Let's talk about it: Rape Culture Effects Men

As someone who identifies herself as a feminist, I face a lot of people who disagree with my beliefs. Usually these people don't understand really what feminism is or they think it is unfair to man because it is saying ''all man'' commit the injustices that feminists fight against (which, surprise, it does not). These men are called, in the computer world, ''men's rights activists''.

It is fine that there are men's rights activists. Yeah, awesome, fight those binary gender rules that are placed on men, but do not be bashing feminists when you cannot stick up for a fellow man in need when some man's rights (more like human rights) have een encroached on. Let me tell you what I am talking about: a female teacher in by the name of Brianne Atlice in Utah used her position of power to her benefit and took advantage of two teenage boys. The sex was considered consensual but she is thirty-four and the boys are seventeen and sixteen: what she did was rape. The story itself is kind of messy, I'll admit, but the real problem I had was with the reaction to this article.

Almost all the comments that I read, via Facebook or the article that I linked to above, all gave sympathy yo the teacher and condemned the boys. There was comments saying that these boys should have never reported her, that it eas suppose to be every boy fantasy that teacher were to do that. I saw no comments saying how horrible that teacher was, or how they felt bad for the two boys. I saw no ''men's rights activists'' comment on this, which is suprising because these men always will comment of feminist topics saying, ''Not all men'' or ''Man face sexism too''.

There was no contrast between the comments, not one person said, ''Hey, those kids might need help after this, We should not be promoting rape like this.'' This rape culture: they deny that this was really rape; they say this was something boys should want. By saying this, any victim, male or female, would feel that their rape or sexual assault isn't something that should reported.

These comments, though they may seem benign, create the whole idea that rape is a joke. They tell young boys and girls thay they should tell anyone or seek help, and that is heart reaking. That is Rape Culture.

written by Marielle Wall