There are rapists and there are nonrapists. There are apologists of rape and nonapologists of rape. “Rape culture” lacks clarity and is essentially a meaningless phrase. If there is only one rapist in an entire city, is there a rape culture? What if there are 50 rapists? 100? It’s irrelevant. What is a fact is that there exists a rapist.
Look at it this way, there are gamers and nongamers. Gamers can be divided into subsets such as pc gamer and console gamer. If we say there is a gamer culture, we are clearly talking about the culture of gamers. What we are not talking about is the culture of their parents and coaches and teachers and other nongamers.
There are Jews and nonJews. There are Mexicans and nonMexicans. There are Germans and nonGermans. When we talk about Jewish culture, or Mexican culture, or German culture, we are talking about the culture of those specific groups, whatever their culture may be. When we talk about Southern culture, we are not talking about the culture of New Englanders.
But in the case of rape culture, we are not talking about the culture of rapists, because there basically isn’t one. Rapists do not have meeting houses, their own food, customs, etc. When there are gang rapes, notice that these people are already part of gangs, and raping is not their defining feature. It is an aspect of their gang in general.
When we talk about “rape culture”, we are talking about rapists, but we are mostly talking about nonrapists who somehow contribute to the existence of rape. It’s absurd the way claiming that the wealth of the white middle class is responsible for the crime in a poor black community. The only people responsible are the criminals who violate their victims.
Just imagine the outrage if someone were to say there is a culture of theft or murder or crime in general in a black community. Ha! Suddenly that person is painted as a racist because, guess what? Not every black is a criminal in a high crime neighborhood. What does it even mean to say that there is a culture of crime? Does that mean that everybody tolerates or condones crime? Half the population? A quarter? One percent?
And in the case of America in general, almost every person tolerates or condones aggression. Do we have a culture of aggression? Are we a culture of violence? Do I contribute to aggression? I experience no violence in my everyday life. The only aggression I “experience” is the indirect aggression of state taxes. I have never been beaten or arrested by a cop. I have never even been pulled over by a cop. Most people experience only voluntary interactions in their everyday life, and it would be absurd to say that America has a culture of aggression. And if we are going by tolerance as a metric, as the wikipedia page demonstrates, what about North Korea? The North Koreans tolerate aggression by the fact that they haven’t overthrown their government. Do we say that North Korea has a culture of aggression? What the fuck does that even mean? The North Korean state aggresses against its people and suddenly theirs is a culture of aggression?
No. There are certain people in North Korea that perpetrate aggression, and to start blaming the citizens for this “culture of aggression” because they “tolerate” it is fucking absurd and nonsensical.
It’s the same with this rape culture nonsense. There are rapists and nonrapists, rape apologists and rape nonapologists. There are despicable people who cover up crimes. Extending rape culture to people who have nothing to do with the rape is absurd. You wouldn’t say to a nonJewish security guard at a Holocaust museum that he is part of the Jewish culture, because, after all, he is tolerating and condoning Jews. People like to say that everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s day, but guess what? It just ain’t fucking true. Only the Irish are Irish. Maybe you can join their culture, whatever that may be, but tolerating and condoning an Irish holiday does not make someone part of the Irish culture.
Rape culture is a phrase that is so broad that it covers basically everything. Seriously, sexual objectification is a defining example of rape culture? What the fuck? Every guy who has a dick sexually objectifies the objects of his desire, and since most guys are heterosexual, that just happens to be women. But seriously, what the fuck?
The only way I could possibly see rape culture as a useful term is if it described specifically only rapists and rape apologists. If it’s used for anything other than that, which it is, then it’s a meaningless phrase, because it doesn’t offer any meaningful distinctions.
