Ending rape culture: Now an international movement
OPINION - With the conclusion of the Steubenville rape case, we find ourselves poised at a watershed moment in our global fight to protect women from being vulnerable targets...
In the weeks and months that followed, more rapes occurred, making headlines, including one in which three Philadelphia teenagers forced their way into a woman’s car and drove around for hours as they beat and raped her – on Christmas Day.
In a nation such as ours in which only three percent of rape cases end in a conviction, it would have seemed normal for such an incident to pass out of the public’s consciousness with little more than a brief, sympathetic emotion. But things are changing. People are demanding that violence against women be called out and punished rather than passively accepted as inevitable.
Unconscionable crimes such as these led feminists and activists such as the creators of “Ring the Bell” to push for better ways to discuss rape and other violence against women. One result? Efforts to reframe the conversation around rape, shifting focus away from victims and towards criminals.
As radical as this seems – because even the Steubenville case saw its share of victim blaming — this concept is not new.
As far back as 2009, activist Jaclyn Friedman asked the question: What if the key to rape prevention is educating men not to rape? She also cited where this has been successful. Based on this idea, there is a list circulating, both honest and dripping with sarcasm, that shares the top10 tips to prevent rape. Every single one of the tips focuses on men, while illustrating how utterly ridiculous it is to task women with eradicating rape alone, as traditional “protective” thinking on the subject has promoted as plausible.
And it doesn’t end there. In London on February 14th, actress Thandie Newton, who is a survivor of sexual exploitation, joined the One Billion Rising global campaign – and crowds of demonstrators – in front of London’s Parliament to protest violence against women, and spark a movement worldwide.
Yes, times are changing.
With scarce Republican support, on March 7th, President Barack Obama reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act. On March 13th, in the first Senate hearing on sexual assault in nearly a decade, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), along with Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would prohibit convicted sex offenders from joining the military. And by doing so, she blew the door hiding rape culture in the military wide open.
Boxer’s amendment coincides with Sen. Claire McCaskill, (D-MO) drafting legislation that would reduce military commanders’ ability to dismiss sexual assault cases within their ranks.
These promising developments are exciting evidence that a cultural groundswell trumpeting changing attitudes towards sexual violence is occurring, and that many men are on board.
We are ending the silent consensus that sexual violence is acceptable. But with resistance to oppression often comes a backlash against the newfound audacity of the oppressed.
When theGrio writer Zerlina Maxwell made an appearance on FOX’s The Sean Hannity Show armed with the infallible logic that men must take responsibility for ending rape, she not only met opposition during the segment, she also received vitriolic hatred spewed at her online. Racist slurs and death threats were hurled at Maxwell all because she dared to tilt the scales of power towards women and accountability towards men. But, that ugly reaction has even further solidified the growing movement.
The timeline of the Steubenville rape case shows that when equality and justice knock on the doors of patriarchy, the institution does not go down without a fight – but it can be taken down.
Couple these extremely promising developments with broadening awareness via social media, redirections of political focus, and expanding activism, and we find ourselves poised at a watershed moment in our global fight to protect women from being vulnerable targets to predators in hostile environments.
The dissolution of rape culture is not impossible; it is inevitable.
Follow Kirsten West Savali on Twitter at @KWestSavali.
