Im starting the new year writing a lot about sexual crimes, some may find it a bit annoying but hey, deal with it! This is a subject we can never discuss to much. And its also good to write about this when so many men for once care about the safety of women. Even if most of them only seem to care about blaming others its still a start and we do have to start somewhere…

Something most of us women are fully aware of byt men try to deny is the fact that we live in a rape culture. That almost every man if asked directly will dissociate himself from any kind of rape or sexual assault is pointed out as an evidence that rape is in no way accepted and that a rape culture does not excist. If we do accept this way of argueing I feel that i have to point out that no rape culture excist in countries like India, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Sudan etc either. Because even in those countries rape is viewd as a despicable thing and in some of this countires rape is punished with a lifetime in prison or public flogging. The thing about a rape cultur is not the societeys theoretical view on rape but how they treat those who report that they have been raped, and in what is actually seen as a rapecase.

It is to no help at all to hate rape, and in the meantime have the opinion that women who acts is certain ways, dress in certain ways or have the ”wrong” people around them cant be raped and only gets what they deserv. Another problem is the opinion that rape cant be performed in a romantic relationship. The opinions that women have their selfe to blame if they are raped becaus of how they acted earlier during the day/night, or because of their clothes are something thats deeply embedded in the Swedish and western culture. It can be seen in the way people react to reported rapes, in jokes and of course in how the courts reason when they choose not to sentence a man for rape even when all evidence show that they should.

The comments read, from the top: 1. Its not rape if you are sleeping since you dont fight back and are considered willing to have sex. Stop the whining. 2. Its a ”Suprise Buttsex” so its not rape since te person didnt say yas or no. 3. BTDT, If you have been a couple for a while its common that it is ok to ”hit it” while the other is asleep, ye know, as long as you tell why its leaking out the ass in the morning. 4. Why cant all biter pussys and womens rights activists shut up and start maturbate to Mona Sahlin (Swedish feminist) instead?! This is love on a high lever cant you tell? 5. If she is lying half naked beside him, how in hell can it be rape then? 6. Lets say this was a real event and not a cartoon picture, if the girl did wanted to be wakened this way its not rape right? So to call this a rape only shows how damn stupid you are.

What do you tink, will these normal swedish guys get where the line for rape goes in a relationship if they think that kind of behaviour is all right? If they believe that someone who has fallen asleep beside them automatically have given concent to sex? No, i think not. This is not a unusal way to look at sex in a relationship and that women have some kind of duty to have sex for the ”better good of the relationship” is an opinion that is widely spread. Sex against someones will is always rape, yet professionals in the health care system still give women the advice to suck it up and have sex even if they dont want to so that their partner can get what he wants.

If we look at how courts get to give a verdict of not guilty its almost magical in the ways the courts bend over backwards to fins a way to free a man from rape. Even if the woman have said no, yelled so much she lost her voice about how she dont want to have sex or repeatedly trying to get away from the situation the court can still find a way to deem the guy not guilty. Offen with explanations about how the guy didnt understand the no, thought it was a game or part of BDSM or whats in Sweden is called ”nagging sex”, not rape. The pictures shows some eamples of headlines from articles about rape cases.

First one reads: ”13 year old should have made more recistance”- 16 year old get free from rape accusation after having forced a 13 year old girl to have anal sex. She did want to have sex, just not anal sex and therefor should have been able to make the boy stop…

Second one: 16 year old freed from accusations of rape. The girl got shot by a soft airgun and forced to have sex. ”They where all in on the game” the court explains…

Third: ”He thought No meant Yes. Sentenced not guilty of rape”

Last one: ”The girl tried to out on her clothes and get away. ”She might have said no but that doesnt mean its rape” says the judge. ”The sex might have been against her will but if they didnt put her in a helpless state its not rape”

 

Nice isnt it? This is a big part of the rape culture. The last part is the attitude towards the victims. Something that is everyday life when it comes to rape in Sweden is to blame the victim. In this we also have things like ”well meaning” advice from the police to women to not drink, think about what they weare or not even go alone by taxi in the night. In the same time no advice is given to men in how not to rape…. In the summer a lot of rapes is blamed on the alcohol consumtion on festivals and bars. Women are frequently asked to think about how much they drink and to not end up as the only girl at an afterparty. No one tells te men to lessen te risk of rape by take it easy on the alcohol and not end up at an afterparty whit a lonely girl. No one tells the guys what to do because in a rape culture the women are expected to take responsibility for the mens sexuality. It offen get explained by the fact that it is the girl who get hurt so its in her interest to not get raped, like men dont have an interest in not hurting another human being….

That rape is viewed upon witch such discust is paradoxically abog part to why the rape culture excist. For once the view of rape as the most horrific crime makes it a valid treath towars women and a perfect way to punish someone or show power but putting them thru ”the worst crime”. The threath of sexual violence is something all women have had to learn to deal with in the everyday life, and it starts by learning as a kid that being raped is the worst thing that can happen and that we have to be aware of the risks. Second the view of rape as even worse than murder makes it mor or less impossible for anyone to admit that someone they know and love can be a rapist, or that themself have raped someone. Its so much easier to blame the victim than to accept that a friend, brother, lover or anyone else in their surroundings has commitet the wors crime. Because of that the myth about women accusing innocent guys of rape is spread everywhere. On a right wunged extremist site they claimed that a anonymous police had said that 8 out of 10 rape cases with an unknown rapist was fake accusations made so that the victim could get money. If its true that policeofficers think like that maybe that can explain a bit about why almost every case doesnt reatch a court, and even less cases lead to the offender being convicted….

IN Sweden most people know about what happened in the small town called Bjästa. Two young girls reported a guy for rape. He got convicted in both cases. Even though he was found guilty the whole town of Bjästa stood by his side and started hate campaigns towards the girls, wishing them dead, or ”raped for real”.  One of them had to move 500 km to another town to be left alone. Even if Bjästa was a bit extreme its not at all unusal with rape cases ending with the girl having to move from the town she lives in because of all the blame and hate she receives. The pictures is about vitimblaming, for example a girl that people say is lying about rape because she still hang out with boys and wears somewhat revealing clothes.

 

When a rape has occured its standard that rumors start to circulate about the girl who made the report, about how shes a whore, that she cant have been raped beacuse shes not acting lika a ”real victim” or that she just wants the atention. Those rumors are spread by girls as much as by boys who want to misscredit the girls story. Girls jump on this kind of rumors to get acceptance by the boys and also to give them self a fake kind of security that they are to smart to be raped.

When I repordet a sexual crime commited by a teacher was the reaction both in media, on the internet and locally that I was lying to get attention. It was so obvious to them all that i was lying because everyone knows how girls in highschool are… Amongs the students they started a hate campaign against me talking about how I had sex with teatchers to get higher grades. Im not looking for sympathy im only trying to show how normal those things are.

All of this is what rape culture is all about. To be against rape in theory has nothing to do with if rape culure are real or not, its all about how the victims are treated when a rape is reported. In todays society theres a long way to go, to put it mildley. Those men, and women, who still denies the existence of a rape culture  is part in how this can go on. They are almost equally responsible as the ones doing the rape and they should be ashamed. To deny the existence of a rape culture is to kick one the ones allready lying down: The victims of rape.