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Rape Culture Quotes

Browse 153 quotes about Rape Culture.

Rape Culture Quotes

“Ironically, I believe Picasso was right. I believe we could paint a better world if we learned to see it from all perspectives, as many perspectives as we possibly could. Because diversity is strength. Difference is a teacher. Fear difference, you learn nothing. Picasso’s mistake was his arrogance. He assumed he could represent all of the perspectives. And our mistake was to invalidate the perspective of a 17-year-old girl because we believed her potential would never equal his. Hindsight is a gift. Stop wasting my time. A 17-year-old girl is just never, ever, ever in her prime! Ever. I am in my prime. Would you test your strength out on me? There is no way anyone would dare test their strength out on me because you all know there is nothing stronger than a broken woman who has rebuilt herself.”

FeminismStrengthSexismRape CultureArt HistoryRebuildPicasso
Author:Hannah Gadsby
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“And yet, despite the high numbers of girls experiencing sexual harassment in schools, only 12 percent said they ever reported it to an adult. "Some researchers claim that sexual harassment is so common for girls that many fail to recognize it as sexual harassment when it happens," said the AAUW report. A 2014 study, published in Gender & Society, of students in a Midwestern city also found that girls failed to report incidents of sexual harassment in school because they regarded them as "normal." Their lack of reporting was found to stem from girls' fear of being labeled "bad girls" by teachers and administrators, who they felt would view them as provoking how they were treated. They also feared the condemnation of other girls, some of whom were shown to be unsupportive, accusing them of exaggerating or lying. Many girls saw everyday sexual harassment and abuse as "normal" male behavior male behavior and something they had to ignore, endure, or maneuver around.”

YouthSocial MediaGirlsRape CultureSexual HarassmentHook Up CulturePorn CultureSchool Harassment
Book:American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers
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“Look at the huge success of Fifty Shades of Grey. The girl in the book lets a rich guy beat her and ritually rape her, and she likes it! She finds it erotic! But imagine if Christian Grey wasn't a billionaire. Imagine if he lived in a dirty old trailer down by the river. Then that story wouldn't be a sexy romance novel, but an episode of CSI.”

WealthErotic RomanceEroticaBillionaireRape CultureBillionaire RomanceTrailer ParkFifty Shades Of Grey Humor
Book:Why Men And Women Can't Be Friends
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“The Dark Cloud Is the decision I could have made to go into a homicidal rage when my bullies laughed at my father’s leg because he was shot in his ankle during the Bosnian War Is the rage I felt when 4 of my friends were raped in college because rapists like to roar Is the fierce determination I have to make sure that no woman ever gets raped Is the tragic end of girls and babies who were slaughtered while their rapists escaped”

WarWomenHuman RightsBullyingGenocideRapeRape CultureWomen S Empowerment
Book:The Dark Cloud
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“What do I want now? I want to be treated with the respect I deserve in the current VA system and not be retraumatized. I want the men who did this to me to be punished and if that isn't possible, I want reassurance what happened to me will never ever happen to another woman in the Armed services. I want some restitution of the damage I have.”

JusticeUnited StatesMilitaryCrimeRespectArmyAccountabilityPtsdAbuse Of PowerRape CultureVaMilitary Sexual AssaultMilitary RapeRetraumatizationFeres DoctrineMilitary Veterans
Book:Conduct Unbecoming: Rape, Torture, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from Military Commanders
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“If telling men "don't rape" instead of telling women "don't get raped", is like telling thieves "don't steal" instead of home owners to "lock your houses", why don't we hear more victims of home invasion being told "you got what you deserved for having such a beautiful house on display for everyone to see" ???”

HomeFeminismCrimeVictimFeministSexismRapeSexual AssaultRape CultureSexual Violence
Book:Embrace Your Sexual Self: A Practical Guide for Women
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“Intimidated, old traumas triggered, and fearing for my safety, I did what I felt I needed to do.”

LifeGovernmentTruthAmericaQuotesHopePoliticsGrowthHurtMemoriesJusticeHealingFamilyPowerUnited StatesGrowing UpViolenceCrimeYouthInspireAnxietyLivingSurvivalOvercomingPoliceSafetyQuoteSouthInjusticeCorruptionMemoirFighterHopefulControlSurvivorSouthernChild AbuseUnited States Of AmericaLaw EnforcementPowerlessPtsdDomestic ViolencePoliticiansSexual AbuseFamily RelationshipsRapeFamily DramaSurviveAnxiety DisordersJustice SystemViolence Against WomenArizonaSexual AssaultLawsDomestic AbuseRape CultureSexual ViolenceCrime And PunishmentPhysical AbusePanic AttacksLawmakersSurvivors Of AbuseRed TapePedophileRape SurvivorDomesticPowerful StoryHopeful HeartPanic AttackRape Of A ChildPost Traumatic StressAdvocatesRapedEnable AbuseAnxiety Attack
Book:Debbie.
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“Misogyny now has become so normalized,” says Paul Roberts, the Impulse Society author. “We can’t even see the absurdity and the inequity of it, it’s so pervasive. When the male gaze was digitized, it was almost as if it was internalized. With smartphones and social media, girls had the means of producing the male gaze themselves, and it was as if they turned it on themselves willingly in order to compete in a marketplace in which sex was the main selling point. And the social media companies aren't going to do anything about it, as long as it's driving traffic.”

CapitalismDatingSocial MediaExploitationMisogynyPatriarchyRape CultureInternet FamousChild PornInternalized Oppression
Book:American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers
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“Today I wore a pair of faded old jeans and a plain grey baggy shirt. I hadn't even taken a shower, and I did not put on an ounce of makeup. I grabbed a worn out black oversized jacket to cover myself with even though it is warm outside. I have made conscious decisions lately to look like less of what I felt a male would want to see. I want to disappear.”

LifeGovernmentTruthAmericaQuotesHopePoliticsGrowthHurtMemoriesJusticeHealingFamilyPowerUnited StatesGrowing UpViolenceCrimeYouthInspireAnxietyLivingSurvivalOvercomingPoliceSafetyQuoteSouthInjusticeCorruptionMemoirFighterHopefulControlSurvivorSouthernChild AbuseUnited States Of AmericaLaw EnforcementPowerlessPtsdDomestic ViolencePoliticiansSexual AbuseFamily RelationshipsRapeFamily DramaSurviveAnxiety DisordersJustice SystemViolence Against WomenArizonaSexual AssaultLawsDomestic AbuseRape CultureSexual ViolenceCrime And PunishmentPhysical AbusePanic AttacksLawmakersSurvivors Of AbuseRed TapePedophileRape SurvivorDomesticPowerful StoryHopeful HeartPanic AttackRape Of A ChildPost Traumatic StressAdvocatesRapedEnable AbuseAnxiety Attack
Book:Debbie.
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“He told me that if I hung up, he'd do it. He would commit suicide. He told me that if I called the cops he would kill every single one of them and I knew that he had the potential and the means to do it”

LifeGovernmentTruthAmericaQuotesHopePoliticsGrowthHurtMemoriesJusticeHealingFamilyPowerUnited StatesGrowing UpViolenceCrimeYouthInspireAnxietyLivingSurvivalOvercomingPoliceSafetyQuoteSouthInjusticeCorruptionMemoirFighterHopefulControlSurvivorSouthernChild AbuseUnited States Of AmericaLaw EnforcementPowerlessPtsdDomestic ViolencePoliticiansSexual AbuseFamily RelationshipsRapeFamily DramaSurviveAnxiety DisordersJustice SystemViolence Against WomenArizonaSexual AssaultLawsDomestic AbuseRape CultureSexual ViolenceCrime And PunishmentPhysical AbusePanic AttacksLawmakersSurvivors Of AbuseRed TapePedophileRape SurvivorDomesticPowerful StoryHopeful HeartPanic AttackRape Of A ChildPost Traumatic StressAdvocatesRapedEnable AbuseAnxiety Attack
Book:Debbie.
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“The Dark Cloud Is the loneliness you go through because isolation is common and friends are not Is the story of 50,000 raped Bosniak women which history forgot Is the intense pressure of being crushed under a pile of mental weight Is the backstabbing ex-boyfriend who took you for granted and compelled you to question the integrity of your relationship, including the first date”

LonelinessDepressionWomen S RightsRapeRape CultureBosnian WarBosnia And Herzegovina
Book:The Dark Cloud
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“It does seem true that a young woman may sometimes behave in a way that can be called titillating, and that men take such behavior as being directed entirely at them. [...] I've often seen blushing young men with shining eyes behave in the same way, but no one says of them that they want to be raped. If, after taking a few steps forward, they then decide to retreat, no one accuses them of being cunt teasers. In fact, the disappointed woman probably thinks it's all her fault.”

MenInequalityHypocrisyRapeRape Culture
Book:The Women's Room
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“Women, for their part, are always complaining that we raise them only to be vain and coquettish, that we keep them amused with trifles so that we may more easily remain their masters; they blame us for the faults we attribute to them. What stupidity! And since when is it men who concern themselves with the education of girls? Who is preventing the mothers from raising them as they please? There are no schools for girls—what a tragedy! Would God, there were none for boys! They would be raised more sensibly and more straightforwardly. Is anyone forcing your daughters to waste their time on foolish trifles? Are they forced against their will to spend half their lives on their appearance, following your example? Are you prevented from instructing them, or having them instructed according to your wishes? Is it our fault if they please us when they are beautiful, if their airs and graces seduce us, if the art they learn from you attracts and flatters us, if we like to see them tastefully attired, if we let them display at leisure the weapons with which they subjugate us? Well then, decide to raise them like men; the men will gladly agree; the more women want to resemble them, the less women will govern them, and then men will truly be the masters.”

WomenFeminismEmpowermentGenderHypocrisyMisogynyPatriarchyStereotypesRape CultureDouble StandardsClichés
Book:Emile, or On Education
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“Why do you consult [women's] words when it is not their mouths that speak? Consult their eyes, their colour, their breathing, their timid manner, their slight resistance, that is the language nature gave them for your answer. The lips always say 'No,' and rightly so; but the tone is not always the same, and that cannot lie. Has not a woman the same needs as a man, but without the same right to make them known? Her fate would be too cruel if she had no language in which to express her legitimate desires except the words which she dare not utter.”

WomenFeminismEmpowermentGenderHypocrisyMisogynyPatriarchyStereotypesRape CultureDouble StandardsClichésNo Means Yes
Book:Emile
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“I lived through this horror, and no one can tell me I have to stay quiet. "I have been silenced long enough, and I will not allow that family to silence me again. I will continue to speak out and make sure my voice is heard.”

InspirationalEmpowermentRapeRape CultureTriggerAbuse SurvivorChild Abuse SurvivorSpeak Out
Book:Living for Today: From Incest and Molestation to Fearlessness and Forgiveness
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“The fear of rape puts many women in their place - indoors, intimidated, dependent yet again on material barriers and protectors... I was advised to stay indoors at night, to wear baggy clothes, to cover or cut my hair, to try to look like a man, to move someplace more expensive, to take taxis, to buy a car, to move in groups, to get a man to escort me—all modern versions of Greek walls and Assyrian veils, all asserting it was my responsibility to control my own and men's behavior rather than society's to ensure my freedom. I realized that many women had been so successfully socialized to know their place that they had chosen more conservative, gregarious lives without realizing why. The very desire to walk alone had been extinguished in them—but it had not in me.”

NatureFeminismSolitudeTravelExploreWanderlustRape Culture
Book:Wanderlust: A History of Walking
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“So often parents of abused children feel helpless. When a child falls, and scrapes her knees parents can erase the hurt by kissing it and putting a Band-Aid on it, but not so with the pain of sexual abuse.”

ParentingParentsSurvivorChild AbuseSexual AbuseRapeChild Sexual AbuseRape CultureTrigger
Book:Living for Today: From Incest and Molestation to Fearlessness and Forgiveness
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“A slut is someone, usually a woman, who’s stepped outside of the very narrow lane that good girls are supposed to stay within. Sluts are loud. We’re messy. We don’t behave. In fact, the original definition of “slut” meant “untidy woman.” But since we live in a world that relies on women to be tidy in all ways, to be quiet and obedient and agreeable and available (but never aggressive), those of us who color outside of the lines get called sluts. And that word is meant to keep us in line.”

SocietyFeminismEqualityConsentFemale EmpowermentFreedom Of ExpressionSocial NormsRape CultureDouble StandardsFemale LiberationSlut ShamingSlutSocietal Standards
Author:Jaclyn Friedman
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“When a stranger on the street makes a sexual comment, he is making a private assessment of me public. And though I’ve never been seriously worried that I would be attacked, it does make me feel unguarded, unprotected. Regardless of his motive, the stranger on the street makes an assumption based on my physique: He presumes I might be receptive to his unpoetic, unsolicited comments. (Would he allow a friend to say “Nice tits” to his mother? His sister? His daughter?) And although I should know better, I, too, equate my body with my soul and the result, at least sometimes, is a deep shame of both. Rape is a thousand times worse: The ultimate theft of self-control, it often leads to a breakdown in the victim’s sense of self-worth. Girls who are molested, for instance, often go on to engage in risky behavior—having intercourse at an early age, not using contraception, smoking, drinking, and doing drugs. This behavior, it seems to me, is at least in part because their self-perception as autonomous, worthy human beings in control of their environment has been taken from them.”

CultureViolenceSocietyAbuseSexualitySexual AbuseRapeEntitlementHarassmentRape CultureSexual ViolenceSexual HarassmentHypersexualization
Book:Slut!: Growing Up Female with a Bad Reputation
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“It’s the process of being minimized, invalidated, silenced. It’s the process of being subjected to whatever someone else thinks I owe them. It’s the process of being used, examined, explored, and thrown away. It’s the process of being convinced to comply with the orders of someone who does not see me as their equal, someone who sees nothing wrong with the notion that I’m somehow lesser than they are. Rape isn’t about sex; it’s about all those other things. It’s about power.”

WomenPowerViolenceFeminismInjusticeInequalityControlRapeRape CultureSouthern Women
Author:Agnostic Zetetic
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“I draw a line down the middle of a chalkboard, sketching a male symbol on one side and a female symbol on the other. Then I ask just the men: What steps do you guys take, on a daily basis, to prevent yourselves from being sexually assaulted? At first there is a kind of awkward silence as the men try to figure out if they've been asked a trick question. The silence gives way to a smattering of nervous laughter. Occasionally, a young a guy will raise his hand and say, 'I stay out of prison.' This is typically followed by another moment of laughter, before someone finally raises his hand and soberly states, 'Nothing. I don't think about it.' Then I ask women the same question. What steps do you take on a daily basis to prevent yourselves from being sexually assaulted? Women throughout the audience immediately start raising their hands. As the men sit in stunned silence, the women recount safety precautions they take as part of their daily routine. Here are some of their answers: Hold my keys as a potential weapon. Look in the back seat of the car before getting in. Carry a cell phone. Don't go jogging at night. Lock all the windows when I sleep, even on hot summer nights. Be careful not to drink too much. Don't put my drink down and come back to it; make sure I see it being poured. Own a big dog. Carry Mace or pepper spray. Have an unlisted phone number. Have a man's voice on my answering machine. Park in well-lit areas. Don't use parking garages. Don't get on elevators with only one man, or with a group of men. Vary my route home from work. Watch what I wear. Don't use highway rest areas. Use a home alarm system. Don't wear headphones when jogging. Avoid forests or wooded areas, even in the daytime. Don't take a first-floor apartment. Go out in groups. Own a firearm. Meet men on first dates in public places. Make sure to have a car or cab fare. Don't make eye contact with men on the street. Make assertive eye contact with men on the street.”

FeminismSexismRapeSexual AssaultMachoRape CultureGender Bias
Book:The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How All Men Can Help
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“We teach our girls how not to get raped with a sense of doom, a sense that we are fighting a losing battle. When I was writing this novel, friend after friend came to me telling me of something that had happened to them. A hand up their skirt, a boy who wouldn’t take no for an answer, a night where they were too drunk to give consent but they think it was taken from them anyway. We shared these stories with one another and it was as if we were discussing some essential part of being a woman, like period cramps or contraceptives. Every woman or girl who told me these stories had one thing in common: shame. ‘I was drunk . . . I brought him back to my house . . . I fell asleep at that party . . . I froze and I didn’t tell him to stop . . .’ My fault. My fault. My fault. When I asked these women if they had reported what had happened to the police, only one out of twenty women said yes. The others looked at me and said, ‘No. How could I have proved it? Who would have believed me?’ And I didn’t have any answer for that.”

FeminismWomen S RightsRape Culture
Book:Asking For It
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“Similarly, there is a limit to how far you can go in anti-violence work without rejecting the principal institutions of masculine domination. In reaction to spates of accusations from enlisted women of sexual assault and harassment perpetrated by their male peers and officers, the US military has engaged trainers, including Katz, to conduct gender violence prevention and bystander intervention. Like the prevention of child abuse through the promotion of authoritarian fatherhood, anti-violence training with men whose job is to kill people - the epitome of toxic masculinity - is any oxymoron. These military projects also carry a strong whiff of Othering: soldiers should be respectful of "our" women, and even refrain from raping "enemy" women and girls, but it's okay to kill their fathers, brothers, or husbands and, if necessary, to blow up their homes and cities. These efforts are not working. Biannual Pentagon surveys show a stead increase in sexual assaults and harassment in military academies. "This isn't a blip, a #MeToo bump, or some accident," averred California Democrat Jackie Spier at a February 2019 House subcommittee hearing. "It's a clear illustration of a destructive trend and systemic problem.”

FeminismSexual AbuseRapeViolence Against WomenSexual AssaultRape CultureSexual Harassment
Book:The Feminist and the Sex Offender: Confronting Harm, Ending State Violence
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“If men felt empowered to talk about sex with their partner, especially before any sexual relationship has occurred, many harmful situations could perhaps be avoided. Many men see talking about sex as embarrassing, awkward or feminine. To avoid our boys becoming men who harm women, we need to encourage them to talk openly about sex and their feelings towards it. We need to encourage them to want to talk about sex with women, to see it as a part of the process of love and relationships, instead of leaving communication as solely the burden of the feminine partner to take on. Consent doesn't have to necessarily be sexy, but it should have to be talked about in an open and understanding way.”

SexSexual AssaultRape CultureRape Survivor
Book:The Way We Survive: Notes on Rape Culture
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“All our wonderful sexual freedom is dependent on two very important conditions: freedom from sexism and freedom from rape. These changes must take place at both the individual and community levels. Prosecuting rape and child molestation is quite difficult, so our communities need to work for our own safety. We can seldom send offenders to jail, but we can uninvite them from our parties, and remove them from the other environments that we control, both online and in the physical world. (...) Much of this conflict is the consequence of our absurd cultural insistence that in sex, men should be the initiators and women the withholders. Thus, some people learn that they are supposed to be pushy and others that saying anything but no is, well, slutty. This pattern leads to “no” being heard as an invitation to push harder, with predictably disastrous results.”

SexFreedomFeminismSexismPatriarchyRapeRape CultureSexual FreedomSex PositiveSex Positivity
Book:The ethical slut: a guide to infinite sexual possibilities
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