Is There One?
Now let me begin by saying I am not an authority on this subject, anything but, .. my only claim to enable me to write on the subject is that Anne and I have children and grandchildren of both sexes.
If that admission concerns you, I suggest you stop reading here.
But for those brave souls who wish to continue on, here are my thoughts on the matter.
When the topic first came up a year or so ago – i.e. Rape Culture on Campus, my initial reaction was to think that those radical feminists were at it again.
More recently, after releasing a misogynist video we had Elliott Rodgers stabbing his 3 roommates to death and shooting two young woman at a nearby sorority house. The women were the focus of his rampage which was based on his belief that women in general had not found him to be sexually attractive.
I have been disabused of my initial thinking by my daughter, the educator, who assures me that there is a Rape Culture there and it is alive and thriving.
She cites several reasons for it including readily available pornography, movies, video games and the like that glorify oft times violent and meaningless sex. Rappers continually degrading women in their weird and soul destroying lyrics. Let’s call it ‘noise’.
I had to agree with her and it got me to thinking about the topic from my own point of view, rooted, as it is, in the 1960s.
In my generation, guys were in seventh heaven if they were able to get a kiss on the first date. Girls were special and were to be treated as such.
Over the years things have changed in large measure due to the factors cited by my daughter.
But for me it goes beyond that.
Indeed, I have to wonder if it is just a Rape Culture we are dealing with today or is it also a Rape Me Culture.
With such idols as Madonna, Mylie Cyrus and Beyonce to emulate, no wonder many young girls dress and act like tramps.
Many cover their bodies with hideous tattoos that would put the Ancient Mariner to shame and speak the same lingo.
I was in a garage getting work on my car recently when I heard two apparently nice young girls talking about an auction they were going to that evening to bid on guys and with each winning bid came two cans of whip cream. They were not ashamed and made no effort whatsoever to keep their conversation to themselves.
My sainted ancestors would have been appalled. I know I was.
What has happened along the way? Making love has been trivialized. Too often it appears as if there is no consideration given for their partner.
So yes dear reader, thanks to the wise counsel of my daughter I have come to accept as fact that a Rape Culture does exist in our society.
A culture that has enveloped boys as well as girls. There is lots of blame to go around.
And I think I know what is lacking in all of this and that can be summed up in 1 word … R E S P E C T.
And until a person can Respect him or herself, he or she will be unable to Respect others.
And all the ‘Noise’ that we each encounter in our daily lives makes the attainment of that goal all the more difficult.
As I see it…
‘K.D. Galagher’
