I’ve penned a new column at Counter Cultured called, “Self-Defense Doesn’t Perpetuate ‘Rape Culture‘” today.
Here’s an excerpt:
Last week at the Miss USA pageant, newly-crowned winner Nia Sanchez was accused of promoting “rape culture” after answering a question about sexual assault on college campuses.Sanchez responded with the following:
I believe that some colleges may potentially be afraid of having a bad reputation and that would be a reason it could be swept under the rug, because they don’t want that to come out into the public,” Nia Sanchez said. “But I think more awareness is very important so women can learn how to protect themselves. Myself, as a fourth-degree black belt, I learned from a young age that you need to be confident and be able to defend yourself. And I think that’s something that we should start to really implement for a lot of women.
Her response angered radical feminists.Twitter user @hayleethikeo tweeted, “sorry miss Nevada. we do not need to teach women how to better defend ourselves. We need to teach men not to feel entitled to rape #missusa.”
Elissa Benson of Cosmopolitan tweeted, “I get that the college sexual assault problem can’t be solved in 30 secs but still icky to pretend like self defense is the answer. #MissUSA”
Despite negative backlash, Nia Sanchez stood by her response. She went on HuffPoLive to reaffirm her answer about women taking up self-defense:
We have 30 seconds to answer a question. I feel like all you can do up on that stage on national television is answer the best you personally know how, so I answered with something that I know. I always believe in women empowerment and women’s encouragement and for me, in my life, that’s self-defense,” she explained. “Maybe for somebody else it’s a Taser or something else, but that’s the way I could relate to it personally.
The question beckons: What is “rape culture” and what does it consist of?
