Rape culture in action. Massive Trigger Warning

[scallopsrgreat]

Warning: There is a brutal rape described in the opening paragraphs. So please self-care.

The article is from RollingStone and is about the systematic erasure and cover-up of womens rape and sexual assault experiences at the University of Virginia. It is quite long but also very detailed.

From 'friends' to officials these women are encouraged to forget. They are paralysed by lack of information, informed choices and support even from those who are seemingly trying to help.

The article really doesn't pull any punches and describes really well how women's experiences are minimised. It also shows how rapists aren't monsters. They live and function (sometimes even heroically) in the community. It shows how they do plan their rapes (sometimes quite chillingly). How they feel entitled to rape these women and how they don't see it as a big deal. They don't expect to get caught. They may not even see it as rape or simply just don't care.

Just in case anyone thinks women aren't oppressed. Or feminism has gone too far. Or rape culture doesn't exist.

It's so frightening.

I also think it should be highlighted and the University of Virginia named. Because they have gone to great lengths to silence the voices of these women over decades.

scallopsrgreat
I don't see why that would surprise you. Women aren't immune to rape culture. If anything they are more acutely aware of the implications and consequences for any women who would be swimming upstream against this culture.

I would have thought they would be more understanding and supportive to someone who had gone through it though, as it could well have been them. The authorities hiding it for money etc. is not a huge shock, although despicable, but for the people who can most relate, well, it was not what I expected.

Wow, I have just read the whole article and I am completely stunned. UVA has a culture which produces rapists, and provides victims for them. It then gaslights and completely downplays what is happening to the rape victims, and discourages them from taking further action. Dreadfully shocking. If there were ever a movement to close down a university, it should be targeted at UVA.

And for those who haven't had the chance to read the whole article, it has included 5 of 35 (or so) verses of "Rugby Road", a traditional UVA fight song. I prefer to name it "A Call to Arms for Male Entitlement and Misogyny". The first verse points to the absolute entitlement that the men of UVA feel, while the remaining point to the blatant misogyny encapsulated by UVA. I was going to cut and paste it here, and realised it may be triggering for some ( to those who have been through this. Just horrifying and sad on so, so many levels.

Gosh MyEmpire that is truly awful

I'm readin this but know the thread will be miles long before I'm able to comment. Thank you, Scallops.

This is just awful UK universities aren't quite as bad, perhaps partly because we don't have fraternities, but having recently finished uni, a lot of the attitudes (not the staff, but fellow students) wouldn't surprise me at all. At our uni in Freshers' Week we were encouraged to do various hall activities, I guess they were trying to emulate frat type culture. One hall, not mine, had t-shirts with a checklist of things to do in Freshers' Week including "bang a ". Not particularly bad in comparison, but it rather summed up the whole attitude. Obviously there were plenty of decent men, but overall, lad culture dominated. It seems to suck young men in as they are too embarrassed to be "different" and to not objectify and degrade women

I hate that this still happens. That women are made to feel ashamed or at fault for a brutal attack. That the emphasis from universities is always on women not being raped, not on men not raping.

If someone is mugged, no one asks if they actually meant to give their money and phone away and have changed their mind. If someone is beaten up then no one asks if it was just a misunderstanding. But a woman is violated and suddenly she's making it up, she's confused, she brought it upon herself

MyEmpire that is just disgusting, I'm so sorry that your "friends" were so utterly unsupportive and damaging

So you expect men to be treating women like this Snow1? Like pieces of meat. Sub-human. Interchangeable. Solely for men's pleasure. These are men who are revered, thought of as pillars of the community, probably highly successful after university. Barely given these women a thought after they did what they did to them. Known to these women and their peers.

It is their behaviour that creates this culture. Not women's.

I can't imagine how hurtful it must be when you tell a friend and they blame you MEOD. I'm sorry you had to go through that .

That is horrific. Absolutely horrific. The statement from the president about it includes the line:

"...including many details that were previously not disclosed..."

So they did know about this case already then. Disgusting.

How scary is it to think that UVA graduates are working in hospitals & are lawyers, working with the ill & vulnerable...

You would have no idea which dr/nurse or lawyer took part in 'hazing' rituals or who & who isn't a rapist.

This article was a nightmare to read. My very dear friend attended UVA from 1984 to 1988. She was raped on campus. She reported the attack to no one. She never told me until five years later. She managed to graduate but struggled with depression and often used alcohol to help her through the sleepless nights. My stomach is in knots for these women suffering at the hands of both the rapists and the University. My friend still suffers 30 years later..

Ah this was hard to read. All through it I was urging them all - report it, report it! I had to remind myself that the article was describing a culture in which women are relentlessly undermined.

David Lisak's study sounds crucially important and yet - 12 years ago now. It clearly has had virtually no impact at all. Am going to seek it out.

I clicked on the link to the related article, this one, and found myself irritated by this quote of President Obama (lauded by campaigners)

Sexual violence is more than just a crime against individuals," Obama said, announcing the task force at the White House in January. "It threatens our families; it threatens our communities. Ultimately, it threatens the entire country. It tears apart the fabric of our communities. And that's why we're here today – because we have the power to do something about it as a government, as a nation.

Just? just?? Why is the fact that it is a crime just against individual (women) not enough? why must it be made of primary interest to society i.e. men, through the institutions that protect and serve them? I am spitting.

Probably because I live in America and this conservative bullshit is ubiquitous.

Lisak article on his study here

"I would have thought they would be more understanding and supportive to someone who had gone through it though, as it could well have been them."

That's exactly it though. Part of it is the fear that it could happen to them so they seek to justify ways in which they "wouldn't have got themselves into that situation". It's a self-protection mechanism which is also self-deluding, which serves to undermine and "other" victims of rape and reinforces rape culture and victim blaming. It's part of the positive feedback loop that means that rapists can go on raping. But while i condemn it I can understand it - this is a product of the fear that violence against women breeds, and it works perfectly for the perpetrators

the have let rapists loose, with high class degrees, to filter into top end jobs to prey on women there.

no words.

You have to remember that some of the men who run UVA will be UVA alumni. Make the connection.

taking care of their own you mean?

How awful. And the linked comments from other UVA rape survivors...

Snow, surely a man is as capable as a woman of imagining how terrible it would be to have his mouth or his anus penetrated without consent?

Not just that love never.

Didn't a female UVA student go missing recently? Hit the news here as she was born in the UK and emigrated as a child.

What gets me about this article is the sheer number of men who graduated from UVA, who were to be eventually charged, convicted and incarcerated for crimes of a sexual nature against women in later life. Imagine how many men it would deter and how many, many, many women it would save, if UVA dealt with this issue in the manner it deserved.

What is also telling is one of the comments below the article - a woman recounts how her father told her of the rape culture at UVA, and several fraternities to avoid, should she want to avoid being raped. The thing is, he graduated in 1965, so it has been going on for many decades now! I wonder if we were to look back at newspaper files to see exactly how far this goes back, what we would find? Would it stretch back to good old Thomas Jefferson himself? We know that misogyny has existed for thousands of years, and this is a very good example of how it is perpetuated against women.

I'm away for the weekend so will read the article when I get back.