This was perhaps the most challenging of all the articles for me. Not challenging in the same ways that the last article, on ablism and rape was. Not challenging because the material was new territory for me, even as an experienced social justice activist. No, this article, on rape and patriarchy/sexism, was challenging because gender inequality is so deeply and inextricably connected to the preponderance of rape itself and rape culture, and because gender is the one arena of social justice in which I feel that there is constant pressure to ‘include’, read: patronize and centralize, the privileged class (men) in every way. That men are integral to rape culture as primary offenders but also as victims is an important aspect of rape awareness. But too often I find myself scouring blogs and finding the ‘what about the men’ argument dominating all discussions on rape, and maleness digging itself a groove of centrality once again. This is obviously debatable and I am also speaking from my experience of organizing against rape on an extremely conservative college campus, but nonetheless, I still contend that this centralizing of maleness is common in rape discussions across the board, from blogs to news articles to organizing caucuses. Even when writing this article, I had to fight the urge to include disclaimers and stats on men, when for every other article, I had no qualms about focusing exclusively on the oppressed group in question, and didn’t even conceive of focusing the discussion on the privileged group.
What is most difficult for me is the simultaneous recognition of rape as both a violent enforcement of compulsory heterosexuality and absolute proof of rape culture. These are discussed briefly below in the article, but I feel the need to explain a little more here. What is challenging is the recognition that rape overall is an intensely and incontrovertibly gendered issue, that it reflects patriarchy in so many ways, that the reality is that most rapists are men and most rape victims are women. This fact elicits anger from me. For women, and against men. As a social justice activist I know and understand that such anger is natural, and necessary. Yet, as leader and organizer I know that it is necessary not to alienate men, that anger alienates, and that I must keep this anger at gender injustice to myself. The problem as I see it is a balance between the gendered reality of rape and the necessity of organizing men against rape as much as we are trying to organize women against it. Both classes are necessary towards any lasting change. However, there is that small part of me that still remains indignant that we are not waging a full scale war and revolution over the rape and molestation of our sisters, daughters, mothers, cousins, friends, when this occurs daily and slides under the radar as acceptable and normal. What pains me is that a legion of women have not begun to shout and scream and chain ourselves to fences and schoolyards and military barracks and hospitals and parking lots and our homes—all sites of rape and molestation—demanding an end to our unnecessary and daily torture. So. I do not have a solution, and indeed the struggle to incorporate men into anti-rape work without perpetuating patriarchy via sexist and male-centered organizing is a complex and ongoing one. But for now, education serves as the necessary starting point. Below is an excerpt of this week’s article, on rape and patriarchy, the last of the articles for our intersectionality section.
First, what is patriarchy?
Patriarchy is institutionalized discrimination on the basis of sex. It is the systematic legal, social, and economic hierarchy in which women and femininity (characteristics associated with femaleness) are at the bottom and men and masculinity are central and privileged. Most, if not all modern societies operate as patriarchies, in which women are routinely discriminated against on the basis of their sex.
What is sexism?
Sexism is primarily used in reference to anti-female discrimination because of the preponderance of patriarchy (as opposed to matriarchy). It is the belief that women (and femininity) are inferior to men on many levels, including but not limited to: physical ability, intellect, spiritual capacity, economic productivity.
Ways in which sexism can deter women members from your group:
Domination of group leadership, discussions, and decisions by male members
Insinuation that female group members are overly emotional about rape issues when they express anger or other strong emotions in response to incidents of rape
Stereotypes of outspoken, articulate, or passionate women as ‘bossy,’ ‘bitchy’, ‘uppity’, or ‘controlling’
Patriarchy and Rape: the Facts
Rape and sexism are more overtly and intimately connected than rape is to any other form of oppression. While the causes of such connect are debatable, keep in mind that rape is about power, and in patriarchy, women are viewed as and rendered powerless. Additionally, compulsory heterosexuality (see Compulsory Heterosexuality and the Lesbian Existence, by Adrienne Rich) is enforced through a number of mechanisms, ranging from the glorification of heterosexual romance to violently enforced heterosexuality in the form of rape. That rape is such a common reality for women and yet so calmly accepted by our society is evidence of the primacy of compulsory heterosexuality as well as ‘rape culture,’ the term used to describe a patriarchal culture in which sex is equated with violence (against women) and power, and (heterosexual) rape is considered a normal and acceptable phenomenon.
Statistics (compiled from multiple sources listed below):
90% of rape victims are female, and over 98% of rapists are male.
17.6 % of women in the United States have survived a completed or attempted rape. Of these, 21.6% were younger than age 12 when they were first raped, and 32.4% were between the ages of 12 and 17.
64% of women who reported being raped, physically assaulted, and/or stalked since age 18 were victimized by a current or former husband, cohabiting partner, boyfriend, or date.
The FBI estimates that only 37% of all rapes are reported to the police. U.S. Justice Department statistics are even lower, with only 26% of all rapes or attempted rapes being reported to law enforcement officials.
The National College Women Sexual Victimization Study estimated that between 1 in 4 and 1 in 5 college women experience completed or attempted rape during their college years
Factoring in unreported rapes, about 5% – one out of twenty – of rapists will ever spend a day in jail. 19 out of 20 will walk free.
Further, sexism and patriarchy affect rape in a number of distinct ways:
Responsibility: Though over 98—99% of rapists are men and over 90% of rape victims are women, women are still expected to take responsibility for preventing rape. This takes many forms, but some examples are: women having to exercise caution when deciding what to wear for fear that they might ‘elicit’ a rape by virtue of their clothing; women taking self-defense classes or wearing whistles so they can resist their attackers; women being unable to walk alone at night for fear of being raped; women having to guard their drinks at parties or not drink in order to maintain their sexual autonomy and safety.
Blame: female victims are blamed for their rapes by society. They are humiliated, stigmatized, often characterized as ‘loose’ or ‘asking for it’. In a college setting in particular, female victims who speak out and seek justice after being raped are ostracized by their peers and have even reported this shame and hostility as being more stressful than the rape itself. Additionally, with increased awareness of rape there has also been a strong backlash: the media covers many stories on ‘false accusations,’ which in reality account for less than 2% of rape accusations.
Some facts to reiterate and keep in mind with regard to sexism, rape and university settings:
Age 12-24 is the highest risk age for female victims and as the above statistics show, during only four years, between 1 in 4 and 1 in 5 female students are victims of either completed or attempted rape.
Of surveyed college women, about 90% of rape and sexual assault victims knew their attack prior to the assault.
The close linkage between alcohol and drug consumption and rape, particularly for college students:
About 75% of the men and at least 55% of the women involved in acquaintance rapes had been drinking or taking drugs just before the attack
3% of college men report surviving rape or attempted rape as a child or adult
The following are some useful links on rape and sexism:
http://www.lafasa.org/Publications/lastats.cfm
http://www.feminist.com/antiviolence/facts.html
http://www.rainn.org/statistics
http://www.feministing.com/archives/003844.html
an incredible blog post on rape culture: http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2009/10/rape-culture-101.html
The statistics you presented in regards to the perpetration of sexual violence and those victimized are incredibly misleading and inaccurately presented. The 98% of all sex offenders are male statistic is based on a compilation of reported incidents of rape, not the actual rate of sex offenders at large. The 3% of college males reporting being raped is based on a study explicitly looking at prevalence rates of violence against women. The latter statistic is contradicted by other studies showing the rate of sexual violence reported by college males to between 20% to 24%. The former statistic is contradicted by several recent studies and statistics which show that among male victims female rapists make up 40% of the offenders and among female victims they make up 6%.
Sexual violence against males and female perpetration of rape and sexual abuse is far more prevalent than people may assume. While it is important to acknowledge female victimization, it is also important not to misrepresent male victimization or to present sexual violence as something only men do to only women as that unfairly renders male victims completely invisible.
Toysoldier,
Thank you for your comments. I’m wondering a few things. First, can you please provide references for all these studies you cite? Secondly, it’s interesting but not unpredictable to receive such immediate challenge of statistics as they pertain to only to sexism–I wonder that you haven’t brought up similar concerns about the inaccuracy of any of the other statistics that i mentioned in the previous five posts on intersectionality. Though statistics can be biased or misleading, with regard to social injustice, they are one of the only ways in which we can ‘prove’ rape culture and and other social injustice, as we are all taught that these phenomenon don’t actually exist.
As far as your refutation of the statistic on percentage of male offenders overall, your counter statistic (source necessary) could alter this number but not as substantially as your *misleading evidence suggests, due to the fact that the overall percentage of reported victims is overwhelmingly female (this is *not contradicted in statistics, and is generally considered to be 90%) and your counter statistic only pertains to specifically male victims and not all victims.
For example, if you the stat you propose is in fact bona fide, then representing it as is would also mislead readers because i am talking about *all rape, not just some.
Let’s take a sample, employing your misleading statistic. We have 100 survivors and 100 rapists. Out of these, statistically (and *undisputedly, i might add) about 10% of the survivors are male, 90% are female. So if 40% of perpetrators of rape against male survivors are female (though i challenge your undocumented statistic as I’ve seen much lower estimations in the course of my research), out of a group of 100 survivors of which 10 are men, then 4 perpetrators out of the 100 will be female. Once we add in your other claim, that 6% of perpetrators of rape against females are also female, we have 6% of 90 survivors, which is 5.4 female perpetrators out of 100. So even if what you claim is true, we still have fewer than 10% of all rapists as female, and 90% *plus of all rapists as male.
It is evident that your statistics are far more misleading than my own, when we are speaking of percentages of all rapes.
I appreciate your research (which needs substantiation via links and references), but i must admit i am skeptical of your motivation, as you have not criticized any of the other statistics i used in previous posts, all of which could be considered to be reductive, or even misleading, depending on how one reads them.
Additionally, and most importantly, this is a post on sexism and rape, not gender and rape. This is post about how rape disproportionately affects an oppressed class–in this case, women. This focus does not deviate in any way from the five previous posts, again, none of which you took issue with. In writing this article, i found myself fighting the urge to include statistics on male victims. This inclination, however, is patriarchal, and the explanation/parallel is this: in *none of the previous posts did i take the time to pander to the privileged class and discuss how rape affected them as well as the oppressed class of which i was researching/writing. I didn’t even think to. Such a thing would be absurd, and a profound furthering of social injustice. For example, in the post on disability, not once was i tempted to write disclaimers about how many typically-abled people suffer from rape and how difficult it is for them. Not once did i feel guilty for focusing on disabled individuals. Nor should i have. Only when writing on rape and sexism/patriarchy did i feel this guilt about not including men–this is evidence only of deeply embedded patriarchy. I put forth, respectfully, that your critique is motivated by this same force.
Jen, I provided direct link to Jim Hopper’s website where all the studies are listed. The link appears to be functioning properly, so I am somewhat confused. If you click the link and read the studies portion of Jim Hopper’s website you will find all the citations you request.
In regards to not responding to your other posts, I have not read them. I came upon this particular post in my email alerts and was concerned. Based on my experiences, I am aware how your above information can negatively impact efforts to raise awareness about male victimization and the female perpetration of sexual violence along with the disastrous effect it can have on boys and men who are made to feel that their experiences do not count as abuse or that male victims do not exist.
While I do not think this was intentional on your part, it can be an effect presenting rape as solely a tool of oppression against women, particularly when 1 in 6 males are victims of sexual abuse, nearly half of which is committed by females. Regarding the numbers that you may have seen, the vast majority of male victims never report their abuse to law enforcement (let alone mention it to anyone), which explains their virtual absence from statistics gathered from those sources. However, numerous peer-reviewed studies confirm the above rate of male victimization, especially those published after the 1980s.
I would ask that you read the statistics listed on Jim Hopper’s website. They provide a great deal of information in regards to male victimization. I would also suggest that the guilt you feel in ignoring male victims likely has nothing to do with “deeply embedded patriarchy.” My concern for male victims is motivated by my experiences and my desire for no other boys or men go through I what I did when I wanted help. I think your guilt is the mirror of my concern, i.e. it was motivated by a subconscious, covert concern for male victims. However, that you would consider it wrong or pandering to want to prevent the rape of boys and men is disconcerting.