rape culture

plural rape cultures

1. countableuncountableA culture, environment or society where rape or other forms of sexual assault are common, and in which social attitudes or practices work to trivialize sexual violence, make rape seem normal, or shift responsibility from rapists to rape victims.First known use 20th c.

   Or "I wrote on rape culture my junior year at Brown / So I'm allowed to say what all his raps are about"

   2011, “Backpackers”, in Camp, performed by Childish Gambino

   5 more examples

   By exposing the facts of our rapes, the numbers of them, the events surrounding them, and the men who commit them, we begin to break down the myths that support the rape culture.

   1977 Spring, Suzanne Lacy, “"Three Weeks in May": Speaking Out on Rape, a Political Art Piece”, in Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, volume 2, number 1, →JSTOR, page 67

   In a rape culture both men and women assume that sexual violence is a fact of life, inevitable as death or taxes.

   1993 September 1, Emilie Buchwald with Martha Roth and Pamela R. Fletcher, Transforming a Rape Culture, Milkweed Editions, →ISBN, →OL, page vii

   To prevent further incidences of rape on college campuses, we need to understand what it is about fraternities in particular and college life in general that may contribute to the maintenance of a rape culture on college campuses.

   1996 April, A. Ayres Boswell with Joan Z. Spade, “Fraternities and Collegiate Rape Culture: Why Are Some Fraternities More Dangerous Places for Women?”, in Gender & Society, volume 10, number 2, →ISSN, →JSTOR, page 134

   Rape culture is regarding violence as sexy and sexuality as violent. Rape culture is treating rape as a compliment, as the unbridled passion stirred in a healthy man by a beautiful woman, making irresistible the urge to rip open her bodice or slam her against a wall, or a wrought-iron fence, or a car hood, or pull her by her hair, or shove her onto a bed, or any one of a million other images of fight-fucking in movies and television shows and on the covers of romance novels that convey violent urges are inextricably linked with (straight) sexuality.

   2009 October 9, Melissa McEwan, “Rape Culture 101”, in Shakesville, archived from the original on 07 Jan 2013

   Women's rights activists in Britain and the US have accused Facebook of promoting rape and "rape culture" after the social networking site refused to take down pages on which users made jokes and apparent confessions about sexual assault.

   2011 September 30, Lizzy Davies, “Facebook refuses to take down rape joke pages”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

1. uncountableagricultureThe cultivation (growing or production) of rape.

   The progress in rape culture in this country is one of the marvels of latter day husbandry.

   1899, GW Koiner, Report of the State Board of Agriculture of Virginia

   2 more examples

   In Flanders, where rape culture is practised upon the most extensive and economical scale, the stubble is ploughed twice […]

   1801, The Farmer's Magazine, page 280

   It may be added, as a final recommendation of rape culture, that this plant is valuable for its yield of honey.

   1873, The Canada Farmer, page 216

   Synonyms: rapeseed culture