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Jaden Angle Ms. Caruso Engl 1102 April 11, 2013 11 April, 2013 CAP Project Memo: In this article I am responding to Abbey Lewiss article called Reddit Rape Thread: Why I Dont Care What Rapists Have To Say, with the purpose to explain that even though the sites she responded to in her article may be a little ridiculous and we should not be listening to what rapists have to say rather than the victims, we do not live in a rape culture. Throughout my article I will strive to prove that claiming we live in a rape culture is untrue and really extreme. The This article will be published on the CNN website with the direct audience is pointed towards being Abbey Lewis and everyone who has read her article.

Lewis, Abbey. "Reddit Rape Thread: Why I Don't Care What Rapists Have To Say." Feminspire. (2012): n. page. Web. 25 Mar. 2013. http://feminspire.com/reddit-rape-thread-why-i-dont-care-what-the-rapists-have-to-say/

Do We Live In a Rape Culture? No! April 11, 2013 / By Jaden Angle Rape, such a horrifying and intimidating word, an action that many people would rather not even think about because of how morally wrong and disgusting it is, but the truth is that it happens every day in our culture. The article Reddit Rape Thread: Why I Dont Care What

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Rapists Have To Say by Abbey Lewis, even claims that we live in a rape culture. While I agree with most of the statements in Abbeys article, I totally disagree with her making the allegation that we live in a rape culture. Now do not get me wrong, I am not saying that I believe rape is ok Not to say that rape is ok because I truly am against rape and despise it! It truly saddens me to think that so many people have been raped and are continuing to get raped. I am all for finding ways to prevent rape. But it is obvious to me that while rape is happening, the claim that we live in a rape culture is a over exaggeration. Abbey Lewis states in her article that, Of course society has a desire to learn about rape so it can combat it more effectively, but surely, SURELY the priority should be to privilege the voices of the victims, and learn from their experiences, and ensure their place in the discussion, before we even consider turning to hear what the rapists have to say? (par.3). This quote just means that the victims voice should absolutely be valued over the rapists voice, which is a valid point that I am in total agreement with. Which is very shocking because I strongly believe just as Abbey Lewis does, that it is just morally right to value the voice of the victim over the rapist. She Lewis also explains that Reddit and Jezebel ,the two sites she is responding to in her article are arguing that women can change their way of life to defend themselves by paying attention to the threads of why rapists rape, which is on their sites (Lewis par.6), (Reddit and Jezebel is the two sites Abbey is responding to in her article) . Through this she is trying to claim that those sites are saying the victims should make different choices rather than the rapists, and that is totally the wrong approach. We should not put the voices of the rapists above the victims and should definitely not put the blame and shame on the victims. But with all that said, I believe Abbeys allegation about us living in a rape culture to be untrue. Now, not saying that rape is not a big problem Obviously rape is a problem in the U.S,

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but so is many different things such as murders, kidnappings, and burglary. You do not see people going around saying we live in a murder culture or a kidnapping culture do you? No. So just because these things happen in our culture does not mean we label the whole culture, and imply that everyone is in agreement with all these bad things happening. The Canadian University Press could not have said it better, It saddens me that there is a very strong and vocal movement asking every woman alive to think of the world as hostile to her, to think of herself as constantly in danger, constantly under attack. Walking with a sign that says Stop the raping implies that somewhere out there is a group of people whose agenda is, indeed, to prolong the raping.(par.5). This is exactly what making the allegation that we live in a rape culture is implying. While I truly sympathize with Abbey and her strong feelings towards rape and these sites that are giving value to the voices of rapists over victims, we can clearly see that claiming we live in a rape culture would be overly exaggerating. So even though rape is immoral and blaming the victim is totally unethical, we do not live in a rape culture.

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Works Cited Lewis, Abbey. "Reddit Rape Thread: Why I Don't Care What Rapists Have To Say." Feminspire. (2012): n. page. Web. 25 Mar. 2013. Canadian University Press, "The allegation that we live in a rape culture is deeply sexist." Sheaf. (2011): n. page. Web. 25 Mar. 2013.

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Pre-Writing In this CAP Project I will be responding to the article Reddit Rape Thread: Why I Dont Care What Rapists Have To Say, written by Abbey Lewis. The context of the article is that Abbey is responding to the website Reddit who recently posted a thread encouraging rapists to come forward and tell their side of the story, and to the website Jezebel who in response to the Reddit thread wrote an article entitled Rapists Explain Themselves On Reddit, And We Should Listen. Also I believe the audience of Abbeys article is the writer of the Jezebel article and to the people who have read it; and this articles purpose was to explain to the audience that we live in a rape culture and that we should not be listening to what rapist have to say, but to what the victims have to say. Abbey is trying to get the point across, that by websites influencing rapists to tell their side of the story we are making it seem that what rapist have to say is more important and are pretty much sending the message that people should try not to get raped rather than, people should not rape anyone at all. In which I totally agree with this article. The first time I read through this article I was really surprised to find out about the other articles influencing the voice of rapist. With that said I stand in agreement with Abbey that we should not be putting the voice of rapist over the voice of the victims, but what led me to respond to this article is that Abbey consistently states that we live in a rape culture and I do not necessarily agree with that. So I feel that in my response to that I would like to say that, I do not

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think we live in a rape culture just because a few websites were trying to hear the voices of rapists and not the victims. I say that because Abbey stating we live in a rape culture is saying that majority of the people in our culture think rape is acceptable and I do not believe that to stand true at all. In my response I will include the elements of context, audience, and purpose. The context is that I will be responding to Reddit Rape Thread: Why I Dont Care What Rapists Have To Say, written by Abbey Lewis, and that she believes we live in a rape culture. This response will be intended for Abbey Lewis, with the purpose to explain that even though the sites she responded to may be a little ridiculous and we should not be listening to what rapists have to say rather than the victims, we do not live in a rape culture. So I believe the best way for me to respond shall be in the form of an article because not only will Abbey be able to see my opinion so could everyone else who believes we live in a rape culture. Now we all know that rape is a very wrong and horrible thing to do. To some it may even be a touchy subject because they have either been raped, know someone who has been, or have raped someone before. Whatever the case maybe I feel like we all know that rape is occurring in this day and age, but does that mean we live in a "rape culture"?