Feminism And The Rape Culture

Feminism is a collection of movements and ideologies that share a common stated aim: to define, establish, and defend equal political, economic, cultural, and social rights for women. In early civilizations, women were treated as property and looked at as materials. That was the true oppression, when women were literally a possession a man can receive or give. Nowadays, women can be, and are, very independent and self-reliant. At least that is how America is. In many other parts of the world women are still very oppressed and deemed inferior. This is the case in parts of the Middle East. There are plenty of activists, both men and women, that are fighting for women’s rights, and there are just as many people making sure they make no progress. …show more content…
There is a whole thing called the rape culture. Winifred Breines explains rape culture as “a term that was coined by feminists in the United States in the 1970’s. It was designed to show the ways in which society blamed victims of sexual assault and normalized male sexual violence.” Basically it means to make rape a joke, to make it seem like it is not a bad thing, or that rape is normal and its okay to happen. That disgusts me and does not make sense, but I do not believe you have to be a feminist to be against this appalling culture. Yes, this culture tries to deteriorate women and make it okay to do horrendous things to them, and that will cause feminists to fight it, so this is a big reason feminism should exist nowadays. This is the only thing that made me believe that feminism should be on a rise as of right now. The other things I found while researching was that many feminists are against a lot of dress codes and they are all about how beauty come in all sizes. Well first of all, dress codes aren’t made to harm anyone and its not like the codes are made to put down women, they’re made so you have set guideline of what to wear and what not to wear. Yeah in a way it takes away some freedom but there are rules for everything so I don’t see a big deal. As for the beauty part, I don’t see that as a gender issue, more of a society one since society was the one to start the whole “you have to be skinny” and …show more content…
By oppressed I mean they can not show skin, they cannot leave the house without a male escort, and they have no say in anything at all. I believe this kind of society is inhumane, making women nearly slaves. Many women get physically/sexually abused and nothing can be done due to women being treated as low as animals (Wagner). This is on a whole new level compared to America. This is mostly happening in the Palestinian Territories and Iraq (The Associated Press). Surrounding countries are more equal but still not close to American standards. There are many activists fighting against this brutal treatment but nothing seems to be working. This even touches base with the terrorist group ISIS. They have been known to kill any feminists that are protesting or are known to protest. Now if you think about it, in a way ISIS is against gender equality the same way the Ku Klux Klan was against gender equality. The world has seen this kind of oppression before and we can make it through it as we have before. It is not going to happen overnight obviously, but if the government made some effort to make women equal things would brighten up. According to Aya Batrawy, there are several Saudi women in the middle east defying the odds by going to college and earning reputable degrees. This helps influence others to believe that women can be just as successful as men. Also, many women are