Donald Trump's tapes have been an extreme topic lately. The audio from 2005 shows a lewd conversation about women. According to The Washington Post, Republicans have criticized him for his past actions and words along with this audio. Trump has issued an apology for his words, saying that he's "not proud" of it. Many voters think that his words alluded to sexual assault and that they endorses rape culture and demeans women.
Rape culture is defined as a complex of beliefs that encourages male sexual aggression and supports violence against women. It is a society where violence is seen as sexy and sexuality as violent. In a rape culture, women perceive a continuum of threatened violence that ranges from sexual remarks to sexual touching to rape itself. A rape culture condones physical and emotional terrorism against women as the norm. In a rape culture, both men and women assume that sexual violence is a fact of life, inevitable as death or taxes. This violence, however, is neither biologically nor divinely ordained. Much of what we accept as inevitable is in fact the expression of values and attitudes that can change, according to Blog Spot.
As a woman, I do find the conversation disappointing and gross. However, we hear this type of rhetoric all over the media all the time in different forms. It is perfectly fine to be upset about Trump's comments, but it is not okay to be angry only at his use of this kind of rhetoric about women. This type of rhetoric is used commonly in music, both in videos and lyrics. Sometimes, it even shows up in a live performance. According to The Society Pages, sexualizing women's indecision for sex is the way rape culture works. It shows that violence against women is pleasured and even desirable. This is shown in various songs.
The song Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke shows the "blurred lines" between consent and rape. The campaign titled Project Unbreakable is one that shows rape victims holding signs of what their rapists said to them. Several of these signs have sentences that match the song's lyrics, such as "I know you want it," and "you're a good girl." If the signs are not exact with the lyrics, they have the same implications as certain lyric lines.
Starstrukk by 3OH!3 feat. Katy Perry involves a lot of catcalling sounds and talk about an attractive woman. Catcalling is objectifying, plus one of the lines says, "I think I should know, how, to make love to something innocent without leaving my fingerprints out." It sounds like rape because it targets a "good girl" and doesn't want to leave behind evidence. Think about it.
According to Kontrol Girl, there is an abundant amount of songs within the rap genre to name as examples for endorsing rape culture. The list gives examples of song lyrics from U.O.E.N.O. by Rick Ross (put molly all in her champagne, she ain't even know it, I took her home and enjoyed that, she ain't even know it), Juvenille by Lil Wayne feat. The Hot Boyz (we be thuggers, stunners, hustlers..kidnap mothers and rape with no rubbers), and a few others. It's all disgusting. It's not just in rap. It is also in pop, and other genres.
It is important that we don't support this type of music. According to The F Bomb, music has been endorsing rape culture for years, and it's poisonous to women. Think about the younger women and girls who hear these kinds of songs. They learn that it's acceptable, a part of life, and that "rape happens." Companies produce cutesy cans of pepper spray so that women will buy them. My former TV Production teacher from high school showed me her cheetah print pepper spray and said I needed to get some of it, and I need to be careful since I'm on campus at night sometimes. I told her, "yeah I know, but so are you." She told me that is why she owns it, and plus the school isn't in a good area. When my workplace got robbed and my assistant manager told me the details, I asked her if she was okay since she was supposed to close that night. She told me that she wasn't there and that the head manager took her shift. Our boss said that he was "glad that it wasn't Jamie who closed, Lord knows what they would've done to her." It's so sad that we have to think this way because of the rape culture that exists. We have to worry about owning pepper spray, and have to be careful in scheduling a woman to work the late shift in case a robbery took place, because we all know what happens to her in that situation.
When musicians use nasty rhetoric about women, nobody bats an eye. Rather, people fawn over them, and say that its "so catchy." When a presidential candidate talks like that, everyone loses their minds. A lot of people have made the excuse saying that "musicians aren't running for president." Maybe they're not, but that is not an excuse to talk like that. It's not okay to rage at one person for doing it but ignore the rest. If you're going to be outraged about it, be outraged at everyone doing it. I don't care who it is. It's not okay. If you make the excuse stated above, you are a part of the problem. You are endorsing the rape culture you claim to fight against.
