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Anti-rape movement
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Anti-rape movement
The anti-rape movement is a sociopolitical movement 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", who were unable to control their own sexual desires. 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. 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. Rape was thus defined as a form of violence used to ensure male power, a form of social control over women and children. Known as the "anti-rape" or "rape prevention" movement, 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. 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.
Beginning in the late 1960s, violence against women became a salient topic of interest within the second-wave feminist movement. Through the anti-rape movement, an offshoot of the women's movement, the public was made aware of sexual violence as an important social problem deserving of attention. Sexual violence refers to both rape and sexual assault. As early as 1970, feminists began engaging in consciousness raising groups, which involved sharing personal experiences women have had with sexual violence with the wider public. In 1971, the New York Radical Feminists sponsored the first events specifically regarding sexual violence as a social problem, the first of which was a speak-out, used to attach personal stories with the cause. On January 24, 1971, this group held the first Speak-Out, which approximately 300 people attended at St. Clement's Episcopal Church in New York, and this speak-out was followed by a conference about rape on April 12, 1971. Women would come to a "speak-out" specifically to share their own experiences with an audience and to raise their voices, to literally speak out against sexual violence. These events helped increase public awareness of sexual violence as an issue deserving of attention.
During the subsequent two years, feminist theorizing about rape continued. In 1975, Susan Brownmiller wrote one of the most influential pieces of literature about sexual assault of this period: Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape. In this book, Brownmiller made a direct connection between women's fear and sexual aggression, describing that sexual violence is used by men to intimidate women and keep them fearful. As the movement was able to connect a pattern of violence to personal experiences, slogans began to form, such as "the personal is political" and "there are no individual solutions".
The psychological trauma from rape was generally ignored by medicinal and psychiatric professionals up until the 1950s and 1960s. In 1970 Sandra Sutherland and Donald J. Scherl published the first substantial study of the psychological effects of rape on its victims in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry.
The year 1972 marks an important milestone in the anti-rape movement due to the formation of two influential organizations: Bay Area Women Against Rape (BAWAR) in Berkeley, California, and the Washington D.C. Rape Crisis Center. BAWAR started by first putting together packets of information concerning important safety information, such as suggestions to follow when hitchhiking, samples of the paper materials that they use (i.e., memos to hospitals or police departments requesting change, requests for donations), and medical pamphlets for survivors of rape. This center also made strides to obtain city funding for their efforts to start a 24-hour crisis line, pay a part-time staff member, and fund an office, though it is unknown whether that funding was received by 1973. A good case study illustrating how many Rape crisis centers actually came into being is the case of the still-active Rape Crisis Center (YWCA) of the greater Toledo area. In 1972, one woman in Toledo started helping rape victims out of her home and the local law enforcement recognized her effectiveness and related victims to her care. From this individual, grassroots effort grew the YWCA H.O.P.E. center, a vibrant and still-active rape crisis center.
Also in 1972, the Washington D.C. Rape Crisis Center formed and began running the first telephone crisis line for victims of sexual violence to call, which has served as an example for future rape crisis centers. This center was the first rape crisis center within the United States. In 1972, the center received approximately 20 calls a day, and aside from the crisis line, the women operating this center offered an array of services, including offering legal and medical advice, emotional support, accompaniment to the hospital or law enforcement agencies, and shelter to those who called their office. By 1973, the center also had started distributing a newsletter nationally, helping to support and legitimize the anti-rape movement then gaining speed. The Washington D.C. Rape Crisis Center along with BAWAR represented two "national networking hubs" for the anti-rape movement.
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Anti-rape movement
The anti-rape movement is a sociopolitical movement 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", who were unable to control their own sexual desires. 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. 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. Rape was thus defined as a form of violence used to ensure male power, a form of social control over women and children. Known as the "anti-rape" or "rape prevention" movement, 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. 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.
Beginning in the late 1960s, violence against women became a salient topic of interest within the second-wave feminist movement. Through the anti-rape movement, an offshoot of the women's movement, the public was made aware of sexual violence as an important social problem deserving of attention. Sexual violence refers to both rape and sexual assault. As early as 1970, feminists began engaging in consciousness raising groups, which involved sharing personal experiences women have had with sexual violence with the wider public. In 1971, the New York Radical Feminists sponsored the first events specifically regarding sexual violence as a social problem, the first of which was a speak-out, used to attach personal stories with the cause. On January 24, 1971, this group held the first Speak-Out, which approximately 300 people attended at St. Clement's Episcopal Church in New York, and this speak-out was followed by a conference about rape on April 12, 1971. Women would come to a "speak-out" specifically to share their own experiences with an audience and to raise their voices, to literally speak out against sexual violence. These events helped increase public awareness of sexual violence as an issue deserving of attention.
During the subsequent two years, feminist theorizing about rape continued. In 1975, Susan Brownmiller wrote one of the most influential pieces of literature about sexual assault of this period: Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape. In this book, Brownmiller made a direct connection between women's fear and sexual aggression, describing that sexual violence is used by men to intimidate women and keep them fearful. As the movement was able to connect a pattern of violence to personal experiences, slogans began to form, such as "the personal is political" and "there are no individual solutions".
The psychological trauma from rape was generally ignored by medicinal and psychiatric professionals up until the 1950s and 1960s. In 1970 Sandra Sutherland and Donald J. Scherl published the first substantial study of the psychological effects of rape on its victims in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry.
The year 1972 marks an important milestone in the anti-rape movement due to the formation of two influential organizations: Bay Area Women Against Rape (BAWAR) in Berkeley, California, and the Washington D.C. Rape Crisis Center. BAWAR started by first putting together packets of information concerning important safety information, such as suggestions to follow when hitchhiking, samples of the paper materials that they use (i.e., memos to hospitals or police departments requesting change, requests for donations), and medical pamphlets for survivors of rape. This center also made strides to obtain city funding for their efforts to start a 24-hour crisis line, pay a part-time staff member, and fund an office, though it is unknown whether that funding was received by 1973. A good case study illustrating how many Rape crisis centers actually came into being is the case of the still-active Rape Crisis Center (YWCA) of the greater Toledo area. In 1972, one woman in Toledo started helping rape victims out of her home and the local law enforcement recognized her effectiveness and related victims to her care. From this individual, grassroots effort grew the YWCA H.O.P.E. center, a vibrant and still-active rape crisis center.
Also in 1972, the Washington D.C. Rape Crisis Center formed and began running the first telephone crisis line for victims of sexual violence to call, which has served as an example for future rape crisis centers. This center was the first rape crisis center within the United States. In 1972, the center received approximately 20 calls a day, and aside from the crisis line, the women operating this center offered an array of services, including offering legal and medical advice, emotional support, accompaniment to the hospital or law enforcement agencies, and shelter to those who called their office. By 1973, the center also had started distributing a newsletter nationally, helping to support and legitimize the anti-rape movement then gaining speed. The Washington D.C. Rape Crisis Center along with BAWAR represented two "national networking hubs" for the anti-rape movement.