“That's Straight-Up Rape Culture”: Manifestations of Rape Culture on Grindr

Christopher Dietzel

doi:10.1108/978-1-83982-848-520211026

Abstract

Rape culture, described as when “violence is seen as sexy and sexuality as violent” (Buchwald, Fletcher, & Roth, 1993, p. vii), exists online and offline (Henry & Powell, 2014). Much of the research on rape culture focuses on the experiences of heterosexual women, and few studies have explored rape culture in the context of dating apps. This chapter explores how men who have sex with men (MSM) understand and experience rape culture through their use of Grindr and similar dating apps. A thematic analysis of interviews with 25 MSM dating app users revealed problematic user behavior as well as unwanted sexual messages and images as common manifestations of rape culture on dating apps. Participants explained that rape culture extends beyond in-app interactions to in-person encounters, as evident by incidents of sexual violence that several participants had experienced and one participant had committed. Participants were unsure about the extent to which MSM dating apps facilitate rape culture but asserted that some apps enable rape culture more than others. This chapter demonstrates the importance of investigating sexual violence against people of diverse gender and sexual identities to ensure their experiences are not minimized, ignored, or rendered invisible.

Highlights

During the 1970s, second-wave feminists began critiquing myths about women and sexual violence and introduced the term “rape culture” to articulate how society normalizes and condones sexual violence (Brownmiller, 1975)
One of the most cited definitions of rape culture comes from Buchwald, Fletcher, and Roth (1993, p. vii) in their book, Transforming A Rape Culture: It is a complex set of beliefs that encourages male sexual aggression and supports violence against women
In a study by Garcia, Gesselman, and Siliman (2016), men who have sex with men (MSM) were more than twice as likely to distribute another person’s sexual image without their consent. These findings suggest that MSM occupy a unique position relative to image-based sexual abuse (IBSA): they experience high rates of victimization, they are frequently perpetrators

Summary

Introduction

During the 1970s, second-wave feminists began critiquing myths about women and sexual violence and introduced the term “rape culture” to articulate how society normalizes and condones sexual violence (Brownmiller, 1975). There are blurred lines around consent, male sexual aggression is accepted and encouraged, and victims are blamed for the violence they have suffered (Phipps, Ringrose, Renold, & Jackson, 2018; Sills et al, 2016). Vii) in their book, Transforming A Rape Culture: It is a complex set of beliefs that encourages male sexual aggression and supports violence against women. It is a society where violence is seen as sexy and sexuality as violent. In a rape culture women perceive a continuum of threatened violence that ranges from sexual remarks to sexual touching to rape itself. A rape culture condones physical and emotional terrorism against women as the norm

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion