What is rape culture?

Rape culture is also a culture where some people are making money, or benefitting in some other way, from this normalisation of sexual violence and abuse. 

All of this can be a hard thing to get your head around to begin with. You might be thinking, ‘But of course most people don’t think sexual violence and abuse is okay’. And you might be right – in theory.

The problem is that in reality this just isn’t true. And the facts exist to prove it.

Not to mention that...

• 9 in 10 girls and young women in schools say sexist name-calling and being sent unwanted 'dick pics' and other images of a sexual nature happens to them or other girls their age.
• 1 in 2 survivors of rape in adulthood have experienced it more than once.
• Most survivors of rape don't report it to the police. Many say it's because they're too embarrassed, that they think it would be humiliating or that the police couldn't help.
• Just 1 in 100 rapes recorded by the police result in a charge – let alone a conviction.

This last point means that rape is essentially decriminalised in England and Wales. In other words, that most perpetrators of rape get away with it and never face justice.

And, on top of all of this, there's a serious lack of funding in place to give victims and survivors the specialist support they need and deserve.

This lack of funding meant that in September 2021 our member centres had a total of 12,000 victims and survivors on their waiting lists. This was despite the very real and terrible impacts we know sexual violence and abuse can have on victims and survivors. 

All of this is bad enough. But what makes it even worse is the message it sends: that our society thinks sexual violence and abuse is okay. Or at least not that bad. Because if it didn’t then how could we allow all of this to happen?

Why does rape culture exist?

As a proudly feminist organisation, we believe that rape culture exists because our society sees women and girls as less important than men and boys. In other words, as less deserving of respect and power (over both their own lives and within society).

Sometimes, we also talk about women and girls being 'objectified' or 'hyper-sexualised' from a young age. By this, we mean they are viewed as objects that exist to entertain, serve or pleasure men – instead of equal human beings.

But why is this? Well, we believe it's because we live in a society where men hold the most power – what is sometimes known as 'patriarchy'.

It’s not a coincidence that the majority of victims and survivors of sexual violence are women and girls. Or that most perpetrators are men.

Because, when society views women and girls as less deserving of respect and power than men and boys, it treats them that way too.

We see society treating women and girls as less deserving of respect and power than men and boys when...

• Men catcall women and girls in the street and other public places.
• Men make sexist or inappropriate sexual comments or ‘jokes’ – including in the workplace.
• Men don't respect women's boundaries or take their words or body language seriously. For example, when a man continues to ask a woman out when she's already said 'no'.
• Society tells women and girls what their clothes and bodies should look like. (And this is always a 'game' that women and girls can't win – either they're accused of being too sexual or accused of being too covered up or not feminine enough.) 
• Men commit sexual offences against women and girls – often against those they know or even say they love.
• Men commit any of the above and other men don’t challenge it – or even go along with it.
• Or, when women and girls are scared to speak up or think there’s no point to it. Because they think they won’t be believed or that they’ll be shamed or punished.

If things like this didn’t happen very often, we might be able to just brush them off as one-off incidents.

But when they happen over and over and over again, and across society, they reveal a culture.

So, why and how do these things keep happening?

Normalisation of sexual violence and abuse

Because, in a nutshell, sexual violence and abuse against women and girls has been normalised in our society.

This normalisation might not always be obvious. As we've already mentioned, most people in society would never admit to thinking that rape or other forms of sexual violence and abuse were okay. But we can find evidence for it in lots of places.

For example:

• In the popularity of violent pornography.
• In the popularity of music, TV shows and films that glamorise sexual violence and abuse against women and girls. Or ones that show their boundaries not being respected. We see this a lot with the 'chase' storyline – where a woman says 'no' to a relationship, going on a date or some kind of sexual activity with a man, and he then harasses or stalks her until she gives in.​​

These things in turn help to normalise sexual violence and abuse even more, taking us round in a vicious circle.