2016-08-23
Tammy Franks
Recently in Parliament, I spoke about rape culture. Starting a conversation about a culture that incites violence against women is not easy. But the day I spoke in the Chamber about the words, actions, jokes and language that are grossly inappropriate, yet widely accepted, every Member present stopped and listened in silence.
People leaned in and listened as I discussed the battle women face on a daily basis against this culture of violence. Garnering that sort of attention in Parliament on any topic is near impossible, so the silence I was awarded was a good sign. But we need to keep talking and listening to change the culture now.
Every single day, women are exposed to rape culture. Whether it's a sports identity joking about drowning a woman, a man sending unsolicited sexts, or simply turning on the radio to hear derogatory lyrics about women and sex.
Conversations we need to have
With the country now turning its attention to the young women affected by the recent discovery of a pornography site which has young men and boys 'hunting' for images and videos of young women and posting them online, a conversation about rape culture is more necessary than ever.
That doesn't mean telling girls how short or long to wear their uniforms, and it's not just about teaching the importance of cyber safety. Girls have been told not to send photos of themselves to their boyfriends and that will help stop it, ignoring the fact that many of the girls' images on the site were taken without consent. For these boys to feel it is ok to collect and post images of young women online without consent, and for authorities like schools and police blithely focusing on 'prevention is better than cure', it shows the conversation about rape culture must get louder for any change to be made.
We can make a choice to call out rape culture when we see it
Rape culture is everywhere. It's on our televisions on shows like Game of Thrones where the men casually rape a wench in a tavern. 'Oh,' the apologists will argue, 'but that was what it was like in the dark ages!'
Is that the same dark ages where they had giants, dragons, zombies, and witchcraft as well? No, because that world is fantasy and the rape was incorporated into that fantasy. Directors make a choice to contribute to rape culture if they make a choice to depict rape as 'just what happens.' We can make a choice to call it out.
Until recently, rape culture was driving around on our streets painted on the sides of Wicked Camper vans. “In every princess there is a little slut who wants to try it just once” screams one. “It's easier to apologise than ask for permission” reads another. “I've often wanted to drown my sorrows but I can't get my wife to go swimming,” and, “Men have two emotions – hungry and horny. If you see him without an erection, make him a sandwich” are another two that were cruising around on our roads for all to see.
In 2014, Sydney mother Paula Orbea started a Change.org petition to remove the slogans when her 11-year-old daughter saw one of the vans and was worried people might perceive her the way the vans portrayed women.
Co-Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens, Larissa Waters, fronted the Senate motion passed in July 2014 to remove some of the more offensive slogans on vans and the company itself has since agreed to clean up their misogynistic act. This is a great start, and we need to continue to call rape culture out as we see it. We can change all the laws in the world, but without changing the culture, we are at a standstill.
Perpetrators rely on society and authorities not believing victims
Rape culture is in our universities. Two years ago, Scott Belcher, a student from the University of Adelaide, admitted to raping a female student, after initially denying the assault. Belcher only admitted to it once text messages surfaced in which he referred to the rape. Part of rape culture is the perpetrator thinking they'll get away with it and relying on society and authorities not believing a victim's claims.
But one of the more disturbing representations of rape culture is from the university itself. University of Adelaide staff member Virginie Masson wrote the rapist a glowing character reference in a bid to secure a lighter sentence for him. For the victim to watch the university rally behind her attacker, and help to make sure he only received a very low non-parole period of 12 months for a three year and seven month sentence, is despairing.
During sentencing, the judge said Scott Belcher is 'a person of previous good character' and that, while he believed Scott's conduct towards his victim was 'an aberration', he felt that Scott enjoyed 'good future prospects' and that he came from a 'good family', and maintained 'good grades through high-school'.
If that sounds familiar, you might remember the reporting by CNN of the Steubenville rapists where the reporter spoke of the “two young men that had such promising futures, star football players”. Or Brock Turner, the Stanford rapist whose swimming times were reported at the end of a report about his crime.
Rape culture is describing Turner as promising swimmer who raped someone, rather than a rapist who happened to be a swimmer. When his lenient sentence was handed down, one clever tweeter spoke out querying how much swimming training she needed to do to get away with murder.
We must continue to speak out to change the culture. Call out violence against women as we see it. Get louder and change the conversation. Don't focus on telling our girls how to avoid getting raped. Tell our boys not to rape. If we do it today, we will have a safer tomorrow.
Image by David Jackmanson, CC-BY-2.0