Teens Teach About Rape Culture

There are never a shortage of stories about rape in the news, and lately there has been special attention given to stories such as the "victim-blaming" case involving a Marriott hotel in Connecticut, and U.S. Secretary of State Clinton's call to end the prevalence of rape as a "weapon of war" in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But, in general, any focus on rape is often a focus on the individual tragedy, rather than on any system(s) that perpetuate and condone such violence.

Recently the Feministing blog pointed us to a new short video (about 8 minutes), created by a group of teens in Chicago, exploring the issue of rape culture. If you're not familiar with the concept of rape culture, here's how it's defined on Wikipedia:

"...describing a culture in which rape and other sexual violence (usually against women) are common and in which prevalent attitudes, norms, practices, and media condone, normalize, excuse, or encourage sexualized violence. Within the paradigm, acts of sexism are commonly employed to validate and rationalize normative misogynistic practices; for instance, sexist jokes may be told to foster disrespect for women and an accompanying disregard for their well-being, which ultimately make their rape and abuse seem 'acceptable." Examples of behaviors said to typify rape culture include victim blaming, trivializing prison rape, and sexual objectification."

The documentary, called "Our Hidden Culture," was a project of teens at Hard Cover, a television program in Chicago that is completely created and produced by teens. The film examines the different aspects of rape culture, the kinds of sexual violence it encourages, and explores the stories of youth who have been affected by rape culture.




If you can't view the above video, see it here on YouTube.

Although sexual violence occurs predominantly against women, the film includes information about sexual violence against young males, too. Rape culture is definitely an essential issue for both genders to explore and address.

~ Marsha