Rape Culture: Reflections of a Larger Society

**TRIGGER WARNING FOR VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN + RAPE***


Porn aficionados fail see how porn reflects the larger cultural "values"of woman-hating. But, as I have found people do not even try to be subtle these days. So, get ready for another exciting installment of  chauvinist search terms:


"beat her senseless porn"


And if that is not reflective enough, lets take a look at a current Canadian event


Today, the top Canadian courts have decided that if people are unconscious, they can't consent to sexual activity. This revelation comes after revisiting a 2007 rape case.


One would assume that the justice system in Canada would be able to figure out that an unconscious person cannot give consent, but there you go. The case itself was surrounding the question, When does consent end and does it ever end?


By the way, in case you were wondering about the relevance of this recent ruling to the chauvinist search terms segment- it's all in the details. 


Apparently, back in 2007,  a woman's partner anally raped her with an object while she was unconscious and tied to a bed. Prior to passing out, the couple was taking part in what some may so eloquently refer to as "Erotic Asphyxiation" aka. strangling someone. The woman stated that she was aware that losing consciousness during the act was a possibility. When she did wake up, however, her partner was raping her. This was after three minutes of being comatose. A CTV news article claims that, "The object was removed ten seconds later, at which point the couple proceeded to have intercourse. Her hands were freed after they finished."  


The woman states that she consented to the strangulation but not the anal sex.


I shall not drift too far into my views on "consensual" violence, aka BDSM - but I will say that this case is reflective of our larger rape culture.


A question that comes to mind is, when did anyone, the rapist common law male partner and the Canadian Justice system at large believe it was acceptable to take advantage of an unconscious individual? When was this ever considered legitimate?

Nevertheless, the man was sentenced to 18 months in prison where he was only allowed to visit his son supervised (duh!) But, the case was overturned which caused an appeal to highest Canadian court for today's ruling.


In disagreement, Justice Morris Fish, a dudely judge who equates sodomy with a kiss really shit on his hands when he stated "Notably, it would criminalize kissing or caressing a sleeping partner, however gently and affectionately"


Since you know, anally raping someone is akin to giving them a kiss while they sleep. 


The other aspect of the case that reflects our rape culture is the violence as "sexual activity" rhetoric within the CTV article. When society makes violence synonymous with sex or sexual desire, we begin to normalize violence against women - it becomes less vile and more "sexy" to strangle a woman, cut her up, smack her around or call her a cunt. 


Notice, too, the obvious gendered power relations in this case, clearly they were unequal and likely influenced by the growing normalization and erotisization of inequality, oppression and violence. 


This is in no way an attempt to excuse the rape or give the rapist an excuse - the woman was unconscious and did not give her consent to anal sex with a random object. This is a rape case. Keeping this in mind, however, one cannot simply ignore the larger cultural climate in which this activity occurred. This cultural climate is sustained through the ever-growing prevalence woman-hating propaganda like pornography, which often sexualizes violence against women and even rape.


In conclusion, I'll close with a familiar slogan: The personal is the political. This means, my dear readers that even bedroom activities do not exist in a culture-free vacuum, especially not within rape culture.