I have recently seen the movie, 50 Shades of Grey and thought that it would be a good topic to discuss, in regards to rape culture and what not.
First of all, I found the movie to be very graphic. However, that was supposed to be the case. However, I felt that the normalization of non consent, and rape culture could be found in almost every scene in the movie. The movie is meant to be a romance of some sort. At first the relationship between the two main characters seems to be completely sexual. Christian Grey essentially stalks Anastasia Steele, he tells her what to do, he shows up at her house unannounced and uninvited. He even ties her down and continues to have sex with her when she did not want to. This kind of movie is romanticizing rape, and non consent. Christian Grey portrays the ideas that even though his partner did not want to have sex with him at first, she finally gave in and that is all that matters. This movie exemplifies moments like these and acts as though his behavior towards Anastasia is romantic. That is not the case. In fact, many other people who enjoyed the movie and the books still find it disgusting that this is a romantic film that portrays such explicit behavior.
The truth is a lot of what happens in this book is rape. It is filled with non-consensual sex. The way it is portrayed is in a good and positive light. It is completely backwards thinking. Once again, it just adds onto the culture of rape and the grey areas of rape.
Also, in the books and movie, Christian takes Anastasia without her content, and justifies it by saying that she wanted it undeniably and that there was physical proof of it. Even though they both shared some physical desire for the other, does not mean that consent does not matter. Just because two people "want it", does not make it okay to "do it", unless both participants have given consent to do so. Physical responses are not indicators of consent, a person;s verbal agreement is consent. This was not seen a lot of the time in the movie. It is concerning because it can be compared to rape too easily. It is for reasons like this, that makes it hard for rapists to be prosecuted.
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Response to Class discussion on Feminism 2/3/15
I read something very interesting recently. It said rape is everyone's issue, regardless of gender...
This was something that really spoke out to me for many reasons. For one, many people portray rape and the culture that surrounds it to be only a women's problem. The majority of the time, a women will fall victim to rape and sexual assault. You did not hear very often about men who are sexually assaulted. However, this kind of thing does indeed happen.
In regards to feminism, this type of thinking is more broad and open-minded than the norm of the Western culture. People who tend to have feminist ideals, also tend to have more liberal ideals as well. We unfortunately live in a rape culture society that promotes sex. This also affects how our society as a whole thinks about rape. There are many examples of how this rape culture is expressed in our society. One example would be the same "Blurred Lines", which expresses the blurred lines between consent with explicit language such as "I know you want it". Also, claiming that a girl was wearing too much makeup, or not enough clothing was pretty much a girls own way for "asking for it". All of these elements of society revolve around rape culture, and especially the way a women is treated through this society.
There has been a recent scandal about a boy from Stanford, who was caught mid-rape on campus. This was one of the most alarmingly sick and twisted stories I have heard of. The boy, was a Freshman on the Stanford swim team who was caught raping an unconscious girl on campus. He was charged with five counts of rape, and was asked to leave the school permanently. What is so sickening about this case, is that the boy claims he was not assaulting his victim with the intent to rape her. However, he had already committed rape and was caught red-handed. I think this just goes to show how we live in a rape culture, yet no one wants to call it rape. There are so many different levels of rape, yet even rapists only refer to themselves as people who have sexually assaulted others. I think, that this is something very interesting that no one really understands…. Why not just call a rapist a rapist? Because many do not want the title. However, they are the ones committing the crimes, nonetheless.
This was something that really spoke out to me for many reasons. For one, many people portray rape and the culture that surrounds it to be only a women's problem. The majority of the time, a women will fall victim to rape and sexual assault. You did not hear very often about men who are sexually assaulted. However, this kind of thing does indeed happen.
In regards to feminism, this type of thinking is more broad and open-minded than the norm of the Western culture. People who tend to have feminist ideals, also tend to have more liberal ideals as well. We unfortunately live in a rape culture society that promotes sex. This also affects how our society as a whole thinks about rape. There are many examples of how this rape culture is expressed in our society. One example would be the same "Blurred Lines", which expresses the blurred lines between consent with explicit language such as "I know you want it". Also, claiming that a girl was wearing too much makeup, or not enough clothing was pretty much a girls own way for "asking for it". All of these elements of society revolve around rape culture, and especially the way a women is treated through this society.
There has been a recent scandal about a boy from Stanford, who was caught mid-rape on campus. This was one of the most alarmingly sick and twisted stories I have heard of. The boy, was a Freshman on the Stanford swim team who was caught raping an unconscious girl on campus. He was charged with five counts of rape, and was asked to leave the school permanently. What is so sickening about this case, is that the boy claims he was not assaulting his victim with the intent to rape her. However, he had already committed rape and was caught red-handed. I think this just goes to show how we live in a rape culture, yet no one wants to call it rape. There are so many different levels of rape, yet even rapists only refer to themselves as people who have sexually assaulted others. I think, that this is something very interesting that no one really understands…. Why not just call a rapist a rapist? Because many do not want the title. However, they are the ones committing the crimes, nonetheless.
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