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The Predominance of Micro-Aggressions in Rape Culture

  • Writer: Priya Chawla
    Priya Chawla
  • Dec 29, 2020
  • 9 min read

Trigger Warning: Mentions of Rape


Every single person reading this article has probably come across someone who has made a rape “joke”. And everyone reading has probably also come across someone who defends these so called “jokes” by calling it “dark humour”. Even though as a society we do not overtly support rape, we have taken to certain practices that undermine the effects of rape. This perfectly follows the trend we can commonly notice in society: when there are a group of people passionate widely passionate about a cause, there will always be people who bring them down in one way or another; even if the cause is something as significant as restoring the rights of sexual assault victims.


We practice this abatement in the form of microaggressions that persist in rape culture.


One thing that should be noted is that this topic is a vast issue and this article serves as a mere introduction to the topic. To truly understand this issue, one must dive a bit deeper. There are research links at the end of this article that could help you get started. Another thing that should be noted is that while the conversation around rape culture displays rape as something perpetrated towards cis women by cis men, sexual harassment is an issue that affects all gender- conforming and non-conforming people (including cis men).



Understanding the Terms


Before moving forward with this conversation one must understand the two main terms being discussed, namely “microaggression” and “rape culture”.


The term “microaggressions” was first coined in 1970 by Chester M. Pierce as a description of the subtle derogatory remarks and insults that were thrown at African-Americans to disrespect their race. Today, it is used as an umbrella term for all dubious putdowns towards any marginalized groups, whether it be based on age, religion, gender, etc. They can exist in different mediums, whether it be verbal, behavioural, or environmental.


When someone is being discriminatory to certain marginalized groups, it is blatantly clear. However, the usage of microaggressions makes the discrimination ambiguous, possibly to the point where the person displaying the microaggression doesn’t realize that they are being discriminatory.


There are three main types of microaggressions:

  1. Microassaults: When someone behaves in an intentionally discriminatory way but without meaning to be offensive. For example, when someone makes a rape joke and dismisses it by saying “it was just a joke”.

  2. Microinsults: A comment or an action that is unintentionally discriminatory. For example, telling a Chinese person “of course you’re good at Math”.

  3. Microinvalidations: When someone’s comment invalidates or undermines the experience of a certain group of people. For example, a man telling a woman that “sexism no longer exists”.


The term rape culture is a bit more complex. We associate the word “culture” with its sociological or anthropological root which means a group of people commonly engaging in something. While as a society we do not explicitly support rape or its perpetrators, we engage in cultural practices that may tolerate or even excuse rape. Rather than engagement, it is a term used to describe hope we think about rape.


While certain phrases that may be thrown around like “boys will be boys” or “your revealing clothes are purposely enticing men” seem like separate, isolated situations, they feed in to this social trend of rape culture that is counterproductive to the eradication of sexual harassment.


How common it is


It is not uncommon for victims, especially women, to suffer microaggressions amidst conversations. This especially takes place when the woman acquires a professional position in a traditionally male-dominated field of work or study. This comes from the stereotype that women possess inferior mathematical or logical skills. As a patriarchal society, viewing women securing high positions in professional settings often makes them the brunt of sexual harassment microaggressions in the form of objectification. A 2018 study (Kansas State University) that centered around workplace microaggressions found that 73% of women working in the fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics experienced at least one form of sexual objectification. While this study was limited to the area of Manhattan, the results show a staggering statistic as to how common such occurrences are.


This issue is especially common with women that study in college or university. There is a myriad of academic literature that supports this claim. 1-in-10 women on college campuses have been sexually harassed, while 53% of college women have been at the receiving end of unwanted sexual comments, jokes, gestures, or looks. A need of the hour is for college campuses to create a safe environment for students, especially female students, to be protected from gender microaggressions that could lead to sexual assault.


Gender microaggressions are also widely prevalent in pop-culture and media. Even in adolescence, children books and shows display women as weak, feeble and submissive, drilling this stereotype of women to be “fragile” into the minds of the youth from a very young age. When it comes to music, microaggressions involving the sexualisation of the body are very common. For example, Robin Thicke’s hit song ‘Blurred Lines’ talks about how the woman does not clearly show consent solely because she’s a “good girl” and “secretly an animal”, and that the singer surely knows “[she] wants it”. The lack of display of consent is attributed to the woman being a ‘tease’, a notion that is widely accepted in pop music lyricism. Another example of mainstream media that displays microaggressions in relation to rape culture is the famous Twitter hashtag ‘#HowToAskSomeoneOnADate’ that resulted in tweets such as:


Well what works for me, is holding a really sharp knife next to their neck and begging them #HowToAskSomeoneOnADate


Take a rag of chloroform and have her sniff it. Take her body then put it in the trunk #HowToAskSomeoneOnADate


Roofies make it a lot easier #HowToAskSomeoneOnADate


Tweets such as these (now deleted) populated the hashtag in 2018, invalidating the experiences of sexual assault victims who have suffered from immense hurt and trauma from their experiences. This is also cemented further with the usage of meme culture as a way to perpetuate subtle sexism. In the now shut-down meme page that was run by students from the University of Iowa, derogatory memes, specifically against women, were widely circulated. One of the memes portrayed college women as promiscuous, while another suggested that it is difficult to distinguish between prostitutes and women who attend social events on weekends. Such trends are not uncommon, in fact widely inhabit the media we consume and are often hard to avoid.


Such popularity of intentional and unintentional invalidation and offence towards sexual harassment in our society can have major impacts on the health of victims of sexual assault. mental framework as to how we perceive sexual harassment as a society.


How this affects us


One of the major ways that these microaggressions affect us, as a society, is directly impacting the mental health of those on the receiving end, which can leeway into physical health problems in the future. Subtle sexism has been examined to be linked with depression, anxiety, trauma, and lowered self-esteem, symptoms that are similar to those suffered by sexual assault victims themselves. It can also lead to poor behavioural health as a result, often linked with elevated risk of self-harm, suicidal thoughts, maladaptive dieting, substance use, and feeling unsafe at institutions associated with hostility. Those suffering from these rape culture associated microaggressions feel unsafe and ready to be attacked (verbally or physically) even in environments that are supposedly safe spaces for them. The mental stress that is caused by these microaggressions can thus have severe repercussions on the health of the victims.


When compounded into social connections, repeated influence, such as the one stated above, throughout multiple individuals within a community can negatively derail the connectivity within that community. To further understand this concept, let us take the example of one of the most common forms of communities prevalent in youth, academic institutions. Sexual microaggressions have the capability to destroy the normality in interpersonal relationships as well as the connectivity felt with the institution itself. In a study conducted with a sample taken from a school, the students were examined to analyze their responses towards gender microaggressions faced in the academic environment. The results showed the victims avoiding the person who bothered or harassed them (40%), talking less in class (24%), not wanting to go to school (22%), changing their seat in class (21%), and experiencing difficulties paying attention in school (20%; AAUW, 2001).


These results are not just limited to school life but also with university students, showing them displaying behaviours significantly associated with school avoidance and alcohol use. While university is a critical stage in the identity and neurological development of a person, these students, especially undergraduates are greatly affected by the external stigmas caused by these microagressions, such as the social pressures surrounding sex, normalized and rather expected abuse of substance and alcohol, and attitudes that overly-sexualize and objectify women. Such influences and retard or even damage the development process that is supposed to carry out in these higher academic institutions as a result.


While academic institutions have merely been taken as an example of communities impacted by the predominace of microaggressions in rape culture, these observations can be further projected onto all forms of communities that we take part in throughout our lifetime, whether they are professional or not.


This collective community influence cumulates to give an overall effect on society as a whole. When multiple communities face such consequential effects, the very framework of society is impressioned. The sexist attitudes that these microaggressions give birth to give a more lenient attitude towards rape culture, resulting in solidification of negative constructs in important fields such as rape myth acceptance, romantic partnerships, and career opportunities. Microaggressions create a false narrative that they are more ‘acceptable’ forms of sexual harassment that are bound to occur and must be endured. What this results in is the fostering of a society that strengthens its restrictive and violent gender norms that are expected to be widely accepted. For example, it becomes okay to comment on women’s bodies or insult someone else’s appearance “as a joke”.


This gives rise to a society that slowly begins to normalize sexual violence, especially violence faced by women, and begins to condone gender and sexual microaggressions as “freedom of speech” or a “natural state of conversation”. This negativity perpetuates cycles of sexual harassment and will therefore become the hinderance towards identification and prevention of gender microaggressions which can escalate to legally actionable offences. Acute acts of sexual assault don’t occur in vacuum or isolation, but as a result of societal circumstances and relations that establish a climate conducive to such acts.


What You Can Do to Help

  1. Be empathetic: Try to understand as to why microaggressions linked to sexual harassment are harmful for our society. Put yourself in the shoes of the receiving end of these insults and imagine how you would feel in that situation. By empathizing with the victims of the issue, you become a step closer to solving the problem.

  2. Self-reflect: You, dear reader, may have also, knowingly or unknowingly, been a perpetrator of spreading these microaggressions, whether it be merely in a social situation or in a big aspect of your life. Reflect on the words you uttered or actions you took, why you committed them, and what you could have done instead. Rather than drowning in penance, make it a point to be conscious about not repeating such actions.

  3. Speak out: When you observe another person participating in microaggressions, make it a point to approach the person and help them realize why they were in the wrong. Do not be defensive or aggressive, rather help them calmly analyze the thing they did and help them understand why that could be hurtful to the opposing or third party. Preferably, use the ‘I’ pronoun to help them comprehend your point of view.

  4. Educate yourself: The more you read and explore content related to this issue, the more you will be able to understand why it is such a big issue in today’s society and empathize with those who negatively suffer as a result of it. Below are provided some links that are a good resource for you to get started on your research.


Research Links:

  • (Article) What Microaggressions Are and How to Prevent Them

By McKenna Princing

  • (Book) Microaggressions and Marginality: Manifestation, Dynamics, and Impact

edited by Derald Wing Sue

  • (Book) Beyond Blurred Lines: Rape Culture in Popular Media

By Nickie D. Phillips

  • (Video) Microaggressions and Me by: Melanie Lofgren (TEDxNorthParkUniversity 2017)

  • (Video) Rape Culture | Reagan Williams | TEDxArkansasStateUniversity

  • (Blog) Microaggressions and the language of rape culture

By Makua Adimora

  • (Blog) Revealing the Cultural Patterns of Rape Culture


Reference List

 
 
 

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