I have strong doubts that anyone is working diligently to dismantle rape culture. Take for example, more than 200,000 adult and children are sexually assaulted every year. Some have criticized the numbers for only accounting for persons, not occurrences (many are sexually assaulted multiple times). There is a lot of work to be done.
What is more troubling is the national zeitgeist that many of these individuals deserve such conduct. “They shouldn’t have done this,” or “They shouldn’t have done that,” tends to be popular commentary. This, however, I find repulsive, if not amoral.
The irony is that many of those 200,000 have been put in that vulnerable position because of their own doing. Many likely had been told of the consequences, but the advice was either ignored or disregarded because, as they thought, it wouldn’t happen to them.
Most saddening is the lack of advocation especially by those who work tirelessly to dismantle rape culture. Somehow, a fifth of a million victims per annum is not enough to shock the conscious of advocates. Rape culture persists among all groups, men and women, but it disproportionately affects men. Men’s chances are 1:4, while women face a 1:40 chance of sexual assault in prison.
I pose one question, is egalitarianism a too lofty standard?
lukenofsinger 
I think that a problem we face is people’s misconception that responsibility, in any given situation, is a “zero sum” equation. This leads to an either/or mentality of blaming the victim, or blaming the perpetrator. And choosing either destroys any personal responsibility or accountability for the other.
Got a little long-winded here- hope you can make it through!! ha
Abuse and disregard of the imprisoned population is an overlooked issue. For some reason, our society seems to think that an imprisoned person deserves whatever happens to them because he/she committed a crime (even if a sentence that is supposedly appropriate for the crime is currently being served). At the root of this I see a dehumanization of people convicted of crimes (add to this mess that our justice system disproportionately arrests, convicts and gives harsher sentences to people of color and you see it in another light- straight up racism).
I do have a concern that I want to voice- that you may be overlooking the broader system of oppression in our society that under-girds this whole “rape culture.” From what you have written, I understand that you have some information that leads you to believe that men are more often victims of sexual assault and rape than women. You quote a statistic about gender and sexual assault in prison and I also wonder about broader society. Have you found information that leads you to believe this can be generalized to the larger population? I also wonder if these statistics from prisons you cite say more about the break down of perpetrators along gender lines (i.e. women are imprisoned with other women who are much less likely to rape than men…therefore men imprisoned together are at higher risk than women imprisoned together).
I ask this because my experience, my understanding of sexual violence comes out of an understanding of it as a gendered issue. This means not that men don’t get raped or that it doesn’t matter when men get raped. My understanding of this is that in our society men are privileged in many ways that women are not- our whole conception of gender roles reflects this. You see this dynamic in so many ways – its so pervasive that it is actually hard for us to see. Once you start seeing or feeling it though, it is the biggest elephant in the room..oh (wo(man).
Rape is about power. Rape (or fear of rape) has often been used in our society to keep women from stepping outside their “gender roles.” Sometimes men rape men and some women rape men as well. When a woman rapes a man, a rare occurrence to the opposite, this is an individual injustice. It is wrong and it deserves attention. However, it does not reflect a society-wide pervasive attitude toward men. Men are still privileged. Men are still rarely considered sluts or bitches, rarely is what men wear considered a part of why they were raped. In this case, what our society would do to blame the victim- the worst insult you can come up with for a man who has been raped- is to say that in some way, he is like a woman. Maybe people say he’s gay, maybe they say he was weak, whatever it is, the underlying attitude is that, WOMEN are the ones who deserve to be raped. So you must be like a woman.
My understanding is that men are victims of sexual violence less often than women, (although I’d be open to seeing some information you have on this). Check out this source: http://www.rainn.org/get-information/statistics/sexual-assault-victims This org relays that 1 in 6 women are raped vs. 3% of men.
Regardless of how often men are raped compared to women, I still look at these problems within the context of a system that privileges and values men, men’s way of being, men’s contributions over women, women’s ways of being and women’s contributions.
This egalitarianism you ask for in your article.. what do you think this would this look like? I am reading between the lines in your article so maybe I’m off, but I sense some resentment toward women who are working on “women’s issues.” I sense that you want men’s issues addressed as well and you’re right that sexual violence isn’t only a women’s issue, but I hope you see the broader context that all of this operates within. We are not beyond sexism. Our society does not operate in an “egalitarian” way in regards to gender outside of sexual violence and that is perhaps why it doesn’t operate exactly equally within the issue either.
Anyway, thanks for posting your thoughts… hope you meant it when you said this was an opportunity to be critical!!