Why the Hell is Rape Culture Not Trending?

Protestors stand at the intersection of Mountain and College Ave. in Old Town Ft. Collins to fight against Rape Culture.
Photograph taken by Megan Fischer

Today –Monday December 8^th – in Ft. Collins, the decision on the Andre Alders case was made, allowing an alleged rapist to walk free. In response to the decision, an immediate protest took place organized by a few people who had been following the trial and updating members via a Facebook group page. Also today, there were no protests on campus, or in Old Town, for #BlackLivesMatter. When the protests were on campus and trending as the thing to do last week for social justice minded folk, the turnout was significant. So where were these protestors today?

To be fair, this protest was organized fairly suddenly, and awareness about the case and events being protested were not very widespread. However, this is not the fault of the protestors or the protest organizers on the Facebook page, rather it is representative of the larger problem of rape culture. Either collectively we do not care about rape, or we are content with living in a society where rape goes largely unpunished, and as long as we don’t have to hear about it or get uncomfortable talking about it, we are content to let it keep happening. If you’re not making the connection, the institutional and societal acceptance of rape aligns almost perfectly with the institutional and systematic acceptance of unwarranted violence against black bodies.

This is not suggesting that one issue should be prioritized over the other, or that we should direct our focus toward the issue of Rape after we are all burnt out on Black Lives, but it is to bring awareness to the fact that right now there is a unique opportunity for coalition based directly upon the intersection of institutional injustice that bonds Rape culture and Black deaths. The issues of unwarranted black deaths and unpunished rape are problems where the institutions designed to bring justice and to protect and serve its citizens are failing.

Now, my last post called for people to take the next steps after protesting, however it seems that the fight against rape culture isn’t even being allowed to take the first steps. Rape culture is brought up as a concept in Women’s and Ethnic Studies classrooms, but not forced into a public space where we all have to come to terms with the fact that it surrounds us. When we do see Rape in the media, we see it on Law and Order: SVU as a highly stylized, dramatized, and surreal occurrence. Or we see coverage of Rape on a global scale, looking at how bad they are in India or Saudi Arabia, instead of how bad we are in our own communities. While the global media coverage is definitely full of merit, exposing the widespread injustice of rape culture permeating societies across the world, and while SVU attempts to tell stories that people would rather not have to think about, especially for entertainment, there is still always an aspect of rape that becomes a spectacle in these stories. The most mainstream stories are about graphic gang rapes in foreign lands, which become tales of consumption for people to say that when a woman has her drink spiked and has her body used without her consent, well, at least that’s not as bad as those evil gang rapists.

Even recently, when the accusations against Bill Cosby, one of the largest rape scandals that’s been discussed for years in feminist circles, but now comes to light due to a man briefly discussing it in a stand-up routine, the story is not about what happened to the women who were raped. The story is automatically about “Well, Bill Cosby was always an icon, such a good guy, I don’t believe he would’ve done this,” which leads only to the next logical point of blaming the victims, saying that they are just seeking media attention, that these accusations can’t be true. The women making the rape allegations are completely delegitimized, and the one who gets the most attention is the one who gives the most graphic verbal depiction of her rape, which becomes spectacle for the media and it’s consumers, re-broadcasting her words in fully graphic detail as some kind of sick and twisted perversion that takes her intended meaning and turns it into safe-for-air pornography.

We not only see this victim blaming and exploitation just in rape culture, but with the black bodies as well. Think back to beyond the two Grand Jury decisions, to earlier this year when Janay Rice was brutally attacked by Ray Rice in an elevator. Without her consent, that video was broadcast and shared, exploiting her image under the guise of bringing awareness. She did not give permission to share that video and share her traumatic experience, however she was made a martyr, and her body, or at least the image of its brutalization, was used without any question as to what she would have wanted. The video of Eric Garner has been shared in similar ways, however he is not alive to give consent, which maybe changes the meaning, and changes the way in which it can be consumed. Still the lasting discussion concerning Janay Rice became what did she do to deserve that, or that it was her and Ray Rice’s business, and with the Michael Brown and Eric Garner, the discussion gets narrowed down to asking what they did to antagonize the cops or questioning the legality of selling loose cigarettes, respectively, as if these acts were prompting their results. Either way, there is a trend here of bodies being exploited without consent, of bodies being blamed for the violence enacted upon them, and of a culture that seems to be collectively okay with all of it.

On a local scale, there have been a string of reported sexual assaults this year in Ft. Collins, and around campus. It took 11 reports before the school even spoke out about the assaults, and even then refused to take a definitive stance. The messages sent by the institution were more victim blaming, telling women what THEY could do to prevent being raped, as opposed to speaking to what steps men, or the entire community together, could take, to eradicate rape culture.

The group “End RAPE Culture Fort Collins” organized the protest today with little support, but they do not seem to be slowing down, and are planning more protests with more notice later this week. As opposed to being reduced to hashtag activism and gathering around with no goal besides collectively being upset, they are forcing protestors into a space to disrupt institutions allowing injustice to happen. Today they protested at the location in Old Town where the rape from the Alders case occurred. They were at the heart of the scene as a reminder that this happens in right in front of the Ft. Collins community’s face on a regular basis and goes unpunished. There seems to be organized leadership within the group with a goal in mind to take to task the businesses, the community, and the justice system who are participating in allowing rape culture to thrive. Hopefully the cause catches on, and one form of injustice is not favored during protests at the expense of another. Hopefully these two causes can combine forces, and substantial change can be made on a small scale within Ft. Collins that can pave the way for larger future change. If the emotion and momentum behind recent protests can remain, and these intersections can be made between all related issues of systemic injustice, the power and opportunity to take the next steps toward change will be in place. The all that will be left to do is put one foot in front of the other, and march in solidarity toward overturning a culture of racism and rape.

Adam Levine, Robin Thicke, and the Soundtrack to Rape Culture

I think it’s fair to say that the most common themes in music, throughout every decade of music existing as a pop culture commodity, have been lust and heartbreak. These are two of the most raw and relatable human emotions, leading to their frequent expression through artistic mediums. Often in music, these emotions are taken to their extremes when expressed, and become expressions of dark fantasies or drastic retaliations. The fact that these kinds of songs happen isn’t news and it’s not shocking that it still happens, however, there needs to be a distinction between art or expression and commercialized perpetuations of sexual violence.

The two most recent um, artists (?), that I want to compare are Maroon 5/Adam Levine + Friends, and Robin Thicke/Robin Thicket because that’s what Microsoft Word wants to call him and I like it better.  Both Levine and Thicket (I won’t stop, really It’s so much better) have a popular recent history of criticism for their videos.

Adam Levine sparked controversy first with Maroon 5’s video for “Misery” which features him being chased down and abused by his girlfriend (then real life girlfriend), and then again in the most recent video for “Animals,” in which he is a meat butcher who stalks a woman (his real life wife) while singing about preying on her and telling her not to deny the animal he brings out inside of her. These videos both are highly, highly, problematic. “Misery” completely trivializes domestic violence as some kind of entertaining game, while also using the woman as the aggressor to somehow make the act seem like a less significant offense, while hyping up the woman’s sexuality to give the whole thing more sex appeal. Then in “Animals,” the woman is sexualized again, compared to an animal and a piece of meat, however I would argue that now there’s an extra layer of complexity given that Levine, the male, is sexualized to an equal extent as the female. Also, while the woman is suggested to be desired like a piece of meat, Levine’s stalker character is the only character in the video to be visually equalized to meat, the main signifier being that he’s hanging off the meat hooks half nude and covered in blood in an attempt to make him indistinguishable from the dead cow carcasses. This all fits into a sick rape fantasy by Levine’s character, participating in a “rape culture” which works within patriarchy to foster acceptance sexual harassment and violence against women. But it has to be understood that this is a fictional narrative, with the purpose of telling a horror story. Maybe framing the story as a horror narrative, something is done in the psyche to inform the audience that yes, stalking and intent to rape is a horrific thing. That still doesn’t justify the lyrics and oversexualization, but it can’t be completely ignored. No part of rape culture can be justified, however I would argue that because Maroon 5’s “Animals” has levels of complexity, is attempting to tell a narrative story to the point that they hired the director of the latest Nightmare on Elm St. to direct the video, it has artistic merit. While it perpetuates rape culture, and that is problematic, it is not indulging in it the way that Mr. Thicket’s video is.

So now we get to Robin Thicket. This fucking guy. First he releases his most popular hit “Blurred Lines” which promoted rape, yes not just participated in rape culture but indeed PROMOTED RAPE AND SEXUAL HARRASMENT, using lyrics like “You Know You Want It,” and then the accompanying video was just him in a suit, in a room, surrounded by naked women acting like dogs. Or something. They’re doing some shit with their hands. Just… the video’s stupid and super misogynistic ok, just trust me here or watch it for yourself. Anyways… the genius Thicket follows up the controversy over his promotion of sexual assault by releasing a song/video called “Get Her Back” that publicly humiliates his ex-wife Paula Patton and makes private information between them public at her expense. To be clear, he is publicly sexually harassing and humiliating Paula Patton and attempting to frame himself as a heartbroken romantic, and a victim at the hands of Patton. This theme of harassment encompassed his entire tour, continuing the current phase of his career as one big public harassing.

The comparisons between “Animals” and “Blurred Lines” were quick to be made online, however I think we need to understand that these are two very different things. While there is an overarching problem of rape culture persisting in popular media, videos like “Animals” that attempt to express sexually aggressive but vague and generic sentiments, even when highly misogynistic, still are fictional narratives. “Animals” in particular is explicitly a horror narrative, meant to be horrific, which may be a positive aspect of it that stalking and raping are seen as horrific and creepy, and not happy and a man’s right to do. On the other side of this is the Uber-creep Thicket whose content is not “suggestive” at all, but is instead very directly and openly misogyny and harassment. He is directly harassing and violating a human being in the public eye. If you were pissed about Jennifer Lawrence’s nudes being leaked, then you should be equally pissed about the privacy violation that Paula Patton is being subjected to.

There is room to discuss how the work of both Levine and Thicket are problematic, but it needs to be understood that Adam Levine is creating a fucked up attempt at art, which is much more complex and worthy of discussion about how it can contribute to rape culture and what needs to change, while Thicke (real name now cause we’re gonna bring it on home) is openly taking pride in his participation, privilege, and perpetuation of rape culture. Thicke is not creating art, or any kind of narrative to interpret. He is making his personal life public at Paula Patton’s expense and attempting to commercialize her misery and his stalking/abuse.

There is no question as to the artistic merit of Thicke’s work, because there is no art. There is complete product: sexual assault being sold to the masses. Levine should be discussed in an attempt to change the system of production that continuously creates rape culture products. Thicke should be thrown out of the system entirely.

Both of these choices are left up to the consumer. The silver lining in these stories seems to be that for now, consumers aren’t buying Thicke’s gross product, which means that product will fail, and the market will have to find something new. So maybe the discussion is working, and the market will change soon. Maybe not, given that the music industry has a long history of these types of rape culture productions. In the end though, the consumer has the power to vote with their dollar in telling the content producers what they want to see.

But hey, no one even pays for music anymore anyways and the companies get money from views on YouTube videos like the ones I’ve provided, which have to happen so that we can even discuss everything that I’m trying to talk about here. So who fucking knows what the future holds?