Rape culture is a set of values and beliefs that provide an environment conducive to rape.  (that is, the generic culture surrounding and promoting rape, not the specific settings in which rape is likely to occur.)

Rape culture is pervasive insistence that false reports are common, although they are less common (1.6%) than false reports of auto theft (2.6%).

Rape culture is pervasive claims that women make rape accusations willy-nilly, when 61% of rapes remain unreported.

Rape culture is a ruling that says women cannot withdraw consent once sex commences.

Rape culture is boys under 10 years old knowing how to rape.

Rape culture is blurred lines between persistence and coercion.

Rape culture is treating diminished capacity to consent as the natural path to sexual activity.

Rape culture is. . . Click Here to learn more about Rape Culture.

Rape culture is asking the questions on this exam:

Rape culture is a culture that blames the victim of rape. 

Rape culture is a culture that doesn't understand exactly what rape is.

Rape culture is when research on sexual assault is done where quotes such as the following are collected:

Rape culture is not understanding that alcohol undoes consent.
- "Specifically related to the issues of intoxication, it should be noted that if a person is unconscious or their judgment is impaired by alcohol or drugs, legally they are unable to give consent. These types of laws are meant to protect people from being taken advantage of when they are intoxicated."  (source: men against abuse now: alcohol and consent)
- "Know that if someone is intoxicated they cannot legally consent to sex. Having sex with someone who is intoxicated is rape." (student health services at illinois university)

Rape culture is a culture with thousands of songs that celebrate drunkenness, drugs, rape, and sexual harassment. 

ALL of the following songs incorporate both drinking and sex.

Rape culture is a culture that allows men to watch girls and sexually evaluate women alone and in the presence of other men and writes it off as "boys will be boys".  Rape culture characterizes "girl watching" as only play, a fun game, harmless- while more than 1/3 of women have reported experiencing unwanted sexual teasing, jokes, or remarks about their body. 

 - "What most men don’t realize is that all women in our society are on the receiving end of unwanted sexual attention at some point in their lives, and most of them get it a lot. Women are catcalled on the street. They’re harassed in bars, groped in clubs, and whistled at in the grocery store. They’re told that they need to be sexy to be valued and then they’re attacked as sluts. Simply put, women put up with sexual intrusion for most of their lives, in big ways and small. It happens everywhere and most men have no idea how much of an impact it has."  (source: "the most important thing that men who have sex with women need to know")

- Boys are told from a young age that whatever they do will be excused under the “boys will be boys” mantra, and that “boys will be boys” mentality leads to what I call the “boiling frog” problem of women’s sexual boundaries. I call it that because if you put a frog into a pot of boiling water, it will jump right out, but if you put a frog into a pot of room-temperature water and slowly heat it to a boil, the frog will acclimate as it heats and never jump out, eventually boiling to death. Similarly, when we learn as young girls to tolerate “low-level” boundary violations like the ones we often are forced to suffer in silence at school, at home and on the street – bra-snapping, boob-grabbing, ass pinching, catcalling, dick flashing “all in good fun” relentless violations that adults and authorities routinely ignore – it makes it harder for us to notice when even greater boundaries are being violated, eventually leading to the reality that many women who are raped just freeze and fall silent, because that’s what they’ve been taught to do over and over since day one. You tell me what’s more infantilizing: repeatedly letting boys (and grown men) off the hook for their behavior because “boys will be boys” and we can’t ever expect any differently, or creating a consent standard in which all partners take active responsibility for their partner’s safety, and which acknowledges the truly diseased sexual culture we’re soaking in every day.  (source: the yes means yes blog)

more:

rape culture- the blurry line between fun and harm, joking and harassment, consent and rape. 

click the image for the source

1 out of every 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime.
(14.8% completed rape; 2.8% attempted rape)

17.7 million American women have been victims of attempted or completed rape.

9 of every 10 rape victims were female in 2003.

While about 80% of all victims are white, minorities are somewhat more likely to be attacked.

60% of rapes/sexual assaults are not reported to the police, according to a statistical average of the past 5 years.
Those rapists, of course, never spend a day in prison.
Factoring in unreported rapes, only about 6% of rapists ever serve a day in jail.

Consent

speaks of both persons' active agreement to engage in sexual activities, wholeheartedly and freely, without pressure, obligation, or ambivalence; good partnered sex requires good communication, a good idea of what the encounter will involve, and absolute allowance to stop or set new boundaries at any time without a problem. Consensual sex never involves pushing or coercion, or one person doing something they don't very much want to do. Consent isn't “well maybe” “I guess so” or “oh all right”- consent is a clear, enthusiastic "YES!"

one cannot consent when:
- they are under the legal age of consent.  (find out the legal age in your area here.)
- their judgment is impaired due to the use of drugs or alcohol
- they are not of the appropriate mental capacity

Rape occurs when a person is forced into a sexual act against their will, with physical force or some form of strong coercion.  If a person consents to sex under duress, such as threats to harm friends or family, or if the victim has been given drugs or alcohol to produce consent, that is also rape.

Rape has subcategories.

• "Forcible rape" generally implies physical force or full-body violence.
• "Date rape" or "acquaintance rape" applies to a rape committed by someone known to the rape victim. 
• "Spousal rape" refers to a rape that has occurred between married people. 
• "Gang rape" is the term for a rape in which more than one rapist is involved. 
• "Statutory rape" implies a legal adult, or person over the legal age of consent, engaging in sexual activity with a minor, or a person under the legal age of consent.
• "Attempted rape" and "assault with intent to rape" are terms used to describe an instance in which rape did not take place, but was intended or attempted.  Rape may also be classed as sexual assault, abuse, or molestation.

While very few people are confused about what forcible rape is, many people are in denial about other types of rape.  Coercion--pushing and pressuring a partner to have sex until they finally give in--can be rape.  Pursuing sex with someone who is clearly inebriated, under the influence of drugs, or distressed is also rape, if sex does ensue. 

Sexual harassment:  Unwelcome and uninvited sexual advances, requests for sexual favors--even in the form of jokes--or other sexually-loaded verbal or physical conduct are sexual harassment, when accepting or rejecting that behavior or those advances could affect a person's employment, interfere with a person's performance, or create an intimidating, hostile, or offensive enviornment.  While its most often applied in job enviorments, sexual harrassment can occur in schools, community centers, online, and other areas.

Sexual harassment has the power and impact it has for the same reason it's so rarely reported: because in a culture where sex is seen as shameful, it's very easy to shame someone into silence where sex is concerned, and our culture has a tendency to blame the victim of a sexual crime.

lack of a “no” is not a “yes”

understand consent.
take a stand against rape.