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Lily Krueger

Dr. Yost

PS 342

“In-the-News” Essay

Sexual harassment and sexual assaults are continuing to run rampant on college campuses

nationwide. Campus sexual assaults have become mainstream news, regularly reported through a

variety of media; the constant exposure to such damaging and dehumanizing behaviors is

desensitizing us into acceptance and silence. Turning on the tv, scrolling through Twitter and

Instagram; the culture of blind acceptance is there. Considering how often the topic is in the

news, it is surprising that society often regards campus sexual assaults as taboo. Why are sexual

assaults on campuses such a problem, and why do people have such a difficult time discussing

them? The answer is society’s proliferation of rape culture. Rape culture and campus sexual

assaults are conterminous, and the Psychology of Prejudice describes the relations between the

two, as well as the existence of these issues.

Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, the issue and topic of campus sexual assault stays

relevant. Students across the nation made Instagram accounts that shared people’s personal

experiences with campus sexual assault anonymously. John Carroll University students created

such an account on Instagram that is still active today under the handle @jcu.survivors. Despite

the moderators attempts to create a safe space for survivors to share their experiences, the

account has received nasty and disturbing comments that are indicative of the rape culture that

permeates our society and especially college campuses.

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Rape culture is not new and has been a fundamental aspect of our society for far too long.

This culture is commonly described as the pervasive normalization and continued toleration of

rape, as well as society’s acceptance of thought patterns and behaviors that accompany rape

culture. Rape culture can be found in every aspect of life; existing between dialogue, in the

verbiage used in homes, different forms of media, policies regarding sexual assault and sexual

behavior, and in schools and workplaces; rape culture is everywhere.

One particular aspect of society lends itself so easily to rape culture: the use of

prescriptive stereotypes. These stereotypes prescribe for an individual, the way society thinks the

individual should act. Prescriptive stereotypes become the norm for visualizing others because

our culture teaches us to expect certain behaviors from people we do not know well. The use of

these stereotypes is fundamental in gender discrimination. Through prescriptive stereotypes and

gender discrimination, women are labeled as submissive, while men are labeled as dominant.

Men are expected to be aggressive to be successful, leading to hyper-masculinity and an

expectation for high achieving men to maintain certain levels of sexual prowess. These

expectations of what men do, as well as gender polarization, which dictates that what is

masculine cannot be feminine and what is feminine cannot be masculine, all lead to the

objectification and subsequent dehumanization of women.

While there are many arguments that gender discrimination and sexism are myths, or that

sexism is no longer a problem; anyone can see the existence of sexism and gender discrimination

and polarization anywhere, it just is not as obvious as it originally seems because we are

normalized to its existence. For example, if you go down the toy aisle in Target and look at the

organization of the toys, you will see the prescriptive stereotyping by the labeled aisles. The

gendered aisles will find a girl’s sections filled with pink and purple, princesses and makeup, and
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a boy’s section filled with blue and green, full of knights and soldiers. The girls section confirms

the objectification of females, as the toys will all be related to how a girl should strive to look,

such as wearing make-up or beautiful princess sets. The boys section will describe the

underlying hyper-masculinity found in our culture, as each toy will relate to some form of

aggression, like fighting robot sets, or knights and pirate sets. The verbiage used to describe the

sexes easily lends itself to prescriptive stereotypes, is hidden in plain sight in everyday life, and

is far more harmful than many believe.

Rape culture: it is our acceptance of this harmful verbiage, it is the systemic rhetoric used

to explain away these detrimental behaviors, and it is the excuses and continued tolerance of this

language from all people. It has an uncanny way of going unnoticed because we habituate it, thus

continuing the cycle. Each of these aspects leads to the proliferation of campus sexual assaults.

The verbiage – which can be examples of both benevolent and hostile, though equally

harmful sexism – is normalized and leads to an acceptance of sexual assaults. Men are taught

that women are “bitches”, an entire gender made to be dominated by the male. Women are often

described as beautiful, pretty, well-endowed, but never described for their abilities. This leads to

the characterization of women being a body to be used, treated like objects, not an identity or

human with their own thoughts and opinions.

These harmful depictions of the female sex leads to excuses and toleration of rape, as

men are deemed more important, and their reputation to be protected, and thus given every

chance for an excuse of the actions of rape. The perceptions of the victim of rape and the

perpetrator of the rape are skewed towards the perpetrator. Men have these commonly accepted

phares of “she wanted it” or “she asked for it” and these accusations are never questioned

because males are the dominant group in society. A woman is conversely asked “what were you
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wearing” or “what were you doing” as if it is the fault of the victim that they were raped. The

consequences of the rape are almost always diminished or trivialized for the victim, and many

will argue that the accusations of rape and the subsequent punishment for the rape is harder for

the perpetrator while additionally excusing the behavior by saying “boys will be boys.”

Although this essay discusses men and women in general, the argument is in no way

implying that all men are rapists. Instead, this paper argues that rapists exist and that for male

rapists, our culture influences and wrongfully teaches them that this behavior is normal and

acceptable. For men who are not rapists: stand up against your fellow peers, do not contribute to

the culture of rape. This means men must now allow themselves to use harmful verbiage, nor

allow themselves to accept gender as a polarized idea. Furthermore, they must not let the

continued prescriptive stereotypes about men endure in following generations. The idea that men

cannot freely express emotion but must always be on the offensive, is the most harmful

prescriptive stereotype out there for men. Rape culture does not benefit any of the sexes or

genders, and it is in the best interest of all people to fight against it. It is also important to note

that men are raped too and because of the continuation of hypermasculinity, men are far less

likely to report the rape, or to get help after the rape.

Additionally, to combat the culture of rape, all people must stand up for the victim or

survivor and stop the victim blaming. Men are in the precarious position of needing to adopt this

immediately because they are often the perpetrators of victim blaming and because they are in

the dominant group and thus will be listened to more by their peers. Moreover, as a group we all

must learn to question the group mentality and group stereotypes formed in our culture, thus

learning to treat individuals as individuals. This begins with the non-acceptance of stereotypes,

and a willingness for creative thinking to begin learning about one another in a more realistic
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way. Finally, we must not accept “no means no” as the only way of combatting sexual assault

and rape, given that so many perpetrators are able to then argue that because someone did not say

no, that must have been a “yes”. Instead, we must ask for “yes means yes” policies that assume

anything besides a yes is an unacceptable answer, eliminating the possibility of a perpetrator

arguing that the victim never said no. Overall, our culture’s use of prescriptive stereotypes, is so

detrimental, that we must understand how harmful they are, and begin fighting against them.