Discussion Thread: Rape Culture

[Content Note: This thread contains discussion of rape culture narratives, tropes, and behaviors.]

Every week, my Rape Culture 101 post is linked by numerous writers and commenters, at blogs and in forums and on social media sites, trying to refute the idea that the rape culture does not exist, an idea posed, inevitably, by some dude who believes the concept of a rape culture is an invention of man-hating feminists.

The Rape Culture 101 piece is a useful resource on its own, as are collections of stats and refuted myths like this one, and I'd like to complement these general commentaries on cultural narratives, practices, and realities with a thread on first-hand experiences of the rape culture.

This is not a thread in which to share stories of surviving sexual violence, as was The Survivor Thread, but a thread to share the ways aside from actual assaults that the rape culture manifests in our daily lives.

Some of the ways the rape culture manifests in my daily life, as examples:

• I get rape threats from people who disagree with me.
• I routinely hear "rape" used as a synonym for getting overcharged.
• I am often told someone or other "looks like a child molester."
• My rape-related PTSD is treated by people as though it's not a real thing.
• Rape scenes are mislabeled as "sexual content" in movie content notes.
• Rape is constantly euphemized as "having sex" (or some variation) in media reports.

Etc. What you share could be personal interactions, or things you see/hear/read, or narratives that are used to silence you. This thread is about collectively demonstrating how the rape culture functions in the daily lives of the people who live in it.