A rape culture is one that normalizes and rationalizes sexual violence as inevitable and a part of “natural” human behavior rather than understanding violence as structurally and culturally created and sustained. In a rape culture, you teach how to avoid getting raped vs teaching not to rape in the first place.

I’m just beginning an inquiry to understand:
what exactly is Rape Culture?

It’s one of those things where I’ve heard or read the phrase and I felt its meaning, but because I didn’t engage in a conversation, I didn’t notice that I don’t really know what it is.

One way I’d like to do this, before we dig into the details, into the 25 forms of victimization, degradation, removal of autonomy and explicit violence depicted in the chart above, is to notice what would change if violence against women and girls wasn’t something we expected. What would that mean to you?

You may have noticed that the form was created inside leave the castle. leave the castle is just my company name and my Google Drive (where I made the form and where the results go) is there. I keep vagina vérité and all of my work that I do using Google forms, docs, etc. there in one spot.

I don’t collect any info about you when you submit a form. I receive what you type in. I don’t ask for your name or email address because I want us to share our histories and experiences freely. They all matter and we can benefit from sharing. Personal identifying info is not needed.

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Sources:

The Rape Culture Pyramid Discussion Guide, developed by the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance
What Is Rape Culture?