Why Walking Down a Dark Alley at 2 A.M. Is Not ‘Asking For It’ [View all]

http://inthesetimes.com/article/18430/rape-culture-and-the-corridors-of-fear

The most admirable part of Kate Harding’s Asking For It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture – And What We Can Do About It is how patiently it attempts to explain a problem that can feel nearly impossible to get across. As she notes, the very phrase “rape culture” tends to turn people off:



It’s true that “rape culture”—the idea that we might live in a world that actually facilitates rape, particularly men raping women, so that the threat of rape can be used to keep all women in line—sounds flat-out dystopian at first.It’s also so embedded in the culture that it’s nearly impossible to spot: You don't notice rape culture, like you don't notice oxygen or gravity, in part because you've probably never gone without it. You could cite, as Harding does, the fact that convicted rapist Mike Tyson is now cast as a harmless kook in comedies like The Hangover and How I Met Your Mother; the fact that, in multiple movies and TV shows (Crank, Game of Thrones) rapes are presented as something the victim actually enjoys by the end; the accusations of “overreacting” and “militancy” aimed at those who believe Roman Polanski should serve prison time for raping a pre-teen, or that Julian Assange should be tried for date rape; the frequent mishandling of rape cases by the police, or the brutal attacks on women’s character when they bring those rape cases to trial; the climate of fear women live in, the constant messages that women should avoid doing certain things (wearing short skirts, drinking at parties, going to parties) unless they “expect” to be raped, and that they are somehow less worthy of compassion or justice if they “fail” to protect themselves.

Harding does spell all of this out, and does a great job of backing her case up with real incidents, some of which—like the story of a Philadelphia detective who referred to the sex-crimes unit as the “Lying Bitches Unit”—will turn your stomach. But she also dives into the most telling manifestations of rape culture: the moments when it becomes clear how the culture harms not just rape victims, but everyone. These are often apparently innocuous incidents. They’re the moments when you suddenly realize the gravitational force that's been holding you down.