Darcy Richie: Decrying the misrepresentation of women

When we speak about the "prevalence" of rape, we allow ourselves to disassociate from the actual act of rape itself. A simple statistic does not give us the mental image of physical bruising on a person's body from the pressure of someone twice their size pressing on their wrists and thighs. Nor does it allow us to imagine the screaming -- or even, in many cases, the almost silent, whispered cries of, "please stop," interrupted only by the excited heartbeat of the rapist and the distracting heartbeat of the victim. More specifically, Dr. Christina Hoff Sommers, an associate professor at Clark University, argues that terms such as "prevalence" and "statistics" cause us to "abstract ourselves from the misery."

We know to protect ourselves, and we know that rape is an act of power. We grab our mace when walking down dark alleys, and we remember to protect our drinks and loudly scream, "No." But there is more to the act of rape than simply two individuals and the time it takes to perform an assault. Rape is the extreme, and our culture is the facilitator.

As the video Rape Culture exhibits, we live in a society that perpetuates the disrespect and sexualization of women. A rape culture is one that celebrates females who seem to spread easily. Every day, we reward the skimpy, sexually charged and busty.

The most disturbing element of living in a rape culture is not just the misrepresentation of women and the misconceptions of how success is defined for women in pop culture, but the responsibility placed on women to either support or dispel the ideas, as well as the blame put on women for their own misrepresentation. The Janet Jackson incident last weekend is an example of how women have a greater responsibility and all too often carry all of the blame.

On Sunday, in the middle of the Super Bowl, millions of Americans were captivated by the sexual performance put on by Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson. Tossing and shaking seemed to be the "shocking moments" we were promised, but in the end, we saw a boob. Evidently, this was the most shocking occurrence on television ever, and even more, children across the nation have now seen a naked breast.

But most frustrating is the way this incident played into the beliefs set forth in our rape culture. Janet, please apologize to the nation. Justin reached across your chest, ripped your costume and continued to sing with your leftover bra in his hand -- but you showed your boob.

How does this connect? Journalists flocked to the heels of this incident to basically write the same article: that Janet revealed herself, people were offended and Janet was asked to apologize. Janet was asked to speak to CNN, write a written apology and finally apologize live on the Grammy Awards. She finally chose not to apologize publically yet another time and turned down performing at the Grammy Awards.

Who knows her reasons, but I would assume that she was asked to apologize one time too many. One would begin to feel that she was being blamed for the whole incident. Yes, Justin was asked to apologize as well, but to those who claim that the blame for this incident was spread evenly, I lay before you almost every news story that says otherwise. Apparently Janet was to blame because in our culture, we always suspect the female temptress first.

Maybe it's not that serious -- that finding examples of a rape culture in a single pop culture incident is just searching for problems and blowing things out of proportion. Radical legal scholar Catharine MacKinnon claims that "by conservative definition, [rape] happens to almost half of all women at least once in their lives," and when we accept the support behind this theory, it's impossible not to accept that a rape culture exists and possibly even not to recognize its presence in more aspects of society than just movies.

It's easier to understand where the Justin Timberlake incident falls in line with a culture of female responsibility and blame when we begin to accept that in order to succeed in the pop culture world, a girl must be feminized and sexualized. In light of the hypersexualized 12-year-old pop stars, we ask our girls to respect them and demand respect for their bodies and their minds.

If we organize a pop culture system where females cannot succeed unless they are sexed up, we are only supporting the ideals that females are to be taken and that the takers are simply innocent bystanders being sucked in by their tempting ways.

We would have sent a very different message to those tainted children who have not seen a boob if Justin was constantly asked to apologize for either accidentally revealing a female or for buying into a rape culture that believes that the best way to shock is female exposure.

I am glad that Janet decided not to apologize, because it allows me to believe that she chose not to continue to be blamed.

Darcy Richie is a senior urban studies major from Birmingham, Mich. Strange Fruit appears on Wednesdays.

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