American culture, society 'supports rape'
Amanda Phipps
Issue date: 4/16/09 Section: Health and Science
Rape, and sexual harassment in general, isn't confined to dark alleys and total strangers.
Some people know their attacker: They are raped by a close friend or someone they have been intimate with before.
On April 6, the improvisation theater troupe Skin Deep hosted an event called "When a Date Becomes a Crime" that focused on sexual assault and rape.
Sexual assault is classified as unwanted physical contact, while rape involves any form of penetration.
Skin Deep brought this subject matter to life with two skits: one in which a self-conscious girl is taken advantage of and the other in which a girl refuses, but her attacker continues.
While the scenarios are different, both are classified as rape.
In fact, the second scenario portrays the most common type of rape: acquaintance rape, in which the victim knows the attacker. Even though the female had had sexual relations with the male in the past, she declined his advances, highlighting that consent must be given every time.
The event also featured guest speaker Bebe Westbrook, the sexual assault specialist with The South Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault (SCCADVASA). She coordinates the organization's 16 sexual-assault member programs and six dual-coalition programs, providing educational resources and collaborating with affiliated agencies on the state level.
Westbrook rejected the belief that sexual assault is caused by a victim's behavior, dress or sexual history or a man's uncontrollable sex drive.
Westbrook claimed that modern society is a rape culture.
"We sell everything (with sex): from hamburgers to tires," she said. "All the things we do to socialize supports rape. We need to stop these things from happening."
Westbrook stressed that many situations can lead to rape, such as the use of date-rape drugs. Alcohol is considered the number one date-rape drug; others include Rohypnol, GHB and GBL.
Some people know their attacker: They are raped by a close friend or someone they have been intimate with before.
On April 6, the improvisation theater troupe Skin Deep hosted an event called "When a Date Becomes a Crime" that focused on sexual assault and rape.
Sexual assault is classified as unwanted physical contact, while rape involves any form of penetration.
Skin Deep brought this subject matter to life with two skits: one in which a self-conscious girl is taken advantage of and the other in which a girl refuses, but her attacker continues.
While the scenarios are different, both are classified as rape.
In fact, the second scenario portrays the most common type of rape: acquaintance rape, in which the victim knows the attacker. Even though the female had had sexual relations with the male in the past, she declined his advances, highlighting that consent must be given every time.
The event also featured guest speaker Bebe Westbrook, the sexual assault specialist with The South Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault (SCCADVASA). She coordinates the organization's 16 sexual-assault member programs and six dual-coalition programs, providing educational resources and collaborating with affiliated agencies on the state level.
Westbrook rejected the belief that sexual assault is caused by a victim's behavior, dress or sexual history or a man's uncontrollable sex drive.
Westbrook claimed that modern society is a rape culture.
"We sell everything (with sex): from hamburgers to tires," she said. "All the things we do to socialize supports rape. We need to stop these things from happening."
Westbrook stressed that many situations can lead to rape, such as the use of date-rape drugs. Alcohol is considered the number one date-rape drug; others include Rohypnol, GHB and GBL.
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