Dear people who think rape and/or sexual assault happens because of the womens’ clothes or body language–Well, it doesn’t. 

If we were to stop rape culture, rape myths, the stereotypes and teach children what consent and self control is, there wouldn’t be as many rape cases as there are now. There’s more to rape than rape itself; there are different types of rapists and theres different types of motives. Rape can’t be blamed solely on people dressing provocatively or the rapist being sexually attracted to the victim either. The main purpose and causes of rape include dominance, power, rape culture and rape myths.

Rape culture is shown through the use of misogynistic language and objectifying womens bodies. The term rape culture started in the 1970s. According to Blackburn center, rape culture is the reason that of the rape cases that are reported, only three percent of rapists spend either a single day or more in jail.  Even if the cases are being reported they aren’t always investigated; the cop doesn’t say or do anything. This is the cause and effect of rape culture; since there is rape culture, it has changed people’s minds of what people think of rape. They think it’s the victim's fault, or will say it's just what boys do. In reality they’re really just ignoring rape and sexual assault because that’s what they were taught. But why are we teaching that it’s the victim's fault? That victims need to cover up or watch their body language? Why are we teaching boys will be boys when we could be teaching no means no, that consent matters?
Rape myths are known to cause people to rape and it’s because of how they were taught to see the world and view people. Rape myths are prejudical and false claims about sexual assault, rape, rapists and rape victims. Rape myths are usually used to excuse sexual aggression towards rape victims. This also usually has to do with biased criminal prosecution. Examples of rape myths could be, “she asked for it”, “it wasn’t really rape”, “ he didn’t mean to”, “she wanted it”, “she lied” and “rape is a trivial event”. One of the biggest myths is that people believe rape is from strangers in a secluded destination. According to Infographic, 19.5% of rape cases are committed by a stranger, 39% rape cases are committed by an acquaintance, 33% of rape is committed by a significant other or an ex, 2.5%of adults were raped by family members and 34% of rape victims in jail were raped by family members. These statistics and percentages can show that rape and or sexual assault is not always committed by strangers and not in a secluded destination.
There are three different types of rapists: opportunistic rapists, vindictive rapists and sadistic rapists. Opportunistic rapist are people who will do anything for sexual gratification and is the result of no self control. Vindictive rapists have anger and aggression focused towards women or whatever gender they are attracted to, mainly because of an event in the past that makes them feel like they need revenge. Vindictive rapists believe that they are permitted to attack women or whatever gender that they are attracted to sexually because of a past experience where they might’ve been rejected or wronged. Sadistic rapists are people that want to humiliate and degrade victims of rape. They don’t do it because they’re turned on, but because people have taught that it’s okay to objectify people and use them for what you want. Even if the purpose is wanting to humiliate and degrade women, people have been taught and think that womens’ opinions dont matter in this case, that she did something to make them like that. But there's no reason it’s okay to do that to a person because past generations have normalized it.
Behavior that leads to rape and sexual assault can also be transmitted through homes and generational trauma. If a child at home is being sexually assaulted or raped they are more likely to do it themselves. According to the website Causes of Sexual Assault, “studies on sexually abused boys have shown that around one in five later molest children themselves.” In this case, what families surround their children with will affect them and cause them to cope in many different ways. Causes of Sexual Assault also states that “Childhood environments that are physically violent, emotionally unsupportive and characterized by competition for scarce resources have been associated with sexual violence.” Even environments can be the cause of sexual assault and or rape, and yet all these websites say nothing about how clothes can be the cause of rape.
In conclusion the steps and processes that lead up to sexual assault or rape never revolve around the victim. It’s never the victim's fault. Generations before us have made up their mind and made up these stereotypes about women, men and rape. Although they think that rape culture and rape myths are correct–even though they’ve been proved wrong and wrong again–we can change it, by teaching children what consent is and even teaching children boundaries or what self control is. The more people and children know, the easier it will be to defeat rape culture, rape myths and the stereotypes. In addition, if we are more careful of the environments and the homes children live in, we can affect their future decisions. If cops and other adults were aware of this, the justice system would respond more effectively and more could be done for the rape cases and the victims. An example would be after a rape case is reported, the justice system and or cops would believe and help to send the rapist to jail for good, not just for a couple days. We can all choose to help, to listen and to change the future, as long as we show children the right way and defeat the stereotypes.