Cases of rape and other forms of sexual assaults are rampant in universities all over the world. It is quite common to come across newspaper articles and website blogs talking about the occurrence of this evil act and some forms of actions that the victims may have tried to take. Studies conducted in the UK, as well as the university rape statistics UK, however, indicate that only a few of the victims ever report the incidences to the police or the university administration. From explicit messages to actual rape, sexual misconduct is endemic at UK universities and other parts of the globe. In most studies and surveys that are conducted in the UK universities, many of the victims lack adequate knowledge of what legally constitutes sexual harassment and violence. Most of the students, however, admit to the fact that they have encountered some form of unwelcome sexual conduct for example catcalling, explicit messages, being followed, and forcefully being made to engage in sex or sexual acts. In this article, we are going to explore the university rape culture and campus sexual assaults and try to understand the things that really happen as well as some of the definitions of terms associated with this topic.

What is rape culture, and who does rape culture affect? 

We can define rape culture as an environment where cases of rape are extremely prevalent. In such an environment, you are likely to witness the normalization of sexual violence against women, and this will be excused in the media and popular culture. This is a culture that is prolonged through the use of misogynistic dialect, the glamorization of sexual violence, and the objectification of the woman’s body. All these activities combined in a given environment create a society where the safety and rights of the women and girl-child are not regarded seriously. Such a society is more concerned with the male privilege where the rights are basically available to the men because of their sex and not the women. Depending on how closely they match such a society’s ideal masculine norm that involves abusing women, the men are able to access such benefits without much consequence. In the eyes of many, we can also consider this as toxic masculinity where the men at the universities believe that it is their role to take advantage of women and they should not be denied their traditional right to have any woman when they want to.

So what is rape culture for dummies?

 It is important that we all understand that something needs to happen if we are ever going to handle this form of negative culture in the most effective way possible. At the university, it is important that we start believing the women who come forward with their cases. It is quite difficult for them to take this difficult step, and we need to start understanding that they have been wronged. College rape statistics FBI indicates that most of the victims never really report. This is the same as any other form of report and study that has been conducted in universities all over the globe. In most cases, women fail to report due to the fact that people do not believe them and that they are also ashamed of the incidence. Despite the fact that the victim has been able to offer the report, it seems that more people are more interested in protecting the abuser who is always very discouraging to the women who are victims of university sexual assaults. Men at the university should also be aware of this culture. As we try to understand the question of why does rape persists in our society? We should also try and explore the rape culture and aspects like hegemonic masculinity where the dominant position of men even at universities is practiced which in turn legitimizes the subordination of the common male population and women hence justifying such evil acts against women.

Who does rape culture affect? 

Unfortunately, rape culture seems to affect each and every woman. When a single woman is subjected to rape at the university, all women are degraded, limited and terrorized since they are not sure when it may happen to them. Rape culture is nonsense that is used as a way for evil men to justify their actions. Many girls and women are forced to limit their behavior and interactions at the university because of rape. In fact, most females live in fear of rape, whereas men do not since they are the perpetrators of this act in many situations. Due to the nature of rape, it functions as a very powerful tool through which the entire female population is held in a subordinate position. Despite the fact that many of the men do not actually rape women at the university and many of the women are never even raped, that ugly cycle of fear is the legacy of the so-called Rape Culture.

Impact of Rape Culture and Campus Sexual Assaults

Rape culture is an ugly culture that torments the victims, and in most cases, they never fully recover. This culture propagates the belief that the victim in one way or the other, contributed to her victimization and that they are responsible for what happens to them. Victim blaming is a major principle in this culture which has very negative consequences. In this case, a woman that was a victim of sexual assault at the university is held entirely or partially at fault for being raped. Some men will defend themselves in such a situation by saying that the woman asked for it! This happens when individuals want to distance themselves from the occurrence. When the victim is accused or labeled, other people are convinced that they are not in a similar position as the victim. People tend to think that the same thing would not happen to them since they do not act as the victim did prior to the event. In these circumstances, the victim-blaming attitudes marginalize the lady who is raped and make it more difficult for her to report the abuse to the relevant authorities. When a person feels that it was through her own fault that such a thing happened to her, she will not feel safe and comfortable coming forward and talking about the incident.

When asked to give three examples of where we have seen the impact of rape culture, we can mention things like giving sexually explicit jokes, blaming the victim, and the pressure on men to have sex at least once at the university. Other examples include pressure on women to appear ‘giving’, failure to take rape accusations seriously, and teaching women how to avoid rape in college.  A good case where the rape culture and some of the evils of this kind of thing was portrayed in the case of Brock Turner. In this unfortunate case, Turner sexually assaulted a 22-year-old lady on the Stanford University campus as she was unconscious. Despite the fact that Turner was convicted for three sexual assault charges, and later on sentenced to jail, the case was special in that the statement made by the victim was widely disseminated by international media outlets. There was also a huge criticism of the sentence that was given to the offender. The victim of the case who remained anonymous until 2019, later o released a book on the events that took place after the assault. It was clear that she was not comfortable revealing her identity, just like in most rape cases. This was also another case of harassment in college campuses that would have probably gone unreported if Turner had not been held until the police got there.

Me too movement

As a result of the overwhelming college campus violence statistics against women as well as the sexual assault cases all over the globe, the Me Too movement was enacted to go against sexual harassment and sexual assault. The major goal of the movement is to empower women through empathy and strength in numbers. The movement targets especially young and vulnerable women like those still in campus and encourages them by showing the large group of women that have been through the same trauma and survived. The movement has spread over time and has members all over the world dedicated to giving voice to women who have been victims of sexual harassment and assault.

Most speeches on rape culture and sexual harassment indicate that rape is as American as apple pie. The truth about this fact is yet to be proven in our universities. It seems that the rape culture is something that develops when many individuals who have the same mind-set are placed together in a single institution. It is not easy to understand why men choose to rape at university, but it is clear that not all men end up raping women at this level. Individuals at this level are most likely just egged on by a culture that teaches them that they need to have sex even if it is not consensual at college in order to become manlier. They also think that when a woman dresses in a particular way, she just wants to have sex. Such ideologies have greatly contributed to and continue to propel the university rape culture and campus sexual assaults on women.

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