RAPE CULTURE

Rape culture is an environment in which society normalizes and excuses sexual violence, thereby perpetuating it. It refers to cultural practices that implicitly or explicitly ignore, trivialize, or normalize sexual assault and rape. Things like rape jokes, misogynistic music, “slut” shaming, victim blaming, and cat calling contribute to rape culture. In the United States today, a rape or attempted rape occurs once every five minutes (“Rape Culture”). A contributing factor to this statistic is the way in which we as a society are constantly and casually exposed to examples of rape culture.

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One such example is the trial and conviction of Brock Turner, a Stanford student found guilty of three counts of assault for raping his unconscious victim. During the trial, the victim was barraged with inconsequential questions meant to undercut the severity of Turner’s actions by blaming them, at least partially, on the victim. She was asked what she was wearing, if she had been acting “silly,” how much she had been drinking, and if she was a regular party girl (Stampler). Questions like these, that attempt to draw a correlation between the victim’s actions and the abuser’s and imply that the victim “asked” to be assaulted, are the reason that so many victims of sexual violence don’t report the abuse to authorities.

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Turner faced a maximum of 14 years in prison, but was only sentenced to six months, and was released after three. Upon being asked why he went light on Turner’s sentencing, the judge responded, “I think … you have to take the whole picture in terms of what impact imprisonment has on a specific individual’s life,” and pointed out that a harsher punishment would have a “severe impact” on Turner’s life and his Stanford swim career (Griffin).

This sort of judicial response to a deliberate, violent attack on a woman shows that rape culture is alive and well in our society. The Handmaid’s Tale is a warning of what rape culture and misogyny could turn our society into.

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This attempt to shift the blame from the perpetrator to the victim reminds me of a scene from chapter 13, where Janine tells her fellow handmaids about the time she was gang-raped at 14. Aunt Helena asks, “But whose fault was it?” to which the other handmaids chant, “Her fault, her fault, her fault” (Atwood 81). “Who led them on?” she asks, to which they reply, “She did. She did. She did.” They do this until Janine internalizes the blame, and accepts that it wasn’t her attackers’ faults for raping a child, but rather her own fault for provoking them. While this example is extreme, it is reminiscent of the victim-blaming inherent in our own society.

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 Gilead was created on the idea that violence against women is a result of their excessive freedom. Before Gilead, women had freedom to, but now they have freedom from. The leaders of Gilead don’t seem to think that personal freedom and autonomy are much to ask in exchange for freedom from the sexual violence and aggression of men. As the Commander put it, “You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs” (Atwood 252).

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Gilead is a product of rape culture. It stems from the normalization of male sexual violence and the tendency of our society to blame victims for being sexually violated.

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