Rape culture is a setting, as described by some sociological theories, in which rape is pervasive and normalized due to that setting's attitudes about gender and sexuality. Behaviors commonly associated with rape culture include victim blaming, slut-shaming, sexual objectification, trivialization of rape, denial of widespread rape, refusal to acknowledge the harm caused by sexual violence, or some combination of these. It has been used to describe and explain behavior within social groups, including prison rape and in conflict areas where war rape is used as psychological warfare. Entire societies have been alleged to be rape cultures.

The notion of rape culture was developed by second-wave feminists, primarily in the United States, beginning in the 1960s. Critics of the concept dispute its existence or extent, arguing that the concept is too narrow or that although there are cultures where rape is pervasive, the very idea of rape culture can imply that it is not only the rapist who is at fault, but also society as a whole that enables rape. Critics of that line of criticism have disputed the notion that only one party needs to be at fault, noting that the perpetrator can be the primary wrongdoer, those who help cover it up or harass the victim acting as accomplices, and that thus, also according to them, the wider society and culture can still be blamed for its collective influence on these individuals.

Two movements have addressed what they either fully or partially perceive as being rape culture or a role being played by rape culture, i.e. SlutWalk and Me Too. Though their rationale for claiming and including that the role of rape culture as being party to the particular social blights and crimes that they are fighting can vary, these movements have helped spread people's stories through hashtags and provide an online space where victims of different types of sexual violence can confide in each other.

The term "rape culture" was first used in the 1970s by second-wave feminists in the United States and applied to contemporary American culture as a whole. During the 1970s, feminists had begun to engage in consciousness-raising efforts designed to educate the public about the prevalence of rape. Previously, according to Canadian psychology professor Alexandra Rutherford, most Americans assumed that rape, incest, and wife-beating were rare. The concept of rape culture posited that rape was common and normal in American culture and that it was an extreme manifestation of pervasive societal misogyny and sexism. Rape was redefined as a violent crime rather than a sex crime, and its motive redefined from desire for sexual pleasure to male domination, intimidation and control. Rape also began to be reexamined through the eyes of the victims rather than the perpetrators.

The first published use of the term appears to have been in 1974 in Rape: The First Sourcebook for Women, edited by Noreen Connell and Cassandra Wilson as a project of New York Radical Feminists. In the book, the group wrote, "our ultimate goal is to eliminate rape and that goal cannot be achieved without a revolutionary transformation of our society". This book and Susan Brownmiller's 1975 Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape were among the earliest to include first-person accounts of rape. Their authors intended to demonstrate that rape was much more common than previously believed. In the book, Brownmiller comments that women never talk about rape because they do not want to be open about a "crime against their physical integrity", which explains public ignorance of rape's prevalence. Brownmiller, a member of the New York Radical Feminists, argued that both academia and the public ignore incidents of rape. She helped psychologists begin observing and studying what sparked this "rape supportive culture". Against Our Will is considered a landmark work on feminism and sexual violence and one of the pillars of modern rape studies.

Sociology professor Joyce E. Williams traces the first usage of the term "rape culture" to the documentary film Rape Culture, released in 1975. Produced and directed by Margaret Lazarus and Renner Wunderlich for Cambridge Documentary Films, the film, Williams said, "takes credit for first defining the concept". The film discusses rape of both men and women in the context of a larger cultural normalization of rape. The film featured the work of the DC Rape Crisis Center in cooperation with Prisoners Against Rape, Inc., and includes interviews with rapists and victims, as well as prominent anti-rape activists such as feminist philosopher and theologian Mary Daly and author and artist Emily Culpepper. The film explored how mass media and popular culture have perpetuated attitudes toward rape.

In their 1992 Journal of Social Issues paper "A Feminist Redefinition of Rape and Sexual Assault: Historical Foundations and Change", Patricia Donat and John D'Emilio suggest that the term originated as "rape-supportive culture" in Against Our Will. By the mid-1970s, the phrase began to be used more widely across various media.

Feminists and gender activists^[which?] conceptualize rape culture as a cultural environment that encourages gender violence, as well as perpetuating rape myths, ranging from treating rape as merely "rough sex" to blaming the victim for inviting rape.