But if we truly didn't live in a rape culture, how could a JUDGE of all people, possibly insinuate that the poor woman who was raped by her partner should have 'closed her legs', not only suggesting that she should have placed herself in harms way by resisting, but also suggesting that it is unlikely you can be raped by your partner (which is a long running trend since Russell's study in 1975).
And if we didn't live in a rape culture, why are rape figures so high? Why are 11 adults raped on average per hour in England & Wales and why are 3 MILLION girls and women exposed to some kind of sexual threat or abuse every year in the UK? Not withstanding the huge amount of women and men (including myself) who don't report their experiences to the police because of stigmatisation, fear, or confusion because 90% of us actually know our attacker beforehand. 36% of people think a woman should be held partly responsible if she is drunk, 26% if she is wearing 'sexy' clothes, and 77% of men believe that having sex with someone who says no is rape.. that leaves 23% of men in this country that believe that having non-consensual sex doesn't count as rape.
I've been spiked twice on a night out, as has my friend, I've been told I 'owe' something to a man because he bought me a drink even when I told him I wasn't interested, I've been terrified after a woman was followed home from my local night out, raped and thrown in a river to drown. It's not just 'rape'. It's the men who catcall at me on my way to work because I'm wearing a skirt. It's the man who followed me home on my way back to work until I called a friend. It's the guy who put his hand up my dress on a night out. It's the high school boyfriend who groped me while he thought I was sleeping and laughed it off afterwards (as did his friends). It's people telling me that it's not safe to go out on my own, or walk home at 8pm during winter when it gets dark, or that I should never get into a taxi on my own.
12% of rape charges end in prosecution.. 12%!

My point was not a 'only women get affected by rape' comment and neither did I insinuate as such. The rape culture is not defined by rape against women, but is a complex interweaving of race, gender and other discourses. Yes, the rape culture in the UK may not be as severe as in other countries, but I do believe there is still a rape culture here.

But if we truly didn't live in a rape culture, how could a JUDGE of all people, possibly insinuate that the poor woman who was raped by her partner should have 'closed her legs', not only suggesting that she should have placed herself in harms way by resisting, but also suggesting that it is unlikely you can be raped by your partner (which is a long running trend since Russell's study in 1975).
And if we didn't live in a rape culture, why are rape figures so high? Why are 11 adults raped on average per hour in England & Wales and why are 3 MILLION girls and women exposed to some kind of sexual threat or abuse every year in the UK? Not withstanding the huge amount of women and men (including myself) who don't report their experiences to the police because of stigmatisation, fear, or confusion because 90% of us actually know our attacker beforehand. 36% of people think a woman should be held partly responsible if she is drunk, 26% if she is wearing 'sexy' clothes, and 77% of men believe that having sex with someone who says no is rape.. that leaves 23% of men in this country that believe that having non-consensual sex doesn't count as rape.
I've been spiked twice on a night out, as has my friend, I've been told I 'owe' something to a man because he bought me a drink even when I told him I wasn't interested, I've been terrified after a woman was followed home from my local night out, raped and thrown in a river to drown. It's not just 'rape'. It's the men who catcall at me on my way to work because I'm wearing a skirt. It's the man who followed me home on my way back to work until I called a friend. It's the guy who put his hand up my dress on a night out. It's the high school boyfriend who groped me while he thought I was sleeping and laughed it off afterwards (as did his friends). It's people telling me that it's not safe to go out on my own, or walk home at 8pm during winter when it gets dark, or that I should never get into a taxi on my own.
12% of rape charges end in prosecution.. 12%!

My point was not a 'only women get affected by rape' comment and neither did I insinuate as such. The rape culture is not defined by rape against women, but is a complex interweaving of race, gender and other discourses. Yes, the rape culture in the UK may not be as severe as in other countries, but I do believe there is still a rape culture here.

"The low conviction rate – around 7% of reported rapes resulted in convictions during 2011/12 – is not significantly out of line with other common crimes such as burglary,"

"In 2011/12 there were 14,767 recorded female rapes but only 1,058 convictions. In 1985, by comparison, there were 1,842 recorded rapes but 450 convictions. In other words, en eightfold increase in the reporting of rape over the period has resulted in little more than a doubling in the conviction rate."

"Of those cases that result in a full crown court trial, 51.1% resulted in a conviction in 2011/12. That, Reece said, is also not out of line with other serious offences."

Again, I agree with some of your points, but your statements are flawed. Firstly, you are grouping both separate countries, and the actions of individuals with the acts of society together. Sure what the judge said was wrong, but that was one person. Plus, you forget that that singe comment was considered NEWSWORTHY. This is what I meant by uproar. It would be one thing if the judge was allowed to get away with it. But the media rightfully jumped on him for it, so much so that a newspaper in another country was sufficiently angered to write an article about it. Now, the judge will likely face charges and/or lose his job, which surely shows that statements such as his are not condoned by society.

Whilst we live undoubtedly in a culture that could do more against rape, evidenced by those shocking figures, the many advancements in care, the greater rates of conviction for rapists in recent years, and people like yourself give me confidence that the issues are being dealt with, which Is why I am just not convinced of the existence of a rape culture in the west.

A rape culture is one in which rape is socially acceptable, condoned and even encouraged in some cases. I doubt anyone living in the UK could look at me with a straight face and tell me that rape is seen as acceptable, much less condoned. Whatever experiences you, personally, may have had would be met with outrage if brought to the masses, guaranteed. This is what I mean by rape culture. Rape is almost universally hated by the media, by the west, and by educated people. Those are just not features of a rape culture.

Dan
I take it you are male - The first instinct of a male in this environment is to defend his territory.
It`s not what I`m saying, what I`m saying is that a virtual majority of men might entertain it under those perceptual circumstances that it would n`t count/that it had not happened. The mentality of the mob can be seemingly larger than/removed from, actual realities. Males tend to be very quick in forming large single minded groups, should the right set of circumstances prevail. This likely the world over, so not actually cultural when singled out.

Mob mentality is a gender issue so far as a particular gender may make up that mob, especially an issue if we are to discuss rape. Men will likely try to dominate from this point on, and in rigorously defending their gender some shall be, and for good reason, rigorously defending themselves. The men that remain the most calm and collective would have tended to be the men with the least of themselves to hide, would have been, for I`ve just let the cat out of the bag.

Absolutely yes
Not just in every day society but especially in the military (particularly the U.S military) where many military staff still think of rape as a tactic/strategy, and not a crime. The invasion of Iraq and the war crimes that occurred there not only show the elements of rape culture that are stagnant within society and military but also the colonial and imperialist undertones of it. Today there was an article about the fact that a Spanish judge asked a rape victim 'if she tried closing her legs'. I think that's pretty strong evidence of the rape culture in Europe and other places today.

Throwing random facts around will not help you.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/mar/25/rape-myths-low-conviction-rate#comment-22226229



The fact is, in a crime with one persons word against another you cannot prosecute. Then it's pretty much up to the defendant to mess up their testimony to be found guilty (as per a BBC three documentary showed only a month or so ago).

Also concerning those questionnaires, look into the reason behind why those 23% of mens viewed differed. I doubt it would be because they felt rape is fine, it's more likely to be around the moral gray area concerning rape, aka the whole if someone says no and you ask again and they change their mind and say yes, is it pressuring them to have sex? Which would technically in some courts be rape.

Joe
Please can you repeat as there`s something missing to the sense of your comment.

Dan
I take it you are male - The first instinct of a male in this environment is to defend his territory.
It`s not what I`m saying, what I`m saying is that a virtual majority of men might entertain it under those perceptual circumstances that it would n`t count/that it had not happened. The mentality of the mob can be seemingly larger than/removed from, actual realities. Males tend to be very quick in forming large single minded groups, should the right set of circumstances prevail. This likely the world over, so not actually cultural when singled out.

Mob mentality is a gender issue so far as a particular gender may make up that mob, especially an issue if we are to discuss rape. Men will likely try to dominate from this point on, and in rigorously defending their gender some shall be, and for good reason, rigorously defending themselves. The men that remain the most calm and collective would have tended to be the men with the least of themselves to hide, would have been, for I`ve just let the cat out of the bag.

I wish I knew what the previous comment meant?

The prosecution point I will accept - although Reece's opinion is just one of many on both sides of the argument.
However your point on the questionnaire - why would a man look further into the question and imagine an alternate scenario? The question was, if a woman says no to sex, is that rape? Not.. if a woman says no to sex and then changes her mind.
So there's no moral grey area to be had around the question, it's quite straightforward.

The main problem being that's not how people fill in questionnaires.

Some people would think the question would state no equals rape 100% of the time, aka some may think, what about in a fetish situation? The Woman may so no but within pre-defined rules that may be consent. Some people may think the earlier example I put.

Unless you actually delve into "why" those 23% said what they did. Most questionnaire also lack clarification to the participant to what they are really asking and a participant misunderstanding badly worded or ambiguous questions wrongly when compared to their intentions is remarkably common. It's data collecting 1'o'1.

I would personally ask the same question, then later ask is rape (ever) okay. Afterwards question them on the reason for the difference in answers if there is one.

Conviction rates have actually dropped (it was 16% the year before). As I said, the word 'rape culture' itself is misleading because you're primarily using rape as a measurement. As in - maybe a large majority of people would say that rape is unacceptable, but they'd probably still grope someone. My ex would never condone rape, neither would his friends - yet he did assault me, and his friends laughed about it.
The misunderstanding is that for a rape culture to exist, it has to be extreme, or in the media, or somehow visible. Most American newspapers report on the unjust shooting of black civilians by police, yet you can hardly say that there isn't a huge race issue in America. You're right that the media reports on rape (sometimes) and that no-one would openly say its acceptable. That's because it's a lot more sinister, subtle and harder to see.
It's not an absolute concept. A rape culture can be defined by elements of slut shaming, victim blaming, stigma, apathy, rape myths, and many others. The definition you are using, which is that of absolute acceptance of rape as an every day occurrence - is one of many definitions in the feminist academia around rape cultures. In the UK, it's unlikely that if I went to the newspaper and told them I was groped in a nightclub, that it would be covered. Of course not. If I told them that my friend passes nude pictures of girls around his friendship group, it also wouldn't make newspapers. It probably wouldn't bother a lot of my male friends either. 'It's banter, it's okay because she sent them to him.'
Using the term 'the West' would suggest that we are the only ones to not have a rape culture, like we are exempt because we're 'civilised'. Like many things, we would like to believe so, but underneath the story we would all like, there's a lot of dirty truths out there.
'Rape culture is a fluid and always-changing entity that is socially produced and socially legitimated, so throughout time and place its definitions will change'.

Conviction rates have actually dropped (it was 16% the year before). As I said, the word 'rape culture' itself is misleading because you're primarily using rape as a measurement. As in - maybe a large majority of people would say that rape is unacceptable, but they'd probably still grope someone. My ex would never condone rape, neither would his friends - yet he did assault me, and his friends laughed about it.
The misunderstanding is that for a rape culture to exist, it has to be extreme, or in the media, or somehow visible. Most American newspapers report on the unjust shooting of black civilians by police, yet you can hardly say that there isn't a huge race issue in America. You're right that the media reports on rape (sometimes) and that no-one would openly say its acceptable. That's because it's a lot more sinister, subtle and harder to see.
It's not an absolute concept. A rape culture can be defined by elements of slut shaming, victim blaming, stigma, apathy, rape myths, and many others. The definition you are using, which is that of absolute acceptance of rape as an every day occurrence - is one of many definitions in the feminist academia around rape cultures. In the UK, it's unlikely that if I went to the newspaper and told them I was groped in a nightclub, that it would be covered. Of course not. If I told them that my friend passes nude pictures of girls around his friendship group, it also wouldn't make newspapers. It probably wouldn't bother a lot of my male friends either. 'It's banter, it's okay because she sent them to him.'
Using the term 'the West' would suggest that we are the only ones to not have a rape culture, like we are exempt because we're 'civilised'. Like many things, we would like to believe so, but underneath the story we would all like, there's a lot of dirty truths out there.
'Rape culture is a fluid and always-changing entity that is socially produced and socially legitimated, so throughout time and place its definitions will change'.

Who would think of a fetish situation when it clearly isn't mentioned? As someone who does political research using questionnaires with the public, I think the question is about as clear as it could be. There's no suggestion it's anything other than sex.
You seem to be in denial that any male would think non-consensual sex is okay. We know that rape does undeniably happen, so clearly there are people who do agree with that.

Murder happens
Burglary happens
Assault happens
Terrorism happens
False accusations happens
All crimes happen, so people agree with them do we live in a culture where these are accepted?

Of course not. Most people wouldn't murder someone - but most people also wouldn't casually stab/attack someone. Most people wouldn't rape someone - but a lot of people would probably grope/harrass someone.

Look, i'm not disagreeing with what you have to say. But every man would act differently in different situations. This idea of "we live in a rape culture, therefore be afraid of men" is completely incorrect. For one thing, for every man that will actually grope or rape a girl, there are another 3, 5 or more that would never do that. That is what makes rape so difficult to stamp out. It isn't a culture, or a trend, or a society. It is the actions of individuals, and you simply cannot prevent every low-life from doing what they do best. At some point (although we are from this point) there has to be an element of okay, we will never be rid of this small minority of people, and so we must instead act on the cases we have in court and also on the courage of the victim.

The reason rape/sexual assault convictions aren't higher, is like the other poster said, it is a very difficult crime to prove. If it comes down to one word against another, whatever the emotions, you cannot sentence a man based on that alone, especially due to the relatively common rate of false rape accusations these days. Of course the sentencing rate for rape should be higher, but like burglary and a drove of other crimes, we operate on a system of innocent until proven guilty, and we must stick to this system for the sake of justice. Young men are already losing their jobs, their lives, their families, their educations to false rape accusations, and so this is why, with a clear conscience, we cannot simply accept the words of the victim 100% of the time.

Are you saying that there is a sliding scale of rape?

There is a group of people who can get away with groping people they are called women but if a man does it, it isn't accepted