Picture yourself walking in the park. It’s a nice sunny day. The birds are chirping and the air is perfect. It’s blissful, peaceful and serene. Now picture yourself in that same park, drug into the back of a van and raped. This nice, peaceful walk just turned into a nightmare. And this nightmare is someone’s punchline in the hallways at school.
According to Michigan Incident Crime Reporting, in 2022 alone there were 6,196 cases of rape. Of those 6,196 cases, 1,028 of those involved children under the age of 10. Rape is a dangerous yet commonly found problem in society today. However, it doesn’t stop high schoolers to still find the time to joke about rape and brush it off as, “no big deal.”
Officer King, the school’s resource officer explains the seriousness of rape.
“The meaning of the word ‘rape’ is when someone didn’t give consent for intercourse,” School Resource Officer Crystal King said. “Rape is a very serious crime. So with that said, no means no.”
“No means no,” so why are men who claim to be feminists yelling at girls in the hallway saying, “Oh I would so sexually assault her.” Why are we as a society turning a blind eye to the reality of rape and rape culture?
One junior girl, who prefers to stay anonymous because of fear of retribution, describes how she continuously hears jokes about rape.
“Several people are always yelling in the hallways, talking about how they’re gonna rape someone, or how this girl is so hot they can do whatever they want to her and stuff like that,” the junior said.
The sheer amount of this abusive language in the hallways is alarming. It makes those who underwent rape or sexual harassment not feel heard. It dehumanizes them to the point where they start questioning their reality.
Laura C. Wilson, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Mary Washington, led an academic study on 5,917 women who were raped. Over half of these women who were raped simply don’t believe they were raped, even if they were because of the trauma they experienced. So why are these things still joked about?
A sophomore boy, who wants to remain anonymous because he doesn’t want his friends to think differently about him, makes these jokes to feel included.
“I just kinda feel like I need [my friends] to like me,” the sophomore said. “I think it’s stupid that they joke about it. I feel bad, but I just want to not cause a problem with them.”
Rape culture is a trend. Rape culture is fraternities forcing their pledges to chant “no means no.” Rape culture is screaming “I’m gonna rape you” in the hallways. Rape culture is popular music claiming the mantra of “blurred lines.” Rape culture is “boys will be boys.” Rape culture seems inevitable.
Even if there is immense peer pressure to fit in, rape jokes and other crude jokes aren’t something to be taken lightly. They carry consequences. Consequences that will follow you for the rest of your life. Consequences that can carry a prison sentence. Next time you think about joking like this, think before you speak. Take steps to mitigate the amount of abusive language in the hallways. Speak up. Be the change you want to see.