Social Media's Effects On Rape Culture

There are many notable examples of rape culture, one being the lyrics of popular songs such as rap song, “U.O.E.N.O”, which is an acronym for “you don’t even know”. In the song, rapper Rick Ross states that he “put Molly all in her champagne, she ain’t even know it. I took her home and I enjoyed that, she ain’t even know it.” For weeks the popular rapper’s lyrics were in the news and feminists around the world were in uproar over the ‘rapist-like’, sexually-insensitive lyrics. The lyrics embodied rape culture, because they made it seem morally sound to drug a woman and have sex with her without her consent. This was an international incident. Rape culture is the normalization of sexual assault within a culture because of social beliefs …show more content…
Because social media websites are easily accessible, these fiends can simply post nude photos of people to sexually exploit them. On these websites, sexually explicit texts, photos and even revenge porn are shared. A notable example of social media’s effect on rape culture took place in The Bahamas. There is a young Bahamian pop artist’s nude photos were shared via social media outlets such as WhatsApp and Twitter. The teenage artist had been naked during a Skype call with her boyfriend who took screenshots of her. Eventually, somebody took those pictures from her boyfriend’s computer and ‘leaked’ them in WhatsApp groups and on Twitter. Teenagers in the country went wild; they posted negative comments about the singer and even went far enough to say that she was a “slut”. Most people who had seen the photos, instead of reporting the person sending it to them, shared it to their friends and publicly admonished her for embracing her body and sexuality. In The Bahamas, rape culture is the dominant culture and it is becoming even more widespread with the aid of social …show more content…
For example, in many institutions including The College of The Bahamas, there are absurd rules restricting self-expression through clothing, mainly for female students. The College of The Bahamas’ rule book states that female students must not wear short pants and are only allowed to wear pants, skirts, or dresses that come beneath their longest finger when placed at their sides. Male students are admonished to wear shirts with appropriate text, text that does not promote a violent lifestyle. Despite these rules being set for both sexes, in reality only female students are penalized. An observation has proven that most female students who want to gain access to the library on campus must be properly attired according to the rules, while male students are allowed to wear shirts that contain profanity and even promote a sexually promiscuous lifestyle. In this way, schools and business places also perpetuate rape culture, when they tell female students or employees that they are not allowed to wear a certain length of clothing because they will sexually tempt and provoke their male counterparts. Another way that schools sometimes perpetuate rape culture is by blaming female students for the way that males act.