The Badger Herald ran a painfully misinformed Op-Ed on rape culture by David Hookstead Monday. His entire argument is framed around an incorrect assumption.
We have not all heard of rape culture before, and even fewer of us understand what it means. Therein lies the problem. Hookstead attacks a term that he does not define, and clearly does not understand.
In order to discuss Hookstead’s slew of misinformation, a brief explanation of rape culture is necessary. In a culture of rape, sexual violence is normalized and viewed as inevitable. Blame is shifted to the victim, not the perpetrator. Rape culture is propagated when the responsibility is placed on the victim rather than the rapist.
Hookstead begins by erroneously claiming that if you put a spotlight on rape, then you “don’t understand the real issue.” However, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, 40 percent of rapes are reported, and only 3 percent of rapists will spend even a single day in prison.
To say that a light should not be shined on this topic is simply untrue. The epidemic of rape and rape culture needs to be addressed, and raising awareness is one of the ways to do that.
Next, Hookstead’s piece moves to a critique of “double standards” in the music industry. Frankly, this point is insulting. Hookstead takes issue with feminist criticisms of misogynistic music, claiming that feminists ignore other illegal behavior mentioned in rap, such as drug use. Equating drug use to rape demonstrates Hookstead’s dismissive attitude regarding violence against women. Hookstead’s comparison is absurd and trivializes the crime of sexual assault by likening it to recreational drug use.
Additionally, one of the most serious problems with a culture of rape is focusing blame on the victim instead of the perpetrator, an idea Hookstead fails to refute. He says “uneducated people” believe that teaching men not to rape would help end rape, and claims “statements like that put all the blame on men and put no blame on women.” This statement does not place blame on all men. It instead shifts from the cultural trope of victim blaming to greater awareness of what constitutes sexual assault.
Education campaigns are not teaching men not to rape. They are teaching men and women what true consent means.
Later, Hookstead says that if a superstar athlete raped a woman, there would be national outcry. If only. When superstar athletes are the perpetrators of violence, the victim is the one that faces the consequences. In addition, Hookstead propagates the myth of rampant false accusations of rape when in fact rape is a crime that is grossly underreported and underprosecuted.
By denying the existence of rape culture, Hookstead has highlighted many of its most problematic aspects. Many people I have talked to are ashamed to attend the same university as David Hookstead, due to outrageous and offensive views he expressed Monday. That said, my fellow Badgers have the opportunity to use this as a way to start a conversation on this campus about rape culture, and what we can do to stop it.
Hayley Young ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in political science and international studies. She is the Vice-Chair of the College Democrats of UW-Madison.
