rape culture
rape culture noun: a culture, environment or society where rape or other forms of sexual assault are common, and in which social attitudes or practices work to trivialize sexual violence, make rape seem normal, or shift responsibility from rapists to rape victims.
Noun (1)
rape culture (countable and uncountable, plural rape cultures)
- A culture, environment or society where rape or other forms of sexual assault are common, and in which social attitudes or practices work to trivialize sexual violence, make rape seem normal, or shift responsibility from rapists to rape victims.
- By exposing the facts of our rapes, the numbers of them, the events surrounding them, and the men who commit them, we begin to break down the myths that support the rape culture.1977 Spring, Suzanne Lacy, “"Three Weeks in May": Speaking Out on Rape, a Political Art Piece”, in Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, volume 2, number 1, →JSTOR, page 67
- In a rape culture both men and women assume that sexual violence is a fact of life, inevitable as death or taxes.1993 September 1, Emilie Buchwald with Martha Roth and Pamela R. Fletcher, Transforming a Rape Culture, Milkweed Editions, →ISBN, →OL, page vii
Noun (2)
rape culture (uncountable)
- The cultivation (growing or production) of rape.
- In Flanders, where rape culture is practised upon the most extensive and economical scale, the stubble is ploughed twice […]1801, The Farmer's Magazine, page 280
- It may be added, as a final recommendation of rape culture, that this plant is valuable for its yield of honey.1873, The Canada Farmer, page 216
- Synonyms:
- rapeseed culture
rape culture meaning in Malay and Indonesian
rape culture in Malay
- rape culture
- budaya perogolan
rape culture in Indonesian
- rape culture
- budaya pemerkosaan
Examples of rape culture in a sentence
- Rape culture is regarding violence as sexy and sexuality as violent.2009 October 9, Melissa McEwan, “Rape Culture 101”, in Shakesville, archived from the original on 07 Jan 2013:
- Or "I wrote on rape culture my junior year at Brown / So I'm allowed to say what all his raps are about"2011, “Backpackers”, in Camp, performed by Childish Gambino:
- We have started to demystify Neruda now, because we have only recently begun to question rape culture.2018 November 23, Charis McGowan, quoting Vergara Sánchez, “Poet, hero, rapist – outrage over Chilean plan to rename airport after Neruda”...
- The progress in rape culture in this country is one of the marvels of latter day husbandry.1899, GW Koiner, Report of the State Board of Agriculture of Virginia:
Synonyms of rape culture
- rapeseed culture
Forms of rape culture
| plural | rape cultures |
|---|
Origin of rape culture
From rape (“non-consensual sex”) + culture.
From rape (“Brassica rapa plant”) + culture.
Questions about rape culture
- What does rape culture mean?
- Rape culture means a culture, environment or society where rape or other forms of sexual assault are common, and in which social attitudes or practices work to trivialize sexual violence, make rape seem normal, or shift responsibility from rapists to rape victims.
- What is rape culture in Malay?
- Rape culture in Malay is budaya perogolan. See Rape culture meaning in Malay.
- How do you use rape culture in a sentence?
- Rape culture is regarding violence as sexy and sexuality as violent.
- What part of speech is rape culture?
- Rape culture is a noun.
- What is the plural of rape culture?
- The plural of rape culture is rape cultures.
Words near rape culture in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: rape culture (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “rape culture.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rape_culture. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.