Sexual Violence In American Culture In The 1970's

195 Words1 Pages
American culture in the 1970’s witnessed a pivotal shift in the public understanding of sexual violence. The second wave feminist movement brought about the first public discussions of rape as a personal experience and a widespread social problem. Modern understanding and modes of criticism of rape largely stem from this moment that publicized issues, which previously had been private matters.
Before this time, since there had been no public discourse concerning sexual violence there could be no widespread ideological development. The anti-rape movement brought the terms rape, consent, and rape culture into the public discourse changing how both the words themselves and the emotionally charged concepts and experiences were perceived. Ancient Rome had no social movement comparable to