Rape culture is a society or environment whose prevailing social attitudes have the effect of normalizing or trivializing sexual assault and abuse. This culture is a prevalent issue in today’s society and the topic I am focusing on throughout the REDHUGO project. My focus is specifically on the many factors that contribute to this culture and how it has taken place. For the entertainment portion of the project, I listened to a podcast titled, This Happened, directed by Janey Williams, a survivor of sexual assault.
This Happened follows Janey’s story of her sexual assault and her friend’s and family’s reactions to her experience and how they dealt with the issue. In Janey’s case, her assaulter was her best friend, Matt, who was in the same social group as Janey and many of her close-knit friends. Janey’s podcast focuses on why her friends had a “lack of response” to her coming out about the assault and why they turned a blind eye when they knew that Matt had a history of inappropriate actions that progressed to sexual assault. Within each episode, Janey focuses on a specific aspect of her friend’s actions, such as the “misunderstanding” they felt the rape was, the silence surrounding what happened, and the pity they felt towards Janey but also towards Matt, the perpetrator.
Janey is the director of the podcast and uses many choices to lead to her central argument. The podcast is very blunt and real; just Janey and her friend’s voices that she is interviewing with minimal background or transition music. There is no use of news recordings or other encounters of rape, just the interviews she has with her friends and family regarding her rape. Therefore the tone is not extremely engaging but takes more of a serious or inspiring tone, evoking empathy in her audience. There are times during interviews where Janey and her friends cry or when Janey becomes heated discussing a topic, which plays to the audience’s emotions as well. There is some bias considering it is Janey’s experience, but this does not invalidate her argument that society nurtures rape culture subconsciously. Janey’s friends did not necessarily pick Matt’s side or blame Janey, but they became practiced at protecting Matt due to his past behavior and felt the assault would have been awkward to address and better kept quiet. Janey describes this as “the default thing to do: act as nothing happened.”
Throughout the podcast, I was puzzled as to what Janey’s real purpose was. Was it to spread her story? Encourage other victims to speak up? Her goal was not exposed until the end of the last episode, in which she connected each of her friend’s accounts of her rape and explained how their actions accidentally promoted rape culture. Janey states, “we are a culture that nurtures rape” and should bring it into the light, as she did in her podcast. I concluded that we as a society are failing by not standing up for the victims and ignoring rape, especially when the assaulter is someone we are close to. We, as society members, further rape culture without realizing due to being unsure of what to say or what actions to take.
This Happened follows Janey’s story of her sexual assault and her friend’s and family’s reactions to her experience and how they dealt with the issue. In Janey’s case, her assaulter was her best friend, Matt, who was in the same social group as Janey and many of her close-knit friends. Janey’s podcast focuses on why her friends had a “lack of response” to her coming out about the assault and why they turned a blind eye when they knew that Matt had a history of inappropriate actions that progressed to sexual assault. Within each episode, Janey focuses on a specific aspect of her friend’s actions, such as the “misunderstanding” they felt the rape was, the silence surrounding what happened, and the pity they felt towards Janey but also towards Matt, the perpetrator.
Janey is the director of the podcast and uses many choices to lead to her central argument. The podcast is very blunt and real; just Janey and her friend’s voices that she is interviewing with minimal background or transition music. There is no use of news recordings or other encounters of rape, just the interviews she has with her friends and family regarding her rape. Therefore the tone is not extremely engaging but takes more of a serious or inspiring tone, evoking empathy in her audience. There are times during interviews where Janey and her friends cry or when Janey becomes heated discussing a topic, which plays to the audience’s emotions as well. There is some bias considering it is Janey’s experience, but this does not invalidate her argument that society nurtures rape culture subconsciously. Janey’s friends did not necessarily pick Matt’s side or blame Janey, but they became practiced at protecting Matt due to his past behavior and felt the assault would have been awkward to address and better kept quiet. Janey describes this as “the default thing to do: act as nothing happened.”
Throughout the podcast, I was puzzled as to what Janey’s real purpose was. Was it to spread her story? Encourage other victims to speak up? Her goal was not exposed until the end of the last episode, in which she connected each of her friend’s accounts of her rape and explained how their actions accidentally promoted rape culture. Janey states, “we are a culture that nurtures rape” and should bring it into the light, as she did in her podcast. I concluded that we as a society are failing by not standing up for the victims and ignoring rape, especially when the assaulter is someone we are close to. We, as society members, further rape culture without realizing due to being unsure of what to say or what actions to take.
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