What is rape culture?
It is the social conditioning which normalizes sexual violence by men by promoting or even being okay with the treatment of women as sexual objects. One can’t really define ‘Rape culture’ in specific terms but it entails every activity which promotes the thinking that sexual objectification of women is ‘normal’.
We might not realize it but even sayings like ‘Boys will be boys’ give men an excuse to get away with, when they treat a woman as an object. The everyday language that we use encourages rape culture. So, how would our conversations look like if people understood the basic concept of consent and treated women as equals?
A US-based ad agency called Mekanism made a 30-second clip titled ‘It’s On Us’, which autocorrects language that promotes rape culture.
Watch it here:
Talking to the Huffington Post, It’s On Us Director Rebecca Kaplan said:
“At It’s On Us, we believe it’s important to highlight the subtle and common language that perpetuates rape culture because it’s so pervasive in our society and often goes unnoticed. When we don’t check ourselves and our friends who are using that type of language, we make it acceptable. This is dangerous because language can make rape culture acceptable, and even perpetuate it.”
What we say matters and this video was created to demonstrate that it’s on all of us to choose our words wisely, she added.
It’s really not that tough, people.