Blog post 15: Rape Joke and Male Gender Roles

On Tuesday, the class discussion focused on how hyper masculinity is constructed. The students talked about how boys are taught to be man and not cry. The instructor suggests that rape could be one way for men to prove their manhood. The class also talked about how parents and society shaped people’s personality. The students said parents never address the issue of rape to their children; that gives children the freedom to commit sexual misconduct. Or when parents do address the issue of sexual assault, they barely give the good reason to their kids why they shouldn’t commit rape because parents find it hard to talk about rape or sex in front of their children.

In my opinion, the wrong way of educating a child could disturb the child’s growth or distort their personality once they grow up. If parents don’t inform their kids why it’s bad to rape or force a woman into sexual misconduct, children will not be persuaded enough to listen or control their own behavior. In addition, if parents force their boys to not cry, it is also a form of distortion to the kids’ personality. The suppression to boys’ emotion may lead to disobedience and aggression, and this effect could last through their adulthood. A boy who suffered emotional suppression may attain the mind of a sociopath once he grows up. This is because his pressure to attain all the emotion within and not to unleash is great enough to alter his personality. Nowadays, people usually find woman pay more compassion towards things in their lives than men. Women are more emotional and humane maybe because they have more emotional freedom since they are little girls. Similarly, men are more cold and indifferent when facing human cruelty because they are trained to be unemotional since they are young. So if men intended to rape a woman, it is not only due to lack of self-constrain, but also because they are raised to behave manly (to be indifferent and unemotional).

The class also talked about the Kairos when a man offers a woman a drink. Students said it’s hard for woman to refuse a man in this situation because they would have got the drink before even getting a chance to say “No.” I think woman are also responsible for controlling this situation because they are never taught how to refuse a invite, rather they are taught to accept a invite. Students said if a man said he wants to talk to the girl instead of offering a drink, the girl would think that he is crappy because this is not how communication works; if he is interested in her he must have offered a drink. The way that girls expect man to offer a drink to them and then accept the drink is a socially constructed expectation. If girls' way of thinking are not so rooted within the culture, they would not assume the guy is crappy if he is trying to talk to them. Likewise, a guy would think the girl is weird if she doesn’t accept the drink, because again this is how people communicate in the society. So in order to disturb the Kairos of rape, men and women both need to change their communicative behaviors to begin with.

The class also talked about how society often make sex and rape a joke, and how this worsens the issue of sexual assault. One students in class said “the more we make it a joke, the more we think it’s ok.” And I feel like it’s true that people hold more endurance to the issue of rape even if it happens all the time, but they don’t consciously aware that they are making the issue of rape worse by keep joking on it. Especially in the media, people see a lot of example of TV shows joking about sex and rape. For instance, I remember in one episode of How I Met Your Mother, Barney said “all girls are a pinas.” In another episode, he and Marshall actually bet on touching Lily’s boobs. And almost every episode Barney is chasing after some random female targets. These behaviors or comments may seem funny on TV, but they contain sexual oriented offence to women. Yet it’s hard for audience to think about offence or sexual harassment during the moment of the entertainment. It’s important for people to reduce sexually oriented jokes on media and raise awareness of the seriousness of rape in order to alleviate the issue. But to me, this is hard to do because many people love entertainment; they wouldn’t want producers to take out sexually oriented jokes because they are funny.

Blog Post 14: How language shape the rape culture

In class we talked about how language changes our perceptions about rape. Our culture shapes people’s assumption and influence how they perceive the victimization. People’s thinking and use of syllogism tend to make them ignore how women were suffered during sexual assault and focus on victim blames. For instance, syllogisms focus on reasoning, if the reasons fit into what happened, it must be true, like if I say “the victim is to blame because she shouldn’t got herself drink; if she didn’t want it to happen, she should avoid drinking.” The use of syllogism in this line makes the argument seem truthful, yet this argument merely reflects one aspect of the incident. The argument “victim is to blame because she is drunk” is just one assumption of what really happened. It largely ignores the aspects of perpetrator’s indiscretion. Syllogism and American language is culturally constructed and involves cultural notion of gender. When people think about who shouldn’t drink in the situation of rape, they tend to say women instead of men because men are culturally portrayed as drinkers, this is why the female victims are often blamed for drinking and the male perpetrators are not. One student in class mentioned that when a guy sexually assault a woman on the bus, police tend to use excuses for the guy such as “he is just drink, or he doesn’t know what he is doing, nothing really happened.” American language can express cultural ideas that convince people what is true and what is not. But drinking cannot be excuses for the guy’s behavior and the consequences he has caused.

In class, someone said culture has constrained people’s identity and force them into something they are not. I think this idea is interesting because it shows how people are turned into cultural beings. If American culture is only defined by one set of rules, everyone has to fit into those rules and this limits diversity and change. Like in class someone gave an example of class division by culture; white working man always gets better job than woman and black people. This example can show that minorities like woman and colored groups cannot fit into culturally defined standards for better jobs because they are not man because they are not viewed as eligible as man to be in better positions. If the rape culture always ignores the feminist minority, it’s hard for people to see how women were suffered under sexual assault.

I think it’s also interesting that the instructor said American culture never talk about rape. This is because people have to talk about sex in order to talk about rape, yet no man in the society would ask if they could have sex with a female partner. American culture encourages people to be indirect when it comes to sex. This is why men do not ask if they can have sex with a woman, rather they assume they can have sex with a woman by looking at her dress and makeups, and how luring she is. Not all culture encourages man to assume if they could have sex with a woman. Likewise, not all culture teaches woman to lure a man into bed by dressing in an open way. Media plays a big role in shaping a country’s culture. In American TV shows, viewers can see women dress in miniskirt, and playing with their hair to get a man’s attention. In addition, American TV shows also shows naked man and woman having sex. In Chinese TV show however, very few scenes with actors or actress taking off their cloth. Chinese TV shows and Japanese TV shows also shows women dress in a way less exposed or attractive than women from American TV show. If man and woman learn about their culture from social media, it’s not hard to explain why Chinese men are less sexually activate towards their female partner than American men, because Chinese social media rarely portray man as naked or as sexually activate. Chinese TV shows also rarely contain roles like playboys throughout the past. Thus, in order to change the Kairos of rape, maybe American TV should eliminate some extremely sex oriented or rape oriented depictions.

Paper 2: Case study on assault against black woman: Kairos, racism, and power dynamic

Engl 460

Anjie Zhao

Paper2 draft

3-21-2015

A case about police abuse, racism and abuse to authority

Daniel Ken Holtzclaw, a police officer from Oklahoma City, was charged for sexually assaulting seven different African American women (Flatow, 2014). According to the judge, Holtzclaw researched and stalked his victims before rape (Flatow, 2014). His abuse of power included threatening to arrest his victims for sexual batter and obscene exposure (CROCKETT JR, 2014). Holtzclaw’s sister created a Facebook site to sell T-shirts with words like "Free the Claw" and "#JusticeForDanielHoltzclaw." She wanted to raise money and help her brother get away with legal charge; so far this page has received 500 likes. Holtzclaw’s sister also created a GoFundMe site and planned to raise 100,000 dollars to help her brother. She has already raised 7,390 dollars. Holtzclaw’s family also joined the campaign against Holtzclaw’s charge. This case is shaped due to two Kairos. The Kairos for black woman is the history of racism and slavery. The Kairos for the white police is police authority and power dynamic. These two Kairos intertwine together and constructs the complexity of this case.

This case is a good example for racism against black woman. Police’s sexual assault on black women requires historical context of slavery (Yolande, 2014). Yolande said “While legal slavery has ended, the rape and sexual torture of Black women and the justification for this torture still continue” (Yolande, 2014). Slavery left American people the memory of colonist domination on black woman. It is possible for modern generation to absorb or imitate based on the way black women were mistreated and enslaved. Slave owners and colonists mistreated their black slaves by holding historical stereotypes and disrespectful morality against black women (Yolande, 2014). American slavery proposed black woman to be objects or animals that lacks ability to make decisions of their own (Yolande, 2014). Back in the days of slavery, assaulting black woman was not considered rape because black woman were not viewed as legal individual (Yolande, 2014). In Holtzclaw’s case, the perpetrator may select his targets based on these historical depictions of slavery. Maybe in Holtzclaw’s subconscious he knows black women has been tormented by white man or always has been. The thinking of black women are slaves motivates him to find black woman and assault them.

What if Holtzclaw’s sexual abuse is also based on a master and slave relationship? According to Angela Davis’s article, Davis said slavery relied on sexual abuse, which he defines not as an expression of man’s sexual urge, but an urge to control; white slave owner believes that they have the right to own black female slaves as their whole property (Davis). It’s possible Holtzclaw treated his targets the way white masters treated their black slaves, seeing the fact all his targets are black women; instead of picking white woman as targets, who he perceive to have more power (because historically white woman has never been slaves), he chose to rape the easier target, black woman. The way that he researched on these woman, their backgrounds, and followed them before sexually assaulting them shows that he is someway a control freak; he likes to know these woman so he could have better control of them before rape, this way he will make sure these woman can’t escape. These behaviors were similar to the conducts of a slave master because slave master never let his slaves make any decisions. Black woman’s social image and vulnerability causes more risk of them being persecuted, and gives Holtzclaw the chance to take advantage of this weakness. The more Holtzclaw threatens these women, the more he retains his hyper-masculine power, the more dominant he is.

The fact that public is more favorable to Holtzclaw reveals racial stereotypes and the white privilege. The GoFundMe page shows, “with the support of family, friends and the community, Daniel Holtzclaw will be vindicated and justice will prevail” (CROCKETT JR, 2014). Through comparison with past cases, it seems white community would rather trust the myth of bad black woman and black men are rapist while considering the rape of black woman (Davis). In a murder charge in 1975, a young black woman was accused of killing a white guard in North Carolina jail after he threatened and raped her (Davis). She claimed that she killed him in self-defense; her argument was widely supported by the local black community, but no white community was mentioned (Davis). This case is similar to Holtzclaw’s case because it also shows how white community either doesn’t believe in the female defendant’s claim or doesn’t want to support her argument. Another case from 1970s also can show the same racist opinion; a black man called Delbert Tibbs was false charged of raping a white woman, yet few white woman and anti-rape groups were willing to help him (Davis). Just like Holtzclaw’s case, this case can show that white community is more likely to trust the white defendant instead of black one, and thus they give less support or protection to black defendant.

This comparison shows these cases all faced racial discrimination against black people. These racist stereotypes construct community culture and shapes white people’s perception and trust level about black people. White observers in these cases always stand up for white defendant because they are never trust enough to support black defendants simply because they believe black are bad. In the case of Holtzclaw, the perpetrator is a white man, thus has the privilege to gain trust from white community; this provides an advantage for him to get away with conviction and charge. As previously said, his family, friends and community can raise money to bail him out because they believe that it’s false charge and he doesn’t deserve to be in jail (CROCKETT JR, 2014). This provides a relative disadvantage for the black victims; because they are black woman, they hold less society support since the society would rather believe that black women are bad.

It is also possible that Holtzclaw committed sexual assault because he thinks he can since he is a white police, he has the power to force woman into unwilling sexual activity. He threatened to arrest the victims unless they expose themselves to him (CROCKETT JR, 2014). This action is provided by power and authority, if Holtzclaw is not a police officer, he does not hold the power to arrest anyone, he may not be bold enough to threaten his victims. According to Timothy Maher, police authority and frequent contact with public provides opportunity for police sexual misconduct (Maher, 2003). As a police member, Holtzclaw not only has the authority to arrest people but also has the opportunity to investigate on people without consent. Isolated contact with public provides him the chance to look for his targets. He could take advantage of any black woman he spotted while walking around and claiming that he is on duty. Walker and IrIbeck’s study (2002) shows that police officer tends to stop the car for traffic violation when the drivers are female, but this is just an excuse to sexually harass the driver (Maher, 2003). This past study proves that police does take advantage of their authority in order to get close to woman. According to the news report, Holtzclaw does assaults his target while on patrol (CROCKETT JR, 2014). Accusers said Holtzclaw frequently stopped black woman between ages of 34 to 58 (CROCKETT JR, 2014). And he profiled black woman as drug users, prostitutes and sex workers, but none of these women fits into the typical age for prostitution or drug use (Yolande, 2014). Holtzclaw has used “on duty,” and “profiling” as excuse for sexual assault. He could easily threaten a black woman without being overheard, because the victim may feel scared or act less expressive while being stopped and questioned by a police officer. The victims may also question their own problem before getting suspicious about the officer because his police authority has made him indisputable.

Police members also may cover up their colleague’s misconducts in order to protect department reputation. The study conducted by Barker (1978) examined police members’ perception on their colleague’s sexual misconduct in a small city department (Maher, 2003). This study shows both civilian police and police officers in the department believe that many of their colleagues had sex while on duty (Maher, 2003). If more than one police from the same department have committed sexual misconduct, they are more likely to cover up for each other. Two studies investigating police sexual violence via court and media (Kraska and Kappeler, 1995, and McGurrin and Kappeler, 2002) found out they lack the state officials’ response (Maher, 2003). This finding suggests that police sexual violence was encouraged by institution and police secrecy (Maher, 2003). According to Reuss-Ianni (1983), the code of police secrecy does not allow police officers to talk about the detail of other police’s behavior during shift (Maher, 2003). Police holds authority and power, so they get certain bypass from the government or the police department. If this is true, in Holtzclaw’s case the perpetrator could take advantage of government support in order to get away with legal charge. As long as police department denies that he did it, it’s hard for people to find evidence against him. This gives him the power to lay a hand on black victims.

The study by Kappeler (1998) shows that most police department has rules and policy that control police’s behavior, but there are still few exceptions. Some areas’ police departments do not have formal policy regarding police sexual abuse or police sexual misconduct (Maher, 2003). This study shows that it is possible that police departments have no strict regulation on police misconduct. This study also suggests that lack of regulation or policy has result in police sexual misconduct. In Holtzclaw’s case, Holtzclaw may have committed sexual assault because he knew there are no specific regulations or punishment for sexual assault in his department. He wouldn’t fear his sexual misconduct is found out by someone in the department because there are no laws that regulate his behavior. The lack of regulation on police sexual misconduct may spoil Holtzclaw and make him think that it’s ok to commit sexual misconduct, because in this case he is more likely to believe that he won’t get caught. This may lead to more victimization or him committing more sexual misconduct; this assumption explains why his behavior was not reported until the 7^th victim.

Due to police authority or police suppression, it is less likely for victims to report comparing to cases not involving police sexual abuse. According to multiple research conducted by Kappeler (2002 and 1995), victims of police sexual assault fear to be retaliated, fear not being believed or blamed, thus they choose not to report (Maher, 2003). It is natural for victims to think that they won’t get believed because they are reporting to police department when they were assaulted by someone within the department. If I tie this study into Holtzclaw’s case, the news shows that several victims dare to come forward only after the 7^th victim reported sexual assault. Evidently, the previous victims are afraid of consequences while accusing a police officer, that’s why they don’t come forward.

In conclusion, Holtzclaw’s case is mainly contributed by two factors: historical concepts of slavery and police authority. These two factors work together to pressure the black female victims. According to Yolande, black woman is more likely to be victimized than white woman even though the white on black cases occurs much less than black on white (Yolande, 2014). People shouldn’t ignore sexual assault against black woman just because these cases are largely obscure; it is very likely more black victimization go underreported than white victimization. In order to change the Kairos that creates black victimization, state officials should set up solid standards for governing police behavior, and more victims should come forward in order to raise awareness of sexual assault against black woman.

Source

Yolande M. S., & Tomlinson, Ph.D. (2014). INVISIBLE BETRAYAL: POLICE VIOLENCE AND THE RAPES OF BLACK WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES. Women’s All Points Bulletin. Retrieved from http://www.ushrnetwork.org/sites/ushrnetwork.org/files/36-police-wapb.pdf

Davis, A. Rape, Racism and the Myth of the Black Rapist. Rapereliefshelter. Retrieved from http://www.rapereliefshelter.bc.ca/sites/default/files/imce/Rape,%20Racism%20%26%20Myth%20of%20Black%20Rapist_A%20Davis.pdf

Flatow, N. (2014). Cop Charged With Sexually Assaulting 7 Black Women Released From Jail. thinkprogress.org. Retrieved from http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/09/06/3564082/cop-who-allegedly-assaulted-7-black-women-released-from-jail/

Hutchinson, E. O. (2014). Where's the outrage over Oklahoma cop's assault on Black women? Chicago Defender. Copyright Real Times, Inc. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/ethnicnewswatch/docview/1566202343/22D287DBF8404049PQ/33?accountid=14902

CROCKETT JR. S. A. (2014). Officer Charged With Raping 8 Black Women Finds Support Online. Theroot. Retrieved from http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/09/officer_charged_with_raping_8_black_women_finds_support_online.html

Maher, T. M. (2003). POLICE SEXUAL MISCONDUCT: OFFICERS' PERCEPTIONS OF ITS EXTENT AND CAUSALITY. Criminal Justice Review (Georgia State University), 28(2), p.355-381. Retrieved from http://cjr.sagepub.com/content/28/2/355.full.pdf+html

Blog Post 13: Chapter 8, pathos, instrinsic and extrinsic proofs and community authority

On Tuesday students in class talked about how pathos shapes their perception towards rape culture. The class talked about how can people understand victim’s feeling and pay sympathy about it. Personally, I feel like it’s hard for people to know what victim is experiencing and feeling sympathetic about it if the incident did not happen around them. For example, if someone’s grandfather died in the neighborhood, the community at least would pay condolence to his family. But if the same incident happened on the other side of the world, it’s hard for anyone to be aware of the incident, not to say feeling anything about it. It’s not happening around me why would I care? Same idea, if rape happened in Arabia instead of American, people would question whether or not they should intervene and being concerned about it. It’s not inside of our country, so why should I care? I feel like bystanders tend to expect other bystanders to intervene instead of themselves. This indifference tend to play out between strangers too; I don’t know her why should I help her; or I feel sorry for this victim but we don’t know each other, should I intervene on an emotional level when it’s really not my business? People tend to think it’s weird to console a total stranger when consolation is supposed to be done by intimate partner such as family and friends. In my opinion, people shouldn’t expect everyone to be considerate because there is a sense of selfishness rooted in their culture. Americans like to be independent and they do not expect themselves to take care of others because everyone is supposed to be taking care of themselves. Pathos and sympathy maybe a culturally constructed factor; when the society expect people to self-govern, people learn to respect each other’s independence, thus are less likely to mind each other’s business. In order to change people’s indifference towards other’s victimization, the society should begin to expect more dependence instead of autonomy.

In addition the class also discussed about extrinsic proofs and internal proofs and how they affect people’s reaction regarding rape culture. One student in class said being in class is more of an extrinsic motivation because extrinsic tends to focus on the outside or appearance and does not solve the core issue, class only encourage us to talk about the issue of rape, but doesn’t really teach us how to solve the problem. In contrast, social works or social engagements are instrinsic proofs that make real progress on helping the victims. Personally I think that some extrinsic proofs do make real progress on solving the problems, such as laws; laws provide standard judgments and strategies for dealing with issues like sexual assault. If there are no laws, jury and judge couldn’t possibly analyze cases of rape.

Another student said extrinsic proofs can change when the location changes; she gave the example that the people’s perception towards rape in French maybe different from perceptions in Fenland. This is because some country is more open with woman’s sexuality than other countries. Egyptian countries for example are less open with woman dressing less. I think if the extrinsic proofs are unstable or sometimes unreliable, as the class said it changes when the environment changes, it is possible for woman to change the extrinsic proof in favor of their argument. Like for example, woman could choose to live in a country that is strict on rape and sexual harassment if they find American justice system unreliable.

Chapter 8 indicates that community authorities are those whose words earned respect by the community. The chapter also said that public figures are more reliable to society because they are well respected by public. If it’s possible for proximate figures to talk about the importance of sexual assault, it would raise more awareness than it should be. However, the instructor said in class that very few public figures or community figures have addressed the issue of rape in public. In order to alleviate the issue of sexual assault, government should encourage community figures or public figures to do more social work and make known of the severity of the victimization of rape. 

Blog Post 12: Feminist Response Group and Anti-Rape Wear

In today’s discussion the class talked about feminist response. The class talked about the article “The Danger of Anti-Rape Wear.” I think it’s interesting that this article address the issue of gender inequality. It says man always tells woman what to do but they never take action themselves. I think it’s interesting that the author questioned why can’t man stay home and let the woman go out at late night? Because after all it’s the man who are attacking the woman. This is a very interesting argument and I can see how strong minded this female author is. But I don’t disagree with the idea that woman should stay home at night, because realistically men are more powerful than woman, no matter how idealistic the thought of overthrowing male dominated society is, people need to face the fact man are indeed the dominator of this society, and this domination is culturally shaped by society. When majority of people believes in man are stronger, it’s hard for the feminists and the minority group to gain power. People think woman may encounter danger at late night with good reason. Practically women are observed as both physically and emotionally vulnerable. And this character is hardly changed because it is passed on by genes or biological evolution. Woman are born to be shorter and thinner than man; and they are born to have more emotional swings. Physical appearance does affect the way society perceives man and woman. This is why men are expected by society to act stronger but woman are allowed to be weak. If woman really want to be stronger, they should not only change their attitude or thinking but also their actions. Women could learn to empower themselves by the way they talk; when a man is attacking a woman by verbal assault, a woman knows how to retreat or defeat by using words. A woman could also just walk away from a man if the guy is unwilling to cooperate. A woman could do anything to avoid man laying hand on her, like asking bystander’s help. A woman could call her friends or family to seek for help too.

I think in the issue of sexual assault, it’s reasonable for woman to blame man for what happened, but the incident of rape is certainly not caused by man only, it involves both a man and a woman. So it’s hard to tell who holds the major responsibility because there is no evidence to prove who or what triggered the incident. It could be triggered by the guy’s behavior, or it could be triggered by the victim’s ambiguous response, we don’t know. So if there is someone to blame or take action, it should be both the male perpetrator and the woman who is perpetrated. The law should identify the true nature of man and woman; it shouldn’t just blame woman just because woman doesn’t talk as much as man does. The gender inequality not only expressed from the issue of rape but also from the legal and justice system. In my opinion, in romantic relationship, man are always the one who keeps complaining but it doesn’t mean they are not responsible for the fight; their female partner tend to listen to their complaints because they are way more mature than their male partners. Man are likely to be the kid who needs to be coddled; woman always take care of their male partner’s emotional stress, that’s why they keep their mouth shut and listened to them patiently. In the incident of sexual assault, it’s very likely a man started the whole incident and blame it on woman, but this doesn’t mean woman are the ones that deserve to be blamed or hold responsibility for the incident. The justice system should clarify or define the difference between man and woman when both confronting conflicts before giving righteous judgment about who should be blamed. 

Blog Post 11: Cultural Study about Fifty Shades of Gray

In today’s lecture we discussed about cultural factors that influence the matter of sexual assault. We talked about how the movie Fifty Shades of Gray contributes to the Kairos that creates the rape culture in the US. One thing interests me is when the professor said “Christian Gray can do it because he has money, otherwise it would be another episode of Criminal Mind.” I think it’s interesting how people would perceive Christian Gray’s character as an entirely different character with or without money. Audience might still perceive Christian as sexually attractive and powerful even if he commits abusive action like tie a girl up or beat her with a whip. Evidently, American culture perceives richness as a kind of bypass for criminality; American TV viewers would believe it is normal for a rich person to get away with crimes just because he is rich and powerful. As a Chinese girl, I can tell from the world view, not every culture agrees with this kind of notion that richness can bypass through everything. And certainly not every individual believes man with money or good appearance can get away with sexual assault. I realize that American culture always defines things in an idealistic or stereotypically perfect way, just like if this guy is rich then he can’t be a rapist. Many undeveloped cultures don’t have idealism as part of their culture, thus when they watch movies like Fifty Shades Of Gray, they hardly buy the sexual violence is romantic stuff.

In class the instructor asked us how does the movie manage to appeal? One of the student in class point out, from a parent’s point of view rape depicted on media is bad because parents don’t want their daughters getting raped, but still they don’t care if their kids watch media portrayed sexual assault. So to some degree, parents also hold some endurance for media portrayed sexual assault otherwise they won’t watch it or allow their children to watch it. Either they don’t realize media’s effect on them or they don’t care. As the instructor said, rape is something deeply rooted in their culture it becomes a norm. So if heavy TV viewers continually expose themselves to TV portrayed sexual assault, objectified woman, objectified man, would they start imitating these behaviors and believe that TV portrayed characters are real? According to some scholarly articles I read, this situation is highly unlikely for adults because adults know that media portrayed information is unreal, but children do imitate violent behaviors on TV. One effect brought by watching TV and movies is people become more tolerable with media portrayed violence or violent characters, they become to believe that TV portrayed violence is happening in the real world, thus attain more fear about the real world.

Personally, I think the movie appeal its audience by depiction of sexual pleasure. It is because the woman is depicted being sexually pleased and happy when she was with Christian (the dominant abuser), audience think their relationship is unique, interesting, romantic in a sexual way and even more acceptable. Even when violent depiction is brought into their sexual activity, the women still looks enjoyable, this consensual attitude towards sexual violence inspires female audiences and make them think that they can do this kind of action with their boyfriend, their husband or even male strangers. According to the documentary about the book Fifty Shades of Gray, the book publication is followed by thousands of ropes being sold. Couples start to role play the abnormal sexual activities depicted in the book and they said it was fun and exciting. What if these couples don’t realize their role play is actually modeling sexual violence and rape? Their role play is consensual because the female partners enjoyed playing the drama queen and beating their husband or getting beaten. I guess rape does shape our culture and construct our perception that defines who we are. If woman loves to play victims and masochist just like they did in the role play, I feel like the culture is certainly intoxicated by media’s way of shaping individual’s behavior and their way of treating their romantic partners.