talkamongsthetrees:

Most people who have heard of rape culture have a basic understanding of what it means: Victim blaming, victim shaming, and general sexism. The idea that “She shouldn’t have been wearing those clothes,” or “She shouldn’t have been walking out late at night,” or “She was asking for it.” As it turns out, a study done by two sociologists, Diana Scully and Joseph Marolla, shows that these views are severely incorrect. These ideas are based off of the assumption that people rape for sexual pleasure and that the victims shouldn’t put themselves in a vulnerable position because they should know that the men just can’t help themselves. However, in most rape cases, the motivations for rape have much more to do with dominance and power than they have to do with sexual desire and gratification, and this study shows very strong evidence to back that up.

Scully and Marolla interviewed a sample of imprisoned convicted rapists, asking them about their experiences, what their motives were, and how they felt about what they did. Here is an excerpt from the article: 

Over and over these rapists talked about using rape “to get even” with their wives or some other significant woman. Typical is a young man who, prior to the rape, had a violent argument with his wife over what eventually proved to be her misdiagnosed case of venereal disease. She assumed the disease had been contracted through him, an accusation that infuriated him. After fighting with his wife, he explained that he drove around “thinking about hurting someone.” He encountered his victim, a stranger, on the road where her car had broken down. It appears she accepted his offered ride because her car was out of commission. When she realized that rape was pending, she called him “a son of a bitch,” and attempted to resist. He reported flying into a rage and beating her, and he confided,

‘I have never felt that much anger before. If she had resisted, I would have killed her….The rape was for revenge. I didn’t have an orgasm. She was there to get my hostile feelings off.’”

Quotes from other rapists include:

“Rape was a feeling of total dominance. Before the rapes, I would always get a feeling of power and anger. I would degrade women so I could feel there was a person of less worth than me.”

“Rape gave me the power to do what I wanted to do without feeling I had to please a partner or respond to a partner. I felt in control, dominant. Rape was the ability to have sex without caring about the woman’s response. I was totally dominant.”

This was the case with a young offender who stated that he originally intended only to rob the store in which the victim happened to be working… “I decided to rape her to prove I had guts. She was just there. It could have been anybody.”

One gang rapist articulated this feeling very clearly. “We felt powerful; we were in control. I wanted sex, and there was peer pressure. She wasn’t like a person, no personality, just domination on my part. Just to show I could do it - you know, macho.”

One young man expressed the extreme of the contemptful view of women when he confided to the female researcher. “Rape is a man’s right. If a woman doesn’t want to give it, the man should take it. Women have no right to say no. Women are made to have sex. It’s all they are good for. Some women would rather take a beating, but they always give in; it’s what they live for.”

In cases like these, the idea that it is somehow the woman’s fault is simply incorrect and frankly ridiculous. In addition to that, the idea that rape can only be committed by mentally unstable, crazy, ‘evil’ men is also incorrect - it can be, and is, committed by seemingly normal people - as well as committed by both men and women, victimizing both men and women.

Stop the false assumptions and the victim blaming. It only shames and oppresses the people who have been hurt while ignoring the true problems behind the issue.

(via weretelling)