Sexual assault has undoubtedly entrenched itself deep within the minds and lives of college students everywhere. Naturally, such a broad toxification demands attention and remedy; regrettably, efforts which attempt to address the notorious substance-induced assault have been starkly misguided and ill-informed. I am referring a specific, yet undeniably large component of what is considered rape or sexual assault on college campuses β two people, of indeterminate drunkenness, engaging in sexual activity.
I want to suggest that the rape culture narrative is not only wrong, but completely off the mark. In , a year-old Saudi woman was gang raped by seven men. Through an unforgivable perversion of justice, a Sharia court resentenced her to lashes and six months in jail. What was her crime? This is rape culture, seen in such other places as the courts of India and Pakistan. A victim is held at fault; the victimizers are held in acclaim. Not only by isolated groups, but by significant portions of society and its government.
Obviously the fact that other countries have it worse does not mean we do not have it at all. What aspects of our society lie within the realm of a rape culture? What is institutionalized, however, is hookup culture. Some say rape culture exists in the portrayal of women in our media. Looking at the media of the aforementioned regions where rape culture is an alarmingly pervasive phenomenon shows that similarities are practically nonexistent.
In those areas, the ideals of a rape culture are perpetuated by stripping women of their sexuality. It is not only seen as forbidden, but damaging and corrupting. This is not a sign of rape culture, but of hookup culture.
In shifting the responsibility for the abundance of ambiguous rape cases onto nonexistent problems in society, we completely overlook the true contributing factors in these instances: alcohol and the disregard for personal responsibility and safety that hookup culture so shamelessly advocates. I hope the dangers of trying to tackle the problem of rape within a rape culture context β when in reality the issue exists in a hookup culture context β are now frighteningly clear.
