The words ‘r*pe culture’ are used to describe a number of spaces where sexual violence is especially prevalent. Dorm rooms, university campus, the military, war zones, and more, are often understandably condemned with this name. Yet there’s one place that I think is more suitable than any other, where I never see it used. Prison. The prison system is the most tragically perfect place to be described as ‘a r*pe culture’; where sexual violence is not only normalised and ignored, but mocked, and laughed at by society. There is nowhere even remotely close in comparison, and no person more at risk to sexual assault than those in prisons. Yet we say and do nothing about it. Every year, hundreds of thousands are sexually assaulted behind bars, and their harrowing stories are buried under an avalanche of “don’t drop the soap!” jokes, callous sneers of “well they deserve it”, and endless canned laughter. You can forget about political change. We can’t even get society to stop smirking, let alone be horrified, when it comes to the trauma of America’s number one victim of r*pe. Yup. People don’t like to admit that, but none-the-less, it’s true. According to the BJS, In America, if you include the incarcerated population in sexual violence statistics (which they are currently excluded from), then men would make up the primary victim of r*pe in America, to go alongside every other violent crime. But nobody seems to mind. We care little for men, especially incarcerated ones, and less so again, when they’re black. So the knee slapping humour continues, and the hidden scourge of sexual violence remains locked behind bars, hidden in prison cells, and silenced by the carceral system. And so we never have to see that the reality behind the joke, is not quite as funny as we thought. So is it time we talked about sexual violence in prisons? What do you think? ~ Study Images by Allison Saeng, Zhang Kenny, Larry Farr, Karsten Winegeart, Jan Antonin Kolar, and Rivage.

2024-09-20