Book Review: Luke Gittos. Why Rape Culture is a Dangerous Myth: From Steubenville to Ched Evans

Abstract

Book Review: Luke Gittos. Why Rape Culture is a Dangerous Myth: From Steubenville to Ched Evans. Exeter, UK: Imprint Academic, 2015. ISBN: 978-1845408374 (Paperback). 140 Pages. $28.96.[Article copies available for a fee from The Transformative Studies Institute. E-mail address: journal@transformativestudies.org Website: http://www.transformativestudies.org ©2016 by The Transformative Studies Institute. All rights reserved.]When he told friends and colleagues that he was writing a book about rape culture, Luke Gittos was frequently asked 'Why?' After all, what would a man in his late twenties working as a criminal lawyer in London write about such a tricky subject, one where it is often considered verboten for men to offer any sort of view at all?When it comes to questions of women's oppression, and particularly an issue like rape, the views of women, particularly feminists and rape 'survivors', are today to be accepted unquestioningly. When it comes to the experience of rape, that makes sense. But when we look at how society approaches the issue of rape as a political and legal issue, it is legitimate for anyone to ask questions about official policies and the nature of public discussion today. And for Gittos, the implications of the rape culture discussion for important legal principles, freedom of speech, and even our ability to use our own judgement in our intimate lives are extremely troubling.That discussion is dominated by the idea that we live in a 'rape culture.' Essentially, it is argued that society is accepting of rape as normal, something reinforced by a variety of means. Gittos quotes one definition by a campaign group calling itself Force:Rape culture includes jokes, TV music, advertising, legal jargon, laws, words and imagery that make violence against women and sexual coercion seem so normal that people believe that rape is inevitable. Rather than viewing the culture of rape as a problem to change, people in a rape culture think about the persistence of rape as 'just the way things are.'2While this may make perfect sense to many feminists, it jars with most people's view of rape as a heinous crime. It was certainly true in the past that rape was often dealt with very badly by the police and prosecuting authorities. In many jurisdictions, the notion that a married woman could not be raped by her husband was only - shockingly - rejected recently. For example, it was in only in 1993 that all 50 US states had legislated against marital rape, though in South Carolina, there is still an offence of spousal rape that sets a higher bar in terms of the use of force compared to non-marital rape.Women have had to fight hard to have rape taken seriously and to end their treatment as objects to be possessed by men, including the notion that rape cannot, by definition, take place in marriage. But in general, and certainly in the past two or three decades, society's approach to rape has changed in step with the wider liberation of women. For most people, rape is regarded as an extremely serious crime, sometimes on a par with murder, which further begs to question: Where does the idea come from that we are living in a 'rape culture'?Gittos argues that it based on a very individualized subjectivity, one which focuses on and accentuates a feeling of extreme vulnerability. That sense of vulnerability isn't helped by the abuse of statistics. For example, Gittos is critical of a claim made in 2013's Crime Survey for England and Wales that '0.5 percent of females report being a victim of the most serious offences of rape or sexual assault by penetration in the previous 12 months, equivalent to around 85,000 victims on average per year.' As Gittos points out, the survey did not ask women whether they had been raped. Rather, they were asked simply about physical acts of penetration when they had made it clear they did not agree or when they were not capable of giving consent.However, the crime of rape is not simply based on a physical act to which someone did not consent. …