Anti-rape movement

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The anti-rape movement is a sociopolitical movement[1] which is part of the movement seeking to combat violence against and the abuse of women.

The movement seeks to change community attitudes to violence against women, such as attitudes of entitlement to sex and victim blaming, and attitudes of women such as self-blame for violence. It seeks to promote changes to rape laws or laws of evidence which enable rapists to avoid penalties because, for example, victims are discouraged from reporting assaults, or because the rapist is entitled to immunity or because a rapist (as a defendant) is capable in law of denigrating the victim. The movement has been successful in jurisdictions, though many attitudes still persist, and despite changes to laws and significant increases in reporting of assaults, violence against women still persists at high levels.

The movement came about in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when new concepts of rape arose out of second wave feminism and the reevaluation of women's daily lives socially and with regard to the social institutions with which they interact. Prior to this reexamination, rape had been viewed as a "sex crime carried out by pathological men",[2] who were unable to control their own sexual desires.[3] Feminists began to emphasize the role of power dynamics specifically with regard to the perpetration of rape as a crime committed primarily by men against women.[4] This revised definition of rape was reframed from the perspective of the victim. The act of rape was asserted to be a way in which societal gender roles, the way someone acts out either masculinity or femininity, were enforced and the hierarchy of power placing males above females was maintained.[3] Rape was thus defined as a form of violence used to ensure male power, a form of social control over women and children.[5] Known as the "anti-rape" or "rape prevention" movement,[6] it was founded with the conceptions that sexual violence and violence against women more generally, is a tool of social control used to keep women in a subordinate position to men and that women need to take action, that aids victims of sexual violence to become "survivors" of violence instead of victims.[3] The anti-rape movement continues, with growing awareness in the United States public about the concept of rape culture, coinciding with the increasing popularity of feminism.

  1. ^ Gornick, Janet C.; Meyer, David (October 1998). "Changing Political Opportunity: The Anti-Rape Movement and Public Policy" (PDF). Journal of Policy History. 10 (4). Cambridge University Press: 367–398. doi:10.1017/S0898030600007132. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 May 2022. Retrieved 29 September 2023.
  2. ^ Fried, A. (1994). "It's hard to change what we want to change". Gender & Society. 8 (4): 562. doi:10.1177/089124394008004006. S2CID 143732274.
  3. ^ a b c Donat, P.L.N., and D'Emilio, J. (1998). A feminist redefinition of rape and sexual assault: Historical foundations and change. In M.E. Odem and J. Clay-Warner (Eds.), Confronting Rape and Sexual Assault, (pp. 35-49). Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
  4. ^ Fried, A. (1994). "It's hard to change what we want to change". Gender & Society. 8 (4): 562–583. doi:10.1177/089124394008004006. S2CID 143732274.
  5. ^ Matthews, N.A. (1994). Confronting rape: The feminist anti-rape movement and the state. London: Routledge.
  6. ^ Rose, V.M. (1977). "Rape as a social problem: a byproduct of the feminist movement". Social Problems. 25 (1): 75–89. doi:10.1525/sp.1977.25.1.03a00080.