Rape Culture Workshop

This is a reaction essay I wrote for the workshop.

          The workshop was about rape culture. This topic is huge, complex and sensitive because every individual has their meanings and experiences of sex and rape. Rape can be in many forms, not just intercourse. It is a force upon of one to the other. It can affect anyone of all ages including homosexual and even men but it is mostly women. Most people are ignorant about this issue due to many reasons, one of the sadly but true reason is the refusing to acknowledge. Students shared their experiences that they were taught by their parents that (they say) were wrong and disgusting. One student stated what his father told him “when a girl says no, it means yes ... you have a dick, use it like you supposed to" and how a man has to go for it and show her his strength. Another student told us that when he was experiencing sex the first time, he did not know what to do. He wanted to make it right but he did not know whatsoever about it. He got home and had an adult discussing with his parents, none of them were educating the way he expected but only to ask his action and pleasure of it. These are the examples of an individual trying to learn sex but not getting the right knowledge from the source that they rely on the most. As a result, this led to confusion for him and everyone else.
           Misunderstanding is also a huge problem. Many adolescents believe that sex is cool. They think sex is an opportunity that should not be wasted, not understanding that sex is natural and it will happen eventually. Additionally, they don’t want to be left out of the group if their friends already experience sex. Society has definitely influenced the way people think about sexual assault. Each gender was taught differently, society always warns and mentions sexual assault to women not to men, teaching women to avoid getting raped instead of teaching men not to rape. Sexual assault is not a wild spread topic. Fewer people talk about it, thus led to unintentional ignorance and misunderstanding about. Ms. Megan Kordenbrock, a representative from Safe Horizon, concluded that actions for safe sex activities for both parties should always be aware of the situation about the topic of rape and both sides must have a clear consent for both physical and body language if they would like the topic of sex, and should verbally say yes or no when having sex.