Who’s body is it, anyway?

We, especially those of us living in the most technologically and economically advanced nations of the world, like to imagine that the bodies we inhabit belong to us alone. Do they, though? Perhaps it is easy to buy into the illusion that this is the case — until one attempts to take ownership of their own body in any way which would contradict the unwritten rules of the ideological state apparatus defined by Althusser (as discussed by Teresa de Lauretis).

The term ‘rape culture’ has become popular in recent discourses, and describes one particular way in which this phenomenon — the lack of true bodily autonomy which exists in the western world — manifests.

To offer a most basic defintion, “rape culture is a setting in which rape is pervasive and normalized due to societal attitudes about gender and sexuality.” Simone de Beauvoir’s writing offers some insight into the biological arguments which have long been used to explain, or even justify the ideology underlying rape culture.

Even when she is willing, or provocative, it is unquestionably the male who takes the female — she is taken. Often the word applies literally, for whether by means of special organs or through superior strength, the male seizes her and holds her in place; he performs the copulatory movements; and, among insects, birds, and mammals, he penetrates her. In this penetration her inwardness is violated, she is like an enclosure that is broken into. The male is not doing violence to the species, for the species survives only in being constantly renewed and would come to an end if eggs and sperms did not come together; but the female, entrusted with the protection of the egg, locks it away inside herself, and her body, in sheltering the egg, shields it also from the fecundating action of the male. Her body becomes, therefore, a resistance to be broken through, whereas in penetrating it the male finds self-fulfilment in activity.

While this may be true in many animal species, that does not imply that it can or should be applied to humankind. In fact, de Beauvoir continues on later to say that

The bearing of maternity upon the individual life, regulated naturally in animals by the oestrus cycle and the seasons, is not definitely prescribed in woman — society alone is the arbiter.

Human society has advanced beyond the circumstances of “nature” in so many ways that most in the western world cannot even comprehend life in the “natural” world. It is no longer the harsh law of nature that encourages rape (if it ever truly was), it is culture. The idea, so deeply ingrained into society that some people refuse to see it, that victim’s bodies (typically women’s bodies, though not always) do not belong to them. That their aggressors somehow have a right to violate them.

Perhaps the most telling examples of rape culture are the vast numbers of high school and college rape cases in the U.S.A in the past several years, and the ways in which they have been handled. One example in particular being the Steubenville High School rape case. In this case, a high school girl was raped by two of her classmates (members of the football team) while passed out. Not only was she physically violated, though; the perpetrators also took photos of the victim, which were spread among their classmates.

And how did school officials respond to this?

Well, the Steubenville High School football coach attempted to cover it up. One of the rapists sent a text in which he mentions having told the coach, Reno Saccoccia, what happened, and adds that “He took care of it and sh — ain’t gonna happen, even if they did take it to court.”

And obviously the coach was fired, right? In fact, despite this information coming to light during the court proceedings, Reno Saccoccia was offered a 2-year contract extension.

The perpetrators of the Steubenville rape were, thankfully, were eventually convicted. But this is often not the case. In current U.S. society, when charges like these aare brought up — against a celebrity, a high school athlete, a wealthy businessman, it matters not — there is a tendency for outcry in support of the perpetrator. Of blaming the victims for “ruining” the lives or careers of those their attackers. Apparently, a rapist’s football career matters more than the bodily autonomy of a teenage girl.

The song “Plato’s Tripartite,” written and performed by Protest the Hero, offers a critique of cases like these. (Lyrics transcribed here)

That’s when they lock up an innocent victim.
The only thing that’s more broken than her spirit is the system.

The Steubenville rapists were convicted — but what of thousands of rapists that go free? What are we, as a society, telling victims when we let their attackers go with a slap on the wrist, or less? What are we teaching the next generation? Every such case reaffirms the notion that victims are to blame for their own attacks, and that they have no rights or control over their own bodies. That any right they might seem to have can be taken from them. That raping another human being is not a big deal. That there will be no repercussions. And then we are surprised when they commit rapes.

No one is innocent if they go free.
When we hand raise the beast, and the beast runs wild,
We must speak of our own involvement in the rape of a child.