Melania Trump says Sexual Assault victims shouldn't report unless they have evidence

[epronovost]

The president of the United States is contributing to a rape culture right now, by mocking alleged victims in front of large audiences, and perpetuating false narratives about the length of time victims take to come forward.

Do you really interpret that as promoting rape?  I think you would be hard pressed to find too many people who condone and support rape. Even probably many rapist know it’s wrong, and I don’t think promote a “rape culture”

It seems though like anymore anyone that doesn’t agree with lynching someone without evidence, is said to be promoting a rape culture. It’s an abuse of language.

However the racist comment below is fine, because of who it’s towards.

Rape culture doesn't mean culture that makes rape legal (although it definitely can be that, it's not exclusively that). It's a society that normalise and excuse sexual violence for example by blamming victims or the infamous "boys will be boys" axiom. It can also be used to describe societies whose culture and attitude toward sex makes people vulnerable to sexual crimes for example by presenting double standards about sexuality (men being heavily rewarded for having sex by their peers, women being punished for the same thing), providing no formal and comprehensive sexual education leading to some people having vastly different level of knowledge and sensibilisation toward questions of relationship and sexuality, etc. Of course, some culture have a heavier rape culture than others. Also the victims of rape culture aren't only women.

[RoadRunner79]

I don't see what you claim her saying in the article linked.  Is this an accurate quote?  

Also, I don't believe that there is a "rape culture" running rampant in the country.

"Rape culture" is a term I don't much like. But the term does refer to a real cultural phenomenon. There is a psychological tendency in humans to want to "deny" the reality of rape when confronted with it it. To recognize that there are such devious and evil individuals among us who are capable of forcing another person to perform sexual acts is something most people are hard-wired not to accept. Notice the bolded "among us"-- no one has a problem thinking that these heinous individuals exist "out there." Sure some thug on the street might be out there raping women. But "not the college dean" and "not our beloved pastor" and "not [insert name here] who we've all known and loved for years." 

When rape happens people often blame the victim as a knee jerk response. Why? People have a hard time handling this shit. But this shit happens. When multiple people have a hard time handling this shit, it happens on a social level. And when something regularly happens on a social level, it could be said to happen on a cultural level. So "rape culture" has become sort of a loaded term, but it is not entirely inaccurate. There is even more to it than what I've said here, but hopefully what I've said in this post is enough to help you see where people are coming from when they use the term.

I can agree, when we have evidence, that they where assulted, and but we have trouble believing the person did it. With trying to blame the victim. This doesn’t seem to be happening in the Kavenaugh case though.

[LadyForCamus]

The president of the United States is contributing to a rape culture right now, by mocking alleged victims in front of large audiences, and perpetuating false narratives about the length of time victims take to come forward.

Do you really interpret that as promoting rape?  I think you would be hard pressed to find too many people who condone and support rape. Even probably many rapist know it’s wrong, and I don’t think promote a “rape culture”

It seems though like anymore anyone that doesn’t agree with lynching someone without evidence, is said to be promoting a rape culture. It’s an abuse of language.

However the racist comment below is fine, because of who it’s towards.

RR, you don’t have to be out there screaming, “rape is awesome”, in order to perpetuate rape culture.  Just like there are plenty of people with erroneous views about African Americans who don’t think of themselves as racist, but who are inadvertently perpetuating racial stereotypes that harm black people.  Pushing the false narrative: “if she was REALLY assaulted she would have told some one right away”, contributes to the silence of future victims, and harms their credibility in the eyes of society.  It also sends potential perpetrators the message: “no one is going to believe her anyway.”  Yeah, these things collaboratively perpetuate rape culture.

[vulcanlogician]

I can agree, when we have evidence, that they where assulted, and but we have trouble believing the person did it. With trying to blame the victim. This doesn’t seem to be happening in the Kavenaugh case though.

I wasn't speaking about the Kavenaugh case, though. I was speaking about the environment in which all alleged assaults transpire. I was speaking more abstractly about the idea of "rape culture" not any specific incident.

[RoadRunner79]

Do you really interpret that as promoting rape?  I think you would be hard pressed to find too many people who condone and support rape. Even probably many rapist know it’s wrong, and I don’t think promote a “rape culture”

It seems though like anymore anyone that doesn’t agree with lynching someone without evidence, is said to be promoting a rape culture. It’s an abuse of language.

However the racist comment below is fine, because of who it’s towards.

RR, you don’t have to be out there screaming, “rape is awesome”, in order to perpetuate rape culture.  Just like there are plenty of people with erroneous views about African Americans who don’t think of themselves as racist, but who are inadvertently perpetuating racial stereotypes that harm black people.  Pushing the false narrative: “if she was REALLY assaulted she would have told some one right away”, contributes to the silence of future victims, and harms their credibility in the eyes of society.  It also sends potential perpetrators the message: “no one is going to believe her anyway.”  Yeah, these things collaboratively perpetuate rape culture.

I would agree, that people make too big of a deal out of the time (the same as you see here, all the time). However it is still a relevant factor.

But I also think that people make too big of a deal out of calling this a “rape culture” as well.

[GrandizerII]

RR, you don’t have to be out there screaming, “rape is awesome”, in order to perpetuate rape culture.  Just like there are plenty of people with erroneous views about African Americans who don’t think of themselves as racist, but who are inadvertently perpetuating racial stereotypes that harm black people.  Pushing the false narrative: “if she was REALLY assaulted she would have told some one right away”, contributes to the silence of future victims, and harms their credibility in the eyes of society.  It also sends potential perpetrators the message: “no one is going to believe her anyway.”  Yeah, these things collaboratively perpetuate rape culture.

I would agree, that people make too big of a deal out of the time (the same as you see here, all the time). However it is still a relevant factor.

But I also think that people make too big of a deal out of calling this a “rape culture” as well.

You, with your responses, are contributing to that culture, unknowingly.

[Amarok]

I can agree, when we have evidence, that they where assulted, and but we have trouble believing the person did it. With trying to blame the victim. This doesn’t seem to be happening in the Kavenaugh case though.

The total opposite no matter what your ideological inclinations say .

[RoadRunner79]

I would agree, that people make too big of a deal out of the time (the same as you see here, all the time). However it is still a relevant factor.

But I also think that people make too big of a deal out of calling this a “rape culture” as well.

You, with your responses, are contributing to that culture, unknowingly.

What... by asking for evidence, before we lynch a person? It seems that if you are not the one extreme, they call you the other in this identity politics culture. Same as with racism.

[GrandizerII]

You, with your responses, are contributing to that culture, unknowingly.

What... by asking for evidence, before we lynch a person? It seems that if you are not the one extreme, they call you the other in this identity politics culture. Same as with racism.

We can see your posts clearly.

You don't think rape culture is much of a thing. That's what contributes to it, whether you realize it or not.

[RoadRunner79]

What... by asking for evidence, before we lynch a person? It seems that if you are not the one extreme, they call you the other in this identity politics culture. Same as with racism.

We can see your posts clearly.

You don't think rape culture is much of a thing. That's what contributes to it, whether you realize it or not.

Sure.