North American Rape Culture Essay

1023 Words5 Pages

. I believe that we (North America) do live in a rape culture. Rape is considered a horrendous crime and is completely unacceptable by society, however, I believe that there are very few deterrents in place to dissuade those who would want to commit rape. According to sexassault.ca “of every 100 incidents of sexual assault, only 6 are reported to the police.” This means that 94 percent of the cases are never reported. Cases not being reported is one of the reasons why persons tend to commit this horrific crime. “In the United States, every 98 seconds, an American is assaulted.” In addition to that “1 in 4 North American women will be sexually assaulted during their lifetime” which is about 144,750,000. This is a huge chunk of …show more content…

I believe that there is still a double standard existing between men and women when it comes to the issue of engaging in sexual activity. Women are judged more brutally than men for participating in similar practices. If men have sex with multiple women, it is considered normal and the male is given credit by other males, whereas if the female participates in similar practice she is considered a slut by society. The term slut is only associated with women and not males. This double standard still exists because of the beliefs and views society had in the past. Women were treated as property and not as human beings. An example of this is in western culture the male is the one that asks the female's parents for her hand, but the female does not have to do the same for her husband. This was because of the belief that the male owns himself, while the women are treated as the property of the parents and cannot choose to make her own decision. In addition to that, I believe that society has created inaccurate categories in defining who we are which includes dominant categories and subordinate categories. In terms of gender, women are subordinate, whereas men are dominant in society. I feel that this also contributes to the double standard between men and women. In conclusion, there is not a valid reason for this double standard to exist due to it being