Blog post2: Chapter 4 and the class discussion

In class we discussed about many stereotypes, typologies and common places relate to sexual assault. We also talked about different assumptions and how these assumptions being generated. And someone in class said people tend to blame the institution instead of the offender in the case of school rape. But the instructor said the institution does hold some responsibility for the blame because it’s school’s responsibility to set up rules to protect students. I think it’s interesting that in the case of rape, there are so many factors or elements to blame, so that you can’t be sure whether the offender holds the entire responsibility for the case. As we talked about in class, some people blame for the media for distorting the story and causing more traumatic experience for the victim; some blame for school or the sorority for not setting rules against sexual harassment; and some blame for the hospital which hides the truth and severity of rape. I think it’s interesting that people would rather blame anything else rather than the offender. I think it has a lot to do with male privilege and the way culture is constructed. Since people in the society view man as more powerful and holds more privilege, so they tend to grand more privilege to man when rape happens. This is why man are well protected, especially by media, and women suffers. But the society is supposed to work together to solve the case and make the situation better, but they are not self-conscious and cannot realize the pain they added to the victims. So I think the reason rape is so pervasive in American society has a lot to do with self-awareness. Because nobody would stand up and say “rape” is wrong, and what they do is just blaming everything except for those who caused the rape. If anyone is truly to blame, they should also blame themselves for contributing to the bad social influence.

In chapter 4, the author talked about conjecture, degree and possibility, which are important devices to help determine the truth behind the case of rape. In my opinion, the most interesting part from the chapter is different perspective contains entirely different (even opposite) commonplaces. For example, socialism and fascism holds opposite perspectives and commonplaces on political spectrum. If so, when apply this fact in a rape case, I think it would be really messy to evaluate all commonplaces from different people. The chapter shows that rhetorical commonplaces provide evidence (p.101). But what if one person’s perception is preferred; will commonplaces based on that perception be considered more convincing than other evidences?

In class students also talked about commonplaces in rape. Such as the reason so little rape are reported is because women are uneducated in rape culture. I think it’s interesting that neither women nor men consider being raped as a big deal. They maybe think of rape as merely sex. And the reason they don’t think sex is a big deal is because of the way American culture is shaped. When everybody else is doing it, you want to do it too. Another factor is the media. Girls learned that having sex is normal from TV shows because TV programs don’t portray sex as sexual harassment or rape, rather they portray it as romantic, sexy, attractive and exciting. Now you notice that young school girls would invite guys to their dorms. I think it’s interesting that guys also don’t think rape as a big deal, as the instructor said in a survey 30% man would rather force themselves on girls, even when they know they will be reported. I think that maybe guys don’t care about their bodies either because they have nothing to lose; they will never get pregnant. Same reason they careless about a girl’s body; because they don’t think the way about rape as girls does. They have nothing to lose and they assume that girls think the same. And guys’ perceptions about their body also are shaped by media. They maybe view themselves as sexual objects just as male characters portrayed in the movie. Such perceptions can be dangerous sometimes such as in the actual case of rape; and I think because of this reason guys require more restriction and education than girls do.