Invisible War: The Rape Culture

When I watched the movie the Invisible War, I was shocked by the high rape rate in the military. How can a seemly just institution indulge the perpetrator but be indifferent to victims? The soldiers and their supervisors seem to regard rape as a small thing that should not be reported. The supervisors do not believe the victims and think that they file a false report about rape. They tell females not to wear makeup to avoid rape. The institutional sexual assaults can be connected to the rape culture in the college and the athletics.
In my opinion, rape culture is a belief that rape is not a big deal and people are accustomed to rape. It makes people think that rape is a common thing and it is not worth making a fuss. Just as I read in Ridgway’s article, rape culture leads to
Under rape culture, the perpetrators are not severely punished because people think rape is not a serious crime. Rape culture also think that sexual assault is caused by the nature of men, women, and the environment (Armstrong, 2006). Rape culture believes that men are naturally aggressive, which normalizes men’s violence and assaults. It also thinks that the victims deserve it or ask for it. Rape culture think that women or the victims should should some responsibilities for the assault, violence, or rape. For example, women should not drink at night. The drunkenness or appearances of the victim are a common excuse of perpetrators.
An example of rape culture that I found is the rape case of a student at Stanford University. Brock Allen Turner was accused of raping an unconscious intoxicated woman. Prosecutors proposed that Turner should be punished by six years in jail. However, the judge finally gave him six months in county jail. The punishment is light, considering his sexual assault. The judge