Camille Paglia Rape Culture Summary

Rape culture, particularly on college campuses, is a pervasive part of our current society. As more young women speak out against attacks made against them, the issue has made a prominent place for itself in the media and has given a stronger voice to those who have suffered abuse. Camille Paglia, a humanities professor and cultural critic, examines rape culture through the lens of personal responsibility in an editorial that she wrote for the San Francisco Examiner. She expresses the opinion that rape is as equal a responsibility of the victim as it is of those doing the victimizing. While it is important to be aware of the risks, Paglia's argument is ineffective in that it uses inflammatory, fear-based speech that personally attacks her intended audience and excludes men and women of color from an important discussion.
She states that, “it is women's personal responsibility to be aware of the dangers of the world”, and that young feminists are unaware of the risk factors leading to rape. She supports this opinion by using appeals to fear, stating that women can be overpowered and that the minute a woman places herself in male company she is at risk. She refers to attraction between the sexes as being uncontrollable and stresses that women should fear male sex because of such. In Paglia's argument, men are viewed as predators that women should be on guard against at all times. This is an appeal to fear that unfairly labels all men as capable of rape and young women as oblivious to the possibility. While it is important to raise discussions about rape, Paglia's fear based approach excludes men as an important part of the issue instead of providing them with rape