Definition of Rape Culture

"A rape culture is a complex of beliefs that encourages male sexual aggression and supports violence against women. It is a society where violence is seen as sexy and sexuality as violent. In a rape culture, women perceive a continuum of threatened violence that ranges from sexual remarks to sexual touching to rape itself. A rape culture condones physical and emotional terrorism against women as the norm.

In a rape culture both men and women assume that sexual violence is a fact of life, inevitable as death or taxes. This violence, however, is neither biologically nor divinely ordained. Much of what we accept as inevitable is in fact the expression of values and attitudes that can change."
-- Transforming a Rape Culture by Millie Buchwald, Martha Roth, and Pamela R. Fletcher

Tupac, The Feminist!!!

I was trying to find something that reflected rape culture in popular music. Instead I came upon Tupac's song "Gotta Keep Ya Head Up". Inspirational to say the least! In this song, there are specific lyrics that question the problem of rape and violence against women.

And since we all came from a woman
Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman
I wonder why we take from our women
Why we rape our women, do we hate our women?
I think it's time to kill for our women
Time to heal our women, be real to our women
And if we don't we'll have a race of babies
That will hate the ladies, that make the babies
And since a man can't make one
He has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one
So will the real men get up
I know you're fed up ladies, but keep your head up
I admire Tupac as a lyricist and for this unique content that is so rarely addressed in rap music and in popular culture in such a supportive manner. Tupac is trying to get the message across that women are valuable and should be respected. He even goes as a far as to put a vague "Pro-Choice" message in this song too: "And since a man can't make one. He had no right to tell a woman when and where to create one"

For Full Lyrics to "Keep Ya Head Up"
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3 comments:

  1. TomNovember 14, 2012 at 5:26 AM

    You do relize tupac shaker was convicted for a violent gang rape of a teenage girl. I fact the first verse of keep your head up is earily simular to the victims testomony.

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  2. AnonymousJuly 14, 2013 at 2:25 PM

    NO he wasn't actually. That is totally made up, get it together! This is a quote from his wikipedia page: "According to Shakur, he had prior relations days earlier with the woman that were consensual (the woman admitted she performed oral sex on Shakur). The complainant claimed sexual assault after her second visit to Shakur's hotel room; she alleged that Shakur and his entourage raped her. In the ensuing trial, Shakur was found innocent of seven counts of sodomy and other charges, however he was found guilty of sexual abuse for the "unwanted touching of the buttocks"."

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  3. AnonymousMarch 22, 2014 at 12:07 PM

    Time to heal our women, be real to our women
    And if we don't we'll have a race of babies
    That will hate the ladies, that make the babies
    And since a man can't make one

    Actually if we don't we'll have a race of folk that hate men, and we do have such a race, especially a number of feminists.
    Actually a woman can't make a baby any more than a man can't. It takes both to make a baby!

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