Category: Rape

How Rape Culture Contributes To The Prevalence Of Rape

Rape culture is the normalization of violent sexual acts and abuse. Without even realizing it, this society has turned into ones of prey and predator. Wild animals on the loose looking for release within its prey. All around people find themselves to be shocked and disgusted by the existence of rape, when they themselves, unknowingly, foster acts of rape. Rape culture has somehow slipped its way into our ways of existing, making it harder and harder to escape these tormenting acts. Starting from the gender roles developed in the past, history of rape, victim blaming and much more. Without realizing how rape culture is woven into our society we can never begin to extinguish the prevalence of these acts.

Though society’s current state is the main issue at hand, rape culture is dated back centuries and centuries in the past. Beginning in 1642, rape first became acknowledged world-wide as an issue that should be mentioned in laws. Backed up English common law, the American colonies passed a statue deeming a male’s carnal copulation with any person under specific restricts, illegal (James 234). This would seem like a step in the right direction when it came to safety and protection of all victims, but it wasn’t. The “specific restricts” that would deem this act illegal are: if the woman is under 10 years old, if the victim is a female, if there was physical violence used during the act against the will of the woman, and more (James 234). The issue with these restrictions is that it invalidates the rape of males, same sex rape and any other rape not included in the set. It makes it extremely difficult for a case to be considered an actual rape. Moving forward into the 1900s, rape laws were beginning to modify themselves. Though the laws were being modified to support victims better, the citizens and people involved in these acts weren’t. Rapes committed by people close to the victim, such as date partners and family members, were entirely disregarded by the public and the government. Everyone was soon turning a blind eye to an act that could never be forgotten.

Rape culture has several faces, some too ugly to forgive. One of the few is victim blaming emphasized amongst people in the eyes of the public. A rape case involving famous basketball player, Kobe Bryant, was recently released to the public. The facts of the case are the basketball player brought an underage girl to a hotel he was staying at. When the girl was ready to leave the hotel, Bryant blocked her path forced himself on her while she continuously pleaded in objection (Rape Culture R9). When news of this was released, instead of going after Bryant, the public blamed the girl for going to his hotel, claiming she should have expected it to happen. When the trial was over the victim was left with a lifetime trauma while her attacker received sympathy from the press and no consequence to his career. This is what rape culture truly looks like. The victim getting the short end of the stick. This case doesn’t go unnoticed. With Bryant being such a big figure, millions of people have heard the case and realized what happens in similar situations. Because Bryant was able to get away with such a large offense, people of the same character will believe they can get away with it as well, thus turning into more rape cases. This issue will continue to present itself if rape culture is not put to a stop.

Gender roles and power imbalances amongst the sexes are a great contribution to rape culture and the prevalence of rape itself. From very early in history, men and women were taught to accept completely different roles. While women took on the quiet and passive roles, men took the aggressive and violent roles. Women were conditioned to take up less space in a setting where a man was present, while men boisterously made their presence clear. Society constantly insisted that this is right way to live. So in a relationship between a man and woman where the woman assumes the subordinate role, rape only seems a like logical extension of the power imbalance and usual interactions between them (Power Imbalances). Because of these gender roles, in many sexual assault situations, women feel as if they can’t speak out against what is happening to them. That it’s considered “unladylike” or “inappropriate” to do so. Men’s aggressive and dominating traits lead them to most likely being the perpetrator in a case with a vulnerable victim. It’s in their nature to have that controlling trait to them. Because of the roles they were conditioned to accept as young kids. Adults are unknowingly adding to rape culture by teaching these roles to their children. In order to begin turning around the darkness that comes with rape, people must begin to change their opinions and views on gender roles. In the people’s plaza on November 30th 2019, a peaceful protest took place in honor a person who was raped and killed on the outskirts of India (Hanging rapists not enough). To ensure that rape doesn’t continue, it’s necessary to extinguish rape culture which is fueled by society’s view on gender roles.

When speaking on rape and rape culture, feminists tend to be on top of the matter. Feminism is known as advocacy for women’s rights. While rape isn’t only a woman centered crime, women tend to be the majority of the victims. Many in advocacy for feminism are the ones trying to dismantle the existence of rape culture. In this process there are many that are still skeptical about the reality of rape culture. Many of the common views of these critics are that it’s feminist hysteria, and that only women acknowledge its existence (STIEBERT 63). That feminists created rape culture in their heads to create a climate of fear. While this could be possible in other circumstances, the widespread acceptance of rape culture makes that statement invalid. Throughout the world rape culture has shown its face in the thousands of rape cases that ended with the perpetrator being free, blaming the victim, insensitive rape jokes passed along school hallways and much more. Due to critics refusing to acknowledge its existence, they’ve become the perfect example of why it’s still prominent in today’s society.

In concluding rape culture has been around for centuries. That being said it will be very difficult to erase its existence completely. Dismantling gender roles and letting people act as equals instead of one being higher than the other is a good start. Getting rid of rape culture is extremely necessary when trying to decrease the amount of sexual assault acts. These acts cause the victims to lose all peace within themselves, their physical and mental health depletes, and they could even lose the support of their families. The effort to get rid of this toxic culture is so future generations can grow up in a society where vicious acts like this aren’t being normalized. A world where girls and boys can walk the earth safely without worrying about being violated.

The Correlation Of Pornography And Rape Culture

As society keeps changing drastically, so does the evolution of pornography and rape culture. Pornography itself has had many changes throughout time which has had lead to increase one of the most common crisis interventions that a victim can go through rape culture and psychological addiction on the pornography consumers. Pornography in many ways contributes to the rape culture and the impacts rapists as well as victims.

Porn is erotic behavior that many times are portrayed in pictures or writing purposely to cause sexual excitement”. The term ‘‘pornography’’ refers to sexually explicit materials intended to create sexual arousal in the consumer. Pornography is an oppressive system in which it manifests of workers who act according to a specific category so that the consumer can satisfy their desires as they like. Pornography varies in forms and categories; from photos, erotic literature and comics, to the more commonly viewed video format all across sites and even on social media. Pornography in terms of erotic art has been around for centuries, but the first pornographic motion picture was created in 1895 featuring a striptease that contained no actual nudity, yet it still became controversial at the time.

Pornography consist of three types of graphics such as non-violent pornography, violent pornography, and rape-oriented pornography. The non-violent pornography is an “explicit materials without any overt coercive content, but it may sometimes imply acts of submission and/or coercion by the positioning of the models, use of props or display of unequal power relationships.” Violent pornography is sexually explicit materials in which nonconsensual, coercive, and/or violent sexual relations are explicitly portrayed. Lastly, rape-oriented pornography is the depiction of sexual assault or forced sexual intercourse.

Porn was always a booming industry that supported production companies and actors equally. Yet pornography has had drastically changed, systematically as well as economically. Before people would have to buy a DVD or a magazine to a seller in the streets to be able to watch pornography at home. Now with the evolution of technology and the ongoing progress of new features on devices, it has become easier to get access to pornography for free. Due to these advances, actors are facing an economic decrease, since they do not get paid by the number of sells like they use to, because there is free porn available on supported streaming sites such as PornHub, RedTube, Youporn (etc). Instead, their sources of income rely more on the number of views that the video and categories get by making the company becoming richer rather than the actors. There are many categories in pornography; “brutal” is one of them which is now becoming increasingly popular, so does the number of views and demand. Porn is viewed roughly 64 million times a day, and with increasing interest in violence related categories of porn. These forms of pornography contribute to Rape Oriented Porn.

Rape-oriented pornography videos are shown in the perspective in which only the women are shown and the camera is positioned to show the man’s perspective in the act of sex. This category portrays male perpetrators who are largely invisible to the viewer, as the aggressor is rarely focused, noticed, or highlighted in any identifiable manner. These categories perhaps are the meant to make the consumer is essentially viewing the videos “through the eyes of a rapist”. Unfortunately, These types of videos portray the act of sexual assault due to the levels of physical and verbal aggression and the access that allows the consumer to view it by the position of the cameras and the actors. In other words, anyone viewing the material, regardless of social status, physical presence, or demeanor, could see himself or herself as the perpetrator of sexual assault.

Moreover, pornography tent to not show what happens behind the scenes to the audiences therefore not many people are aware that actresses are typically recorded giving their consent to all acts that occur, and they are given safety words/breaks when needed. However, this footage is only ever shown in original content in the films distributed directly from their production companies. In other words, any third party stream sites or people downloading the videos typically edit and remove certain content like interviews and additional dialogues re-upload the edited version back onto the sites for views to satisfy the consumer. This leads the videos, in fact, an entirely fictional yet original and edited versions, to portray the acts of violence against the actress for sexual pleasure, alluding to a violation and lack of consent. These acts of violence include slapping, hitting, spitting, beating, forced penetration and verbal insults and abuse. Being that pornography mainly objectifies women, often demonstrating men to be in control, it is interpreted as if women deserve the abuse as well as the necessity for her to be dominated. This objectification towards women is not the biggest concern the industry is causing as it only satisfies men’s fantasies and perhaps illustrates the act of masculinity in the most bias ways.

The term sexual assault refers to sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the victim. For example, a sexual assault can occur in a form of sexual harassment when a person is touching another in an uncomfortable to almost an inappropriate way. Another example would be forcing a victim to perform sexual acts, such as oral sex or penetrating the perpetrator’s body. Rape culture is a concept that links sexual assaults to a culture where prevalent attitudes and practices normalize, excuse, tolerate, and even condone rape. Rape culture is perpetuated through the use of misogynistic language, the objectification of women’s bodies, and the glamorization of sexual violence, thereby creating a society that disregards women’s rights and safety.

Rape, in fact, has many myths defined as attitudes, typically used to justify an offender’s actions and male sexual aggression against women. These myths are beliefs that are meant to predict the victims’ behavior as to either blame them or to confirm that the victim experienced a sexual assault. An article named Myths and Facts by unknown authors (2016) has many examples of the common myths that people believe in. For example: “People that have been sexually assaulted will be hysterical and crying.”, is one of the people believes in to confirm that if the victim is acting this way then is true that they experienced a sexual assault? However, as the authors (2016) explained that this myth does not count that different people react differently to certain situations and that this is one of them. People also have many other beliefs although are not necessary myths, in fact, is victim blaming. Victim blaming is the devaluation of an act to hold the victim responsible for the crime(s) that have been committed against them. One of the most common victims blaming phrases that people use is, “Maybe if you would have not drunk you would have not been raped” or “Maybe you should have not been outside so late.”

These myths and victim blaming are part of gender microaggression where people reflects choices and actions (or inactions) taken in our daily lives, which promote and reinforce harm, subordination, exploitation, and disrespect of women. Microaggression many times manifests on teaching people how to behave according to their sex. For example, people teach boys to be a man to according to society is to be acquisitive, to be competitive, to be aggressive. Society makes the image of masculinity cruel, so people discipline boys to ignore the feelings of others, and to be more violent. Men who are prone to socialize as a traditional masculine are more likely to view women as subordinates on a good day, and as objects to satisfy their most violent sexual desires on a bad day. In other words, masculinity has a lot to do with sexual assault since society feeds a lot into proving that

Pornography impacts the consumer as it creates a variety of psychological fantasies that those acts are the correct way to act during intercourse. Besides pornography being a material to arouse sexual excitement, it has a lot of violent contexts that it indirectly stimulates people to believe that these things do happens in the real world. Pornography is a material that can easily make consumers addicted to it and for the worst part act accordingly. For many reasons many categories and acts of pornography consequently contributes in many ways to the rape culture. As society’s gender microaggressions contribute to victim blaming, the rape culture is far from progressing. People who watch pornography often are more likely to believe that pornography does not have negative consequences on society, therefore these people often may believe that it is an okay and normal activity. Indeed, these activities lead men to objectify women and in many cases in which a man needs to prove his masculinity, might sexually assault women for personal desires.

The Faulty Logic Of Rape Culture

A student employee attending Occidental College, ‘drove an alleged rape victim who was bleeding vaginally to a hospital’s sexual assault reporting center’ (Testa). While the employee was initially commended by her peers and superiors, several days later, ‘she was told by two deans that they saw her actions ‘as an attack’ on her department…’ (Testa). This represents an aspect of rape culture. It is a societal issue in which victims are blamed for the crimes committed against them, and the lives of those who dare to defend rape victims are threatened.

American society is guilty of considering rapists’ reputations to be of higher importance than the sexual safety, and overall equality, of people of all races, ages, genders, and sexual orientations. As stated by Zerlina Maxwell, ‘Simply put, feminists want equality for everyone and that begins with physical safety’ (Maxwell, ‘Rape Culture’). The importance of consent and the faulty logic that enables rape culture should be properly taught in schools in order to inform society and protect victims of rape, prevent the destruction of victims’ lives, and improve the condition of society.

The importance of consent and the faulty logic that enables rape culture should be properly taught in schools in order to inform society and protect victims of rape, prevent the destruction of victims’ lives, and improve the condition of society. Due to religious peculiarities and the allegedly taboo nature of sexual topics, students and children do not understand the influence rape culture has on their thoughts, ideas, and lifestyles. With rape culture in effect, society instructs victims on how they could have prevented the rape, rather than properly punishing the rapist.

Teaching women how to prevent themselves from being raped creates a false sense of security and implies that rape survivors could have done more to protect themselves. Zerlina Maxwell, a political analyst, speaker, and contributing writer of many online magazines specializing in social issues, states, ‘We need anti-rape campaigns that target young men and boys.

Campaigns that teach them from a young age how to respect women, and ultimately themselves, and to never be rapists’ (Maxwell, ‘Stop Telling Women’). Believing that a woman’s clothing, attitude, or drunkenness is the reason for her rape is believing that men who would consider rape are mindless, animalistic beings who are unable to control themselves in the presence of a woman.

Instructing women on how to avoid rape provides rapists with an excuse for their crime, especially if the victim did not abide by the vague guidelines imposed for avoiding rape. It is also important to consider that many women are sexually abused by their intimate partners, as is illustrated by The New York Times (Rabin). With a provided excuse, rapists have free rein to take advantage of other human beings. In a society where some women are told that being raped was just ‘bad sex,’ rape becomes a normalcy and the sexual aspect of the crime is emphasized, rather than the consequences faced by the victim due to someone else’s lack of self-control and lust for dominance.

The population focusses solely on the sexual aspect of rape, rather than evaluating the motivating elements of power and control. If society were to consider the equally astonishing number of men and children who are sexually assaulted, the motive of a rapist would become much clearer. Rapists seek to dehumanize and degrade their victims through fear and superiority. Melissa Hall and Joshua Hall include a substantial definition in their scholarly article on the counseling implications on the long-term effects of childhood sexual abuse stating, ”…sexual abuse occurs whenever one person dominates and exploits another by means of sexual activity or suggestion” (Hall). Unfortunately, the rapists’ temporary lust for exploitation and dominance often causes permanent disorders for the victim.

The consequences for rape survivors are life-long, while the consequences for rapists are limited. According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), ‘Only three out of every 100 rapists will ever spend a single day in prison’ (’97 of Every 100′). By allowing rape culture to flourish in a society, rapists are allowed to continue violating the rights of other humans. When a woman is questioned about her clothing, or the amount of alcohol she consumed, or the time at which she was out, the fault is placed upon the victim. Simultaneously, the rapist rarely undergoes any form of punishment and presents a means by which other rapists can commit this crime. If one in every five women report being sexually assaulted, then a staggering number of rapists are living their lives freely with no consequences for their actions. RAINN also expresses, ‘Because rapists tend to be serial criminals, this leaves communities across the nation at risk of predators.

Often threatened to stay quiet, rape survivors do not seek appropriate treatment following their assault, and resort to internalizing their emotions. This causes many life-long issues following the traumatizing events experienced by these victims. As noted in Melissa and Joshua Hall’s scholarly article, ‘Some therapists believe that sexual abuse can cause enough trauma that the victim forgets or represses the experience… Others believe that recovered memories are false or that the client is led to create them’ (Hall). While situations have been verified where a supposed rape survivor has falsely reported an incident of sexual assault, usually under the influence of a close relative or hypnosis, this concept is often applied to completely valid childhood sexual abuse cases.

However, the physical and psychological illnesses derived from sexual abuse substantiate an incredible number of reported sexual assaults. Adults Surviving Child Abuse (ASCA) cited Professor Bessel van Der Kolk in saying that the symptoms correlated with childhood sexual abuse include, ”…the inability to regulate emotions like rage and terror, along with intense suicidal feelings, somatic disorder, negative self-perception, poor relationships, chronic feelings of isolation, despair and hopelessness; and dissociation and amnesia” (‘Child Abuse Has’). These disorders and emotions cannot be forged; they alter the minds and lifestyles of everyone who suffers from them.

Unfortunately, psychological illnesses and disorders are not the sole impacts of sexual abuse. Many men and women face higher risks of physical ailments, including some that seem completely unrelated to the incident. According to an article from The New York Times, ‘Women who had experienced such violence were also more likely to report having asthma, diabetes or irritable bowel syndrome’ (Rabin). Aside from this, rape survivors also tend to develop poor physical habits, such as smoking, eating disorders, and self-harm. It is also stated that, ‘Both men and women who had been assaulted were more likely to report frequent headaches, chronic pain, difficulty sleeping, limitations on activity, and poor physical and mental health’ (Rabin). The list of symptoms seems endless, causing the victim to feel hopeless. This is evident because, ‘Many survivors’ lives are characterized by frequent crisis e.g. job disappointment, relocations, failed relationships, financial setbacks…The reasons are complex, but for many survivors ongoing internal chaos prevents the establishment of regularity, predictability and consistency’ (‘Child Abuse Has’).

Many are surprised to find that an extreme amount of men are victims of sexual assault. In the GQ Magazine article, ‘Military Sexual Assault: Male Survivors Speak Out,’ it is stated that, ‘…thirty-eight military men are sexually assaulted every single day’ (Penn). In his article, Nathaniel Penn depicts some of the horrors that these men have faced. One of the most graphic depictions includes, ‘They beat me down onto the floor and forced my legs open. Then they took the end of a broomstick and forced it into me again and again. Each time it felt like my insides were coming out. The blood was a blessing, because it seemed to lubricate the broomstick’ (Penn). In an environment where masculinity is equivalent to worth, some men seek to prove their masculinity by degrading their comrades to a ‘feminine role.’ Victims are reduced to the lowest form they can take, a woman, because, as is believed in a patriarchal culture, only women can be raped. James Asbrand, a psychologist of the Salt Lake City VA is quoted in saying, ”In a hypermasculine culture, what’s the worst thing you can do to another man? Force him into what the culture perceives as a feminine role… Completely dominate and rape him” (Penn). If this was not implied in society, these crimes would not happen as often and people would not question what a woman is wearing or drinking because no one is responsible for another’s crime.

People must begin to face reality. It is absolutely essential that students are taught about the dangers of rape culture, as well as made aware of the importance of consent. Rape culture effects people of all races, genders, ages, and sexual orientations, therefore all people are responsible for the role that it currently plays in society. Women should be able to walk to their cars without fearing the possibility of rape. Men and women should be able to give their lives for their country without the risk of being raped. Children should never be exposed to or be a victim of any sort of abuse; it alters their physical and psychological health, damaging them for life.

Rapists must be held accountable for their choices. The court system cannot be changed so easily; however, the views of a society can easily be altered by movies, music, and other forms of entertainment. Therefore, a society can be changed if certain subjects such as sexual safety are required to be taught in schools.

References

1. RAINN; ’97 of Every 100 Rapists Receive No Punishment, RAINN Analysis Shows’ – https://rainn.org/news-room/97-of-every-100-rapists-receive-no-punishment
2. ASCA; ‘Child Abuse Has Many Potential Impacts’ – http://www.asca.org.au/About/Resources/Impact-of-child-abuse.aspx
3. The National Center for Victims of Crime; ‘Child Sexual Abuse Statistics’ – http://www.victimsofcrime.org/media/reporting-on-child-sexual-abuse/child-sexual-abuse-statistics
4. J & M Hall; ‘The Long-Term Effects of Childhood Sexual Abuse: Counseling Implications’
5. Zerlina Maxwell; ‘Rape Culture Is Real’ – http://time.com/40110/rape-culture-is-real/
6. Zerlina Maxwell; ‘Stop Telling Women How to Not Get Raped’ – http://www.ebony.com/news-views/stop-telling-women-how-to-not-get-raped#axzz3UlNnDZkz
7. Nathaniel Penn; ‘Military Sexual Assault: Male Survivors Speak Out’ – http://www.gq.com/long-form/male-military-rape
8. Roni Caryn Rabin; ‘Nearly 1 in 5 Women in U.S. Survey Say They Have Been Sexually Assaulted’ – http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/health/nearly-1-in-5-women-in-us-survey-report-sexual-assault.html?_r=1
9. Steve Schmadeke; ‘Prosecutors: UIC Student Charged with Assault Said He Was Re-enacting ‘Fifty Shades of Grey” – http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-50-shades-of-grey-uic-sex-charge-20150223-story.html
10. Jessica Testa; ‘Inside the Sexual Assault Civil War at Occidental College’ – http://www.buzzfeed.com/jtes/inside-the-sexual-assault-civil-war-at-occidental-college#.tegljk9dj

Essay on Zeus: Understanding Rape In Ancient Greece

With the third wave of feminism and the inception of the #metoo movement the topic of rape, has been renewed in vigor in public conversation and discussion. Many contemporary artists have taken an active part in this renewed discussion; using their platform of artistic work to offer their own opinions on the matter, oftentimes forged of their own personal struggles with sexual assault. Yet while this movement of feminist art is a relatively recent occurrence, the long-subdued topic of rape has found itself to have a long history in the arts. There has been an abundance of art throughout the centuries and even millennia that has focused specifically on the topic of rape. These artistic portrayals of rape have generally been created by males and thus the art encapsulates the male’s perspective. For example, in Greek art portrayals of rapes and abductions typically feature young and beautiful women as a popular focal point. While viewing these artistic portrayals of rape can at times be emotional to many, it is impertinent to look back and examine the past as these artworks allow for a greater understanding of what morality, equality, and justice should look like in today’s society. Therefore, I will examine the motive behind Greek artworks and why the topic of rape was so popular during the time.

Before diving into examining pieces of Ancient Greece art, it is important to analyze the treatment of women. Throughout the city-states generally, females were held to strict standards publicly and privately. Women received less food, had little to no education aside from domestic household duties, and no freedom socially. These women were basically property that must perform household duties and produce children and that was it with a few exceptions to religious cults and jobs. Adolescent girls would be forced into arranged marriages by her father to an older man. Private spaces versus public spaces held women to standards that kept the woman segregated even within their own homes. Symposiums were parties the Greeks held inside their houses with fellow men. The only women permitted to these parties were prostitutes. The wives were not allowed to go to parties and had to stay in the corridor of the house. This distrust and objectification of women were so strong men couldn’t even do something fun like a party with their own wives. Men’s sexual desires to objectify and keep control are shown in various depictions of sex anally or even from behind. The control and fear forced onto women into submission through misogynistic language, objectification of women’s bodies, disregard for women’s rights, and total segregation.

Were there sanctions in place to protect women and men from sexual assault? Literature and inscriptions from legal hearings provide reliable information however is limited. The information presented in this essay primarily focuses on two cities Athens and Gortyn. It can be assumed that although the legal information from these cities says a certain thing does not mean other cities throughout Greece may have been more diverse with their laws. In Athens, several laws were put in place against sexual assault however, the penalties of commuting such crimes were simply a monetary fine. Invaded in which a husband or father found a man with their daughter of wife they could legally kill the man. The next law protected the accused if they wished to follow a suit for being unjustly accused and detained. If found innocent the accused could punish the lyrics in any way he saw fit as long as no knife was used. The psychological physical pain for a female victim is not listed in Attic law, any compensation would go to her guardian.

What exactly is misogyny and why is it important to understand it while analyzing the factors, justification, and motives for sexual abuse? Misogyny is the hatred of women and its roots are traced back to ancient Greece and Rome from the silencing, mistreatment, and loathing of women. To understand this deep hatred for women you have to look at the birth of Pandora. According to myth, Pandora was the first woman that Zeus gave to the mortals. She was beautiful and Zeus’s intention was to use her to punish Prometheus who stole and gifted mankind with fire. Pandora was given a box and within the box was evils such as illness and war. Her curiosity got the better of her and she opened the box releasing all of these bad things onto mankind. Pandora is the first female to ruin everything for mankind impacting the opinion of men all over Greece. A similar story to a more relevant religion nowadays would be Adam and Eve. Eve and Pandora both made mistakes that made life far more difficult for humanity according to these stories. Understanding Pandora’s story and the strength of influence mythology had as the main religion it’s understandable to why there were male chauvinism and misogyny.

Another important example of this rooted hatred can be found by looking into the words of Aristotle and many other Greek philosophers. According to Aristotle, women were inferior to men because their bodies were cold and could not produce semen, women were deformed men, and the most disgusting of his beliefs was that “ women were unable to control themselves physically and psychologically through the exercise of the reason the way men can” (Whaley, 16). Taking this sentence and applying it to the modern world in a way many criminals will use something along the lines of this sentence. It is easy for the predator to blame the victim because of the clothes they are wearing or the look they gave you inside the bar. This hateful perspective is so critical to grasp when viewing art that depicts injustices such as rape because of the time period and social environment.

Now that we have done a little bit of digging into the treatment of Greek women as well as the reasons why misogyny was rampant we can start to look into actual pieces of art for what they were in terms of narrative, visual, and social meaning behind these pieces.

The best-known stories of rape and abduction go with the King of the Greek Gods himself Zeus. Although married to Hera Zeus has a well-known history of chasing after, kidnapping, and raping many young women and even boys such as Ganymede a beautiful Trojan prince. However, for this essay, I would like to focus on the deceitful tricks Zeus used on these women and the outcomes of the rape through their stories and vases portraying the act. Alcmena was the wife of King Amphitryon. Amphitryon had left Alcmena in Thebes in order to avenge Alcmena’s dead brother in order for her to marry him. Zeus seeing an opening came to Thebes and Made himself spear to be Amphitryon and has his way with her. It is said that this was the last time Zeus slept with a mortal woman. After this Amphitryon returned the following day and made love to her and she confessed that she thought he had already returned the day before. The Seer then reported the news to Amphitryon. Later on Aclmema have birth to Hercules, furious Hera sent two snakes into Hercules’ crib however the infant was strong and fearless and defended himself. Throughout his life, Hera tormented the boy out of spite and hatred for him. The Sacrifice Of Alcmena is a paean red-figure krater vase made that dates back to circa 360 – 320 B.C. Zeus and Hera are watching from above as Amphitryon has two attendants place his wife on fire to test the veracity of her claim that Zeus has changed himself to Amphitryon and taken her virginity and got her pregnant. Zeus watching had the flames put out saving her and validating her claim. According to this vase’s story Alcmena was punished for a sexual act she hadn’t even known was with someone who wasn’t Amphitryon. Instead of believing her and comforting her the distrust seen repeated throughout Greece, he punishes her in a brutal abuse of power. Amphitryon does not believe her until a male god has to come and intervene which speaks volumes of distrust, insecurities, and trust in the gods and fellow males.

Another story involving Zeus that has inspired various artworks is the story of him Abducting Eropa. Zeus was filled with lust for this beautiful young woman and he knew he had to have her. He took it upon himself and transformed into a majestic white bull and transported himself to Tyre. There he came across Eropa and her attendants gathering flowers. Zeus knew he had to take things slow so he played a tame act of an innocent gentle bull. Eropa comfortable around the bull began to put flowers in his fur and then climbed onto his back. Zeus then proceeded to take her to the shore and then into the sea. Eropa scared to let go held onto Zeus until they arrived in Crete. Following this they had sex and after Zeus was done he left her there. She later married the king of Crete and became the first queen there. Zeus did not fully abandon her and sent her several gifts. Here Zeus once again uses a transformation to manipulate young women. He takes it a step further by kidnapping her and bringing her on a terrifying trip through the sea and isolating her from family and friends. The vases for this are generally very tame pieces. The best example of this was an Apulian Red-figure vase that dates to circa 330-320 B.C. It shows a very simple design of Zeus in bull form and shown has white and Eropa hanging off the side of him with a straight unemotional expression. They are surrounded by a circle of waves so it can be assumed they have either just reached shore or she and he are still on their way through the ocean. There are multiple depictions if this story through oil paintings which all have a very whimsical and almost romantic emotion to them. These interpretations have very unrealistic and almost dreamlike qualities to them that plays down the fear this girl must have faced