Rape Culture and church....

The breaking news of Russell Brand's rape and abuse allegations come as absolutely no surprise it seems. From his pre-reveal video to the subsequent litany of contents from those in the industry, everyone knew. People knew that he seduced vulnerable young women and boasted publicly about his sexual 'conquests' stating that his celebrity power made 'getting' women easier. The allegations go back for years and it turns out his vile behaviour towards women was an 'open secret'. Make no mistake he was an apex sexual predator with no respect for women, seeing them only as vessels for his pleasure and people knew about it. The industry knew and now they are backing away from him not because they've just 'found him out', but because they've been found out for allowing him to continue.

RB was enabled to continue his behaviour because it was normalised and brushed under the carpet constantly. Men like Harvey Weinstein, Jonah Hill, Bill Cosby, Woody Allen, Kevin Spacey, R Kelly, Jimmy Saville, Rolf Harris and Max Clifford were all celebrities able to continue their behaviour for years, sometimes decades before finally experiencing any consequences, because of their fame, money and power.

These cases were always shocking and polarising. As was the case with Johnny Depp, the public was divided and it is already happening with RB. Already at his gig on Saturday, there were fans with posters saying they stand with him. It's incredible how insulating fame is, though that is only part of the story. It takes more than fame and money to allow people to get away with rape and sexual assault.

You see the celebrity world only serves as a magnifying glass for what happens at a macro level in society. And our society has a rape culture. We see this in the decriminalisation of rape in the UK, we see it in the police force, the criminal justice system, in sport, in schools and universities, in workplaces... everywhere. It all points to rape culture. A repulsive term, it should have us all running for the hills, instead it's defended and minimised. Which in itself screams of rape culture.

The online dictionary defines rape culture as "a society or environment whose prevailing social attitudes have the effect of normalizing or trivializing sexual assault and abuse".

You might have an idea about where I'm going with this, given the nature of this blog, so I'm going to rip the sticking plaster off. Churches have been guilty of perpetuating rape culture. I said what I said, and it gives me no pleasure whatsoever.

The Bible contains multiple accounts of the rape culture which existed in those times, pointing to what humanity was and is capable of without God (Judges 19 and the unnamed concubine being the epitome of this). My observation from my studies, is that disingenuous teachers have taken scriptures about women and distorted them into ways to subjugate and abuse women. From making women stay in violent marriages to devolving all responsibility for sexual purity to women and girls, the church has normalised violence against women. 

The purity movement has a lot to answer for in this respect and I believe it dehumanises men in almost equal amounts to women. The vast majority of men are not helpless to their urges, they have the ability to control any urges they might have. Their urges are in no way the responsibility of the woman or girl they have noticed. The second they start to believe that they are at the mercy of a low cut top or short skirt is a the start of their slippery slope to blaming victims. 

It suits those men who struggle with lust to place the blame with women and girls because it means they are not the ones at fault. By casting women as the villains of the piece they can dehumanise them again, by seeing them as characters intent on trapping the hero of the story into lust. The reality of course being that those women and girls are simply navigating this world the best way they can.

Young girls already indoctrinated into rape culture by being told that when little boys hit you or touch your body that it's because they like you. Teenaged girls told at school that their bra straps seen through school shirts and legs poking out under skirts are distracting for male teachers and school boys alike. Those same teenaged girls getting used to a body they didn't ask for, not because they want to be a boy but because if you were to choose a body it might not be one that changes so dramatically and under such intense scrutiny from the boys who used to be your friends and now the men who used to be ambivalent but now look at your breasts.

And what about the women who have been brought up in a world which has taught them that actually they are at the mercy of the whims of some men and those are enabled by others who become bystanders who agree quietly that her clothes mean she is 'asking for it'. But actually her clothes are irrelevant, evidenced by the fact that clothes have no bearing on rape. If a man is going to rape a woman or a girl, her clothes are not what made him do it. Women in burkas, tracksuits and the like are raped and assaulted in equal measure.

The men are victims too, but not of women and girls. The porn industry is vile in its dehumanisation of both sexes, wrecking expectations, sex lives and marriages in thoughtless pursuit of money. But this still does not allow men to blame women for the lustful thoughts they have. 

There is doubtless a time and a space for young people to be taught that their value is not in their sex appeal, in their bodies, their intellect, their employment potential, anything in fact other than in their status as child of God. This wonderful opportunity to disciple young people however has been robbed by those who have decided that it's the female form which is the problem. The church has offered no real pushback to what we see in society because the church has objectified women and girls too. Teaching of girls has always been from a position of shame, catapulting us back to the woman at the well in John 4, misrepresented and blamed. This has been the church culture when it came to women's bodies.

Rape culture allows men to think they are entitled to take from women and girls because this is the 'normal' they have seen. Men like Russell Brand get away with their behaviour because they were allowed to by the community around them, they've become adept at dehumanising women and blaming them for wrecking careers if they dared to speak up. The church should be different but it failed abominably by blaming women for their own abuse, rape and assault by twisting scriptures about modesty. In Romans 12 we are instructed not to conform to the way of this world. Come on church, do better.