Research Essay Literature Reveiw

Rape and Rape Culture, while widely ignored, are a huge part of the normal everyday society that we are all a part of.  Today in the US many women and men are raped and sexually abused and we hear very little about it.  Very few rapists are tired for these crimes because the victims sometimes are more shamed then the guilty offender. This paper will look at the effects of the acceptance of rape culture and the stereotypes and stigmas surrounding it. What is rape culture and what does that look like in today society? How are the accused and how are the victims treated? How does the media depict and treat the victims? Sources for this paper are categorized by history and statistics, stereotypes of victims and treatment, as well as a defining category of what "Rape culture" is.

There are many sources that relate to the history and statistics of rape. One of these sources is written by Carolyn Gage, her article written "The Women's Rape MVSVEM". (Off Our Backs) in 1992, is a great smaller example that covers many different categories. It briefly discusses some statistics about rape in the U.S. Another source I used to look at the statistics of rape is Rainn. "Statistics Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network." This Webpage gives great statistics about rape in the U.S. and most importantly how often it occurs. This will be helpful to my paper because it will create credibility of my words and integrate more facts into a very personal issue for some people. To look more globally I used a source called "Top 10 Countries With Highest Rape Crime." on WondersList.com. This source briefly describes the countries with the most sexual abuse rates. This is  helpful because it is gives more insight on other places around the world. To look more locally I'm using a source called "List: States Where Rape Is Most Common" from CNN.com. This source plainly lists the states in which rape is the most common. Much like the source above this list creates a glimpse of how common or uncommon this kind of abuse is other places. Next I have five graphs/charts to help show my points more clearly. 

The next defining category of my paper relates to stereotypes and stigmas of the victim. My first source deepening this category is ”Diminishing the Legal Impact of Negative Social Attitudes Toward Acquaintance Rape Victims”written by Anderson.The main point in this article is to show how victims are looked at once they have been open about their attack. Looking at the negative stereotypes surrounding them and their case. This article is trying to fight those stereotypes and make it clear that the victim is not the one who the public should be against. Another source for this category is written by Mccaughey and King, "Rape Education Videos: Presenting Mean Women Instead of Dangerous Men.". This article says that women are just a capable of rape and sexual assault  as men are. This is interesting because most of the time when a person imagines a rapist they think of a man. Relating to this is a article is one written by Bennett Capers called "Real Rape Too". Written in the California Law Review  the main topic of this source is male to male rape in prisons and outside of prison. The paper talks about the completely unknowable frequency of  prison rape, because of the men not wanting to step forward and admit that it happened to them. These men that don't come forward are afraid of being looked at as weak or homosexual or both. This stereotype revolves around any man who is sexually assaulted and I will use this source in my paper to prove that fact. Men should be able to step forward about their assault as much as women can. Another article viewing talking about male rape is called “Male/Male Rape and the "Taint" of Homosexuality” written by Sandesh Sivakumaran for Human Rights Quarterly. This relates because of how people are looked at after their assault. As well as "Rape and The devalued victim" written by Gincopassi and Wilkinson, talks about the negative effects on the victim after they come forward about their assault. A article that contradicts the main points I am trying to make is called ""It Can Happen to You": Rape Prevention in the Age of Risk Management" written by Hall. This article is written to inform girls what they can do to stop a attack on them. Although their are lots of things you can do to lessen your chances sexual assault is never the victims fault. 

My third main category is a definition of what "Rape Culture" is and why we should fight it. Barnes writes in her article "An Unblinking Look at Sexual Assaults on Campus." about the different types of rape. This examines forceful rape, drugged rape and date rape. It talks about the victims after their assault and how it affected them and their lives. To look at this deeper, Cowan and Campbell's article "Rape Causal Attitudes among Adolescents" examines how people today see rape and "Rape Culture". They write. "Rape and sexual violence are not rare experiences in the lives of young women; yet little is know about adolescents' beliefs about the causes of rape." Another article agreeing with my points is “Rape Culture: It's all around us” written by Pearson. This source talks about how much this is happening that we don't even see. Then Ruby's paper “It's Time to Stop Tolerating Rape”comes in with a strong argument about what it really mean to tolerate rape and "Rape Culture". 

Research Essay Abstract

This paper discusses and examines the causes, effects of and defines "Rape Culture" in today's American society. While looking at what is socially acceptable and how people react to things that push those boundaries it is clear that the normalization of "Rape Culture" exists today. Through victim blaming, media, and current and popular song lyrics there is a the author proves that there is a dysfunction today that revolves around stereotypes of people and situations.

Research Essay Rationale

I begin my paper by introducing my topic (Rape Culture in the U.S.) and tell the reader why I am writing about this. To show why this matter is important I give a brief history about rape in the United States, focusing mainly on how laws and stereotypes affect the amount of sexual abuse in the country. I talk about how rape has always been a part of society and the effects that has on today's people. I do this to gain interest from my reader to try and get them to want to read more. Then I discuss and define "Rape Culture" in the best terms that I can. I talk about the issues it creates and the people working very hard to fight it. To achieve credibility I talk about facts and statistics surrounding rape in the U.S. Then I talk about a true story of a girl who was sexually assaulted and then abused on social media because of her assault. I do this to really pull my reader in and make a universal issue very personal and feel that much more real. I very clearly state my thesis at the end of my introduction leading my reading into the main points and ideas that I would most like to communicate with them throughout the rest of my paper.

My next point will be a broad overview of rape history all around the world. Here I will look at and discuss how other countries view this kind of abuse. Because of the extremely great history relating to my topic I wanted to cover more parts of the world. I also wanted to do this to gain a worldly interest in my paper. To gain more authenticity in my paper and on this topic, I will talk about the laws in other countries relating to rape, and the enforcement of those laws. Then I change direction a little bit and talk about rape and war. There are many rape victims that come out of battlefields and prison camps. I want to discuss this to bring in the point of how this type of assault is treated in different situations. Then I change direction again to discuss ad campaigns throughout the generations and how photos of women are becoming more and more explicit. I talk about how the public reacts to these ad's and how sales of the product are effected. This is a important topic to bring up because it is easy to relate to. We have all seen billboards with a half naked women or a colon commercial with a shirtless man. This will help me to show my reader what I'm talking about when I later talk about what normalizing of "Rape Culture" is.

Next I will talk about how women and men are both effected by rape and how that is different between the sexes and between sexual orientations. This is because it is important to me for my reader to understand how all people are effected by sexual abuse in their lives. I will talk about women's rape and how "slut shaming" is involved in that. Then I will switch to men's abuse and talk about the homosexual stigmas and labels that go along with that. I do this because I want to create a better view of how it is never right for the victim to be blamed for the assault that happens to them.

Then I talk about "Rape Culture" as a whole and how it is becoming more and more a part of our society. I describe what it is shortly. ("Rape Culture" is the society that we live in today. It is what tells the unthinking person that love is given not earned. This relates to treating women that the body is the only thing they have to offer the world and that is a man is taken advantage of that he is weak.) This creates a really powerful message that lots of people can understand. While relating media and music to today's society I show how a majority of this socially excepted material is extremely harmful and perfect examples of what the normalizing of "Rape Culture" is. This also relates to date rape and sex where one of the people may have not completely said yes. Then I talk about submissive-dominate relationships and how the world views them and contrast that with the very socially excepted idea that a man should be able to get sex whenever he want it. This shows something that is normally looked at okay and shown as something harmful. The normalizing of "Rape Culture" is creating a sexist and judgmental society that thrives off the phase "sex sells". People's opinion of what is okay is changing and it is changing from a young age. I bring up these points to show my reader the importance of this issue.

Research Essay Outline

I) Introduction: I go over the history of rape in America, looking at spikes and dips in the past. I then define "Rape Culture" and relate this information into real life. Then follow this information with my thesis statement. 

     a) The history and statistics of rape in the past.

         i) Rape has always been a part of any type of society.

         ii) Laws relating to rape and sexual violence have changed  throughout different times.

           (1) Judges in the 1920's changed their prospective of rape from non-consensual sex to examining how the women was dresses and how she acted instead of her words saying no. (Bindel)

     b) I examine and define "Rape Culture" in the U.S.

         i) Rape Culture is a broad term not widely used by the everyday person. The term is looked at with a stigma of feminist beliefs and this is because feminists are the only group know to fight it wholeheartedly.  

         ii) In the U.S. alone, 1 out of every 6 women have been raped or sexually assaulted in their lifetime. (RAINN)
         iii) I give an example of a story about a girl who was assaulted them bullied on social media.

      c) Thesis Statement: One of the greatest things we can do as a society to decline the number of women sexually abused is become aware of what "Rape Culture" is and how we are taught from the time we can watch TV that not treating someone fairly because of how they are dressed is okay. "Rape Culture" has been looked at as something that isn't real. But based on television media, songs, and how women are treated today, it is completely clear that it is alive today.

II) History: I discuss the cause and effect of rape in the past. Going more in depth and creating a interest in the topic.
     a) I give a main overview of rape and sexual abuse all around the world.
        i) Different countries view this kind of abuse differently. The term is given different meaning and the laws are different.
        ii) The statistics differ depending on place, laws, and cultural background.
     b) Rape and war.
     c) Sexualized ad campaigns

III) Many women and men are effected by rape in their lives.
      a) I introduce the large topic of victims coming forward after their abuse and how that differences between men and women.
      b) "Slut Shaming" is becoming a large part of today's society.
      c) When a man is assaulted there are many things telling him not to come forward about his assault.
         i) There are no real statistics about rape against men because of the gay stigmas surrounding them.

IV) "Rape Culture" as a whole is becoming more of a part of our society today.
     a) "Rape Culture" is the society that we live in today. It is what tells the unthinking person that love is given not earned. This relates to treating women that the body is the only thing they have to offer the world and that is a man is taken advantage of that he is weak.
     b) Music, movies and social media create a huge outlet to normalize this kind of behavior.
        i) Today's media plays off sexist jokes and story's and making them age appropriate.
        ii) Songs promoting date rape and sex when the other person may not be sober are becoming more and popular.
     c) Submissive and Dominate relationships and when a line is crossed. While these types of relationships are not widely excepted by the public, there are some much more common relationship types were one person feels like they deserve sex even if their partner says no.
     c) The effects of "Rape Culture" and how it is changing young people's mind about what is okay and what is not.

Chapter Seventeen - Revising and Editing

Revising and editing are very important when creating a paper that will be professional and also be something that you can be proud of. This chapter discusses the points to focus on and the strategies you should use when you revise and when you edit your document. It is important to revise your paper because creating something that gets your ideas across clearly is a great accomplishment and helps your readers to enjoy your paper more. Editing is also important because you don't want any  mistakes or errors in your paper. Then also just creating a flow throughout the paper makes it easier to read. This chapter was mainly overview for my because i have always been taught to create something that is worth people reading.  Although there were some parts that I found extremely helpful in just starting to understand why its important to make something good.

Chapter Thirteen - Organizing

"A well-organized document allows a reader to anticipate --or predict-- what will come next." (218) this chapter is all about allowing your reader to read your document easily. Creating a sense that one idea leads into a nothing connecting idea which in turn connects to another and so on and so forth. This helps the reader to understand your major points and ideas more clearly. The chapter is divided into three main focus questions, What organizing pattern should I choose?  How can I arrange my argument? and, How can I create a outline? These are all important things to cover when trying to create a sense of order. In teaching us how to organize they organized their information to make it more clear to us. They started broad and through steps get more in depth. By doing that they connected one idea to another and then that idea to another. This made it clear to me (the reader) the points they were trying very clearly to get across. This chapter was helpful because it created a clear way for me to organize my information every time i just need to get my ideas down.

Chapter Nineteen - Designing Documents and Presentations

This chapter of  "The Bedford Researcher" was a great overview of how to create great looking documents and presentations by using seven examples of different types. Each example wants you to consider your purpose for writing, and who will be viewing it. Then the book recommends looking at a example document to see what other people did and how they used the design elements given to them. This chapter was a big very broad overview of different types of documents. It was very helpful to see the differences between the documents and how design should be used depending on the type.

Chapter Eighteen - Understanding Design Principles

Knowing how to use design in your favor is a great tool to have. In this chapter of "The Bedford Reader" we learn how to use design and setup to make our paper more presentable. It discusses how to use design effectively and the design elements we can use. "The design decisions you make will play a critical role in how your readers understand, react to, and work with your document." (285) This is important because how your paper looks at first glance can be extremely beneficial to you or break the readers opinion of you. You want to know who your designing for and how that group will view your paper. There are many professional groups and casual groups and you want to fit in with and impress the people your are writing for. You can use all sorts of things to edit or design your paper. Some of these include fonts, color, boarders, and including illustrations in your work. This chapter was interesting because I didn't know there were so many options for witting a impressive professional paper.