In 2017, I had the assignment of writing a research paper on a social problem that we face every day in America, and it was almost immediate that I knew I wanted to write about rape culture in America. I have always been a girls’ girl in a sense, not the fake love and support because I work for a pyramid scheme company and my bills rely on their purchases. More so, I would never leave a girl alone in a room full of men. I would never let a girl who is clearly intoxicated leave with a man she clearly does not know. I am just a girl who knows how wicked the world can be to us, and if I can stop it or help in any way, I would. 

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I wrote this paper nine years ago and was genuinely shocked by how bad things were in America. Aside from watching the news and seeing a new rape case every day, and being a chronic Law and Order SVU viewer, I knew it was bad, but not to the extremity of how bad it truly was. When I wrote this paper, I learned a lot not only about rape culture in America, but also about how much other women contribute to this issue at hand. We are constantly shown how men contribute to the problem. It is in movies, it is in books, and it is in our faces 24/7. However, we rarely see how women can also be participants and contributors to rape culture.

When I finished and presented this paper, I realized I had, in a sense, changed as a person. I was never one to disregard anybody’s consent, but I also learned that I was unconsciously participating in rape culture. I would judge women by what they were wearing. I would judge women for being in certain situations when they “knew better.” I was unconsciously siding with rapists and predators while participating in the “well, they knew better” mindset, when in reality the only person to blame is the person who committed the crime, the person who did not accept the word no, the person who took power and violated another. There is no other way around it.

After this paper, I grew older and into womanhood, and I felt that instead of things becoming better, they have become worse. We have more men committing heinous acts of rape and walking free. We have more women who are content and willing to defend rapists and predators because they believe themselves to be smarter and above ever becoming a victim of rape or rape culture. It has felt like rape went from being such a taboo subject to discuss to something we, as a society, have become numb to. We went from fearing rape to expecting it and teaching ourselves how to prepare for it when it happens.

I have attached my research paper that I wrote back in 2017. I apologize for the spelling and grammar. This was the version I had saved on my personal email and not my school email, which I obviously no longer have access to. RIP.

2017 RapeCulture Research Paper Click to read

I encourage you to read and then to think about how we as a country have progressed so far and so fast—just in the wrong direction. I ask you to really think about whether you are helping America trend in the right direction or contributing to rape within America and to rape culture itself.