To End Rape, We Must Redefine Masculinity

We often say that anyone can be raped, and while that is true, it is important to point out that the most common groups targeted by predators are those who occupy some kind of marginalized position in society — women, yes, but also children (boys and girls), the elderly, gay men, feminine men, less powerful men, the poor, LGBTQ, the disabled, people of color. Predators are disproportionately men, whose privileged position is reinforced by a culture that deems masculine aggression, dominance, and power as the societal norm, if not the ideal. In other words, more individual men are rapists because more individual men fit the societal concept of masculinity: to always be in control, to win at all costs, to initiate and push sex, and to suppress emotion.

So when we say that we live in a rape culture, we’re not implying that our culture is explicitly teaching men to rape women. What we are saying is that our institutional and cultural practices fail to recognize how the harmful assumptions about what “makes a man” center and reinforce a dangerous model of masculinity that is tied to dominance, power, and control over marginalized groups…all of which are seen as occupying a more “feminine” status in the power totem. Consider, for example, how few men report rape because they are terrified of appearing emasculated or gay.

We will continue to call for increased accountability for individual perpetrators. But it seems that the ultimate solution to sexual violence will be conceptualizing gender in such a way that aggressive masculinity is dethroned as the status quo. The implication here is that if we dropped the “boys will be boys” adage and worked towards “boys will be good humans” as our social norm, far less men would be rapists because their behavior would be a massive breach of the social contract, rather than just an extension of normative cultural practices.