Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Ending Rape Culture: What can I do?

There have been a lot of #MeToo stories coming out amidst the Harvey Weinstein resignation and I've been reading all of them that have appeared on my feed. I even started 'collecting' the personal data I'm seeing for myself to see it on a micro-level. 

While reading, I saw this: 



It got me thinking: "what *IS* a feasible, tangible action that I, as a gay man, can take to put an end to rape culture?" 

Other people commented that they'd do things like 'teach my kids to be good to others" and "stop harassment when I see it" and I feel like, while those are all well and good, they weren't actions *I* could take. 

I'm not a teacher. 
I don't have kids. 
I could call it out where I see it, but I don't think I ever see it. 

These suggested actions are hypothetical "If / then", readied actions one CAN take, but probably won't on a daily basis....and maybe that's why rape culture is still around. If teaching that "rape is wrong" were enough, rape culture would already be eradicated. 

After thinking about this, I've come to believe that what we need to focus on in the phrase "Rape culture" is the fact that it's a culture - woven into our lives much like racism or sexism - and it's become so normalized that it's become invisible - and that's how we start to change it
  • Educate myself more about rape culture so that I can identify the full scope of it and how it relates to other facets of sexism. 
  • Admit that I, myself, am a perpetrator of rape culture and remind myself there are no “good ones”.
  • Volunteer to "tag along"/ drive my female friends (day or night) on errands so they don’t have to go alone.
  • Read each and every one of these “rape stories” I find on Facebook.
  • Donate $ to charities whose cause is to end rape culture 
  • Wear that safety pin that’s supposed to symbolize women’ssafety.
  • Talk to friends and bring up ‘ending rape culture’ in conversation.
  • Ask Research what more I can do to help end rape culture. 
    • Asking a woman how to end rape culture is like asking a person of color how to end racism - just don't do it. 
I feel like learning to see rape culture is the first step to ending it. All of these are reasonable, everyday actions that EVERYONE can take to educate themselves and fund those who are properly equipped to do more.