{"id":7701,"date":"2013-10-02T09:00:09","date_gmt":"2013-10-02T16:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=7701"},"modified":"2013-10-01T09:52:19","modified_gmt":"2013-10-01T16:52:19","slug":"open-space-rape-a-part-of-our-heritage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2013\/10\/02\/open-space-rape-a-part-of-our-heritage\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Space<\/em>: Rape: a part of our heritage"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Canada, we often hear \u201crape culture\u201d defined as something that\u2019s a problem only in countries abroad. But a few weeks ago major headlines began to tackle this touchy issue when student organizers at St. Mary\u2019s and the University of British Columbia were called out for their welcome chants with lyrics that promoted non-consensual, underage sexual assault (also known as rape).<\/p>\n

Any meaningful conversation about how to diminish the number of sexual assaults requires a definition of the term \u201crape culture.\u201d Rape culture is a conglomerate of many social forces, be they commonly held beliefs or entire institutions, that attempt to normalize, romanticize, justify, trivialize, or altogether excuse rape.<\/p>\n

At the root of rape culture are two highly pervasive and harmful myths about the sexuality of men and women; this culture is further compounded when intersecting with perceived-real race, ethnicity, sexuality, and other dimensions of identity.<\/p>\n

The experiences of men who are survivors of rape and sexual abuse are completely silenced while the experiences of women survivors are wrought with shaming and blaming. Men are seen as potential violent sexual predators only abated by the forces of law and consequence rationality, while women are viewed as objects meant to fulfill sexual needs of men.<\/p>\n

A recent provincial campaign to address rape culture and victim blaming has been launched by BC public agencies attempting to define rape; the \u201cDon\u2019t Be That Guy\u201d campaign asks men to take on responsible roles to combat sexual assault.<\/p>\n

This campaign was derailed by a group called Men\u2019s Rights Edmonton that contested the roles of men in heterosexual rape cases against women. The men\u2019s rights group claimed that there should also be a \u201cDon\u2019t Be That Girl\u201d campaign to fight back against false rape claims that ruin the lives of men, inferring that actual rape is rare.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t take much searching online to discover many sites offering advice on how to justify rape, including one site outlining the signs of false rape claims by women. Here are some of the indicators this site deems as false: no evidence of struggle, is a friend of the attacker, authorities aren\u2019t alerted immediately. These methods of justifying rape, compounded with the trivializing of St. Mary\u2019s and UBC pro-rape chants, is Canadian rape culture at work.<\/p>\n

According to the logic used by rape apologists, everything is your fault. Let\u2019s stop being ridiculous and get to the real work.<\/p>\n

October will feature the re-launch of the Canadian Federation of Students now-20-year-old \u201cNo means no\u201d campaign.<\/p>\n

We need to come to terms with our culture of gendered violence featured in film, music, and games, and throughout our society. Don\u2019t be a bystander: take an active role against sexual violence.<\/p>\n

Contact the Camosun College Women\u2019s Collective at womens@camosunstudent.org to learn more; all bodies welcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Canada, we often hear \u201crape culture\u201d defined as something that\u2019s a problem only in countries abroad. But a few weeks ago major headlines began to tackle this touchy issue when student organizers at St. Mary\u2019s and the University of British Columbia were called out for their welcome chants with lyrics that promoted non-consensual, underage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-views","category-october-2-2013"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7701"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7702,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7701\/revisions\/7702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}