The Moralization Of Rape In American Society

Rape in American society is often trivialized despite being a violent crime. This trivialization often starts with the way people are educated about rape, both in school and from others. People have made insensitive jokes in classrooms and on buses that truly show the gaps in the knowledge of teenagers in our community regarding the severity and seriousness of rape. If a child makes jokes about rape, how can it ever be treated like the serious crime it actually is?
People’s attitude towards rape creates an environment where violence is normalized and downplayed as early as middle school. Later in life, the same youth end up as perpetrators or in positions of power in the justice system that perpetuates victim blaming. While most people aren’t active offenders, their passiveness is almost as harmful. Some of the factors that enable this are ignorance and misinformation. Meeting with the health teacher at Grafton High School revealed that the curriculum regarding rape was created by a large group of community members and administrators with the hope of informing students on a broad spectrum of topics. However the biggest thing that stuck out in our minds from our experience in health class was that dressing modestly is the “number one” way to avoid rape.Yet everyday women are raped
Education could be comprised of informing people on the real life consequences of rape and that there is more than one type of victim. Most people view rape as a very specific occurrence which only adds to general ignorance. We believe that when people are only educated on one scenario of rape, other types of rape aren’t taken as seriously as they should be. Educating people on a broader spectrum of victims and perpetrators could enhance overall understanding of the severity of the crime. It’s the public’s responsibility to combat the damaging culture they’ve created through awareness and