5 ways sexual assault is really about entitlement

[redqueen]

Rape isn't caused by drinking. It's fostered by a culture that tells some men they can act with impunity
SORAYA CHEMALY

...

First, sexual assault on college campuses happens in environments of overwhelming cultural and institutional tolerance that support discriminatory double standards. While the overall rate of sexual assault in the US has declined since the late 1970s, it has stayed constant on US campuses. The Center for Public Policy and the Department of Justice estimate that 95% of college sexual assaults are not reported because victims, regardless of sex, gender or sexuality, do not have confidence that they will be believed, that their schools will help them and that they won’t be humiliated and shamed. Our culture essentially gives rapists the message that they’re entitled to be believed and respected; their victims aren’t.

Since women’s basic right to bodily integrity seems to confuse some people, let’s talk about sexual assault that involves men and boys. Decades of Catholic Church sexual abuse tragedies, the Boy Scouts, Penn State, rape in correctional facilities, sexual assault in the military, recurring episodes at high schools around the country are all examples of entitlement to rape in the face of institutional tolerance.

These cases all involve situations where people, usually men, with uncontested power use that power to abuse more vulnerable people. Their victims are vulnerable not only because they are smaller or younger, and certainly not because they are drunk, but because they lack cultural power – the power to be believed or have their rights of bodily integrity respected by society. Sometimes, those people are children; other times they’re men. Much more often, however, they are young girls and women. Alcohol only highlights deeply rooted ideas about who has the right act with impunity. As Jaclyn Friedman explained five years ago, drinking “is not a risk for nearly half the population. I’ve never met a straight man who worried about being raped as he contemplated a night of debauchery. Vomiting in public? Yes. Getting rejected by sexual prospects? Sure. Getting in a fight? Maybe. Getting raped? Come on.”

A false accusation of rape is, indeed, a fearsome prospect. But the likelihood of being falsely accused of rape are no different from that of being falsely accused of any other crime. And women are far more likely to be raped than men are to be falsely accused. The insistence on treating the two as equally prevalent issues is ….an entitlement.

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http://www.salon.com/2013/10/24/5_ways_sexual_assault_is_really_about_entitlement/

In all the attempts to silence women during discussions of sexual assault and rape, by regurgitating the mantra that rape has declined since blah blah blah so shut up about rape already wimminz... I wonder how that drop correlates to the change in the law which made it illegal for men to rape their wives?

[ismnotwasm]

1. Wow

Didn't know about this.

Fourth, we cannot talk about sexual assault and broader violence in schools without discussing athletics, both before and during college. While male student athletes make up 3.3% of the U.S. college population, they are responsible for 19% percent of sexual assaults and 37% of domestic violence cases on college campuses. In the wake of the Steubenville rape case, but before so many others, like the more recent case in Maryville, The Nation’s Dave Zirin called for a serious questioning of “the connective tissue between jock culture and rape culture.” The core characteristics of high-status boys’ sports – violence, dominance, power, specialness and impunity – are married seamlessly to the marginalization and sexual objectification of girls and women as trophies and playthings. It is possible to cultivate a healthy sense of fraternity without the denigration and victimization of girls and LGBT youth, but that’s not what’s happening.

[lark]

2. So sadly true

A friend of mine's daughter was assaulted by a group of jocks at FSU and had to be hospitalized. She was threatened by some of the rapist/assaulters friends so dropped the charges out of fear. She can never have children now and is doing very poorly, 2 years later. Makes me sick at my stomach when a guy from FSU, also accused of rape, who changed his story several times has a good chance of winning the Heisman. Sickening.

[ismnotwasm]

3. Oh my god thats terrible

The whole situation speaks to how jock culture is intertwined with rape culture. There are few words to express how disgusting and horrible that is .

Recently, My 14 hear old grandson jammed his thumb-- bad-- playing football. Now. he's a great guitarist. I told him he has some choices to make as far as sports and what he loves-- which is music.

Part of me is glad about the injury because I know his choice won't be football. Sad to feel that way. Or rather it's sad because the reason I feel his way is the toxicity of jock culture.

[JoeyT]

4. K&R

The change in the law would have made it go up, since there would be a new category being prosecuted. It's decreasing along with violent crime in general.

Murder rates have gone down too, but I rarely hear people insist everyone just calm down about that. Entire industries exist and thrive catering to peoples' fear of burglary, mugging, car theft, assault, and yes, murder, and those have been steadily decreasing. Message boards full of assholes that seem to exist solely to harrangue people concerned with and victims of those crimes about how awful they are seem to be strangely lacking. People that claim less rapes means we should be less concerned with rape aren't fooling anyone that wasn't already a fool.

On a side note: We can name dozens of cases of men or boys being raped by people in positions of authority, but even though it happens as or more often, we couldn't name nearly as many of women or girls. When it happens to men or boys, it's a scandal that rocks the nation. When it happens to women or girls, it only gets headlines if there's some "angle" that makes it newsworthy.

[ismnotwasm]

5. +100,000

[redqueen]

6. Well said. nt

[smirkymonkey]

7. +1000

I am too angry to post a reasonable comment.