Talk:rape culture

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rape culture

Two senses, the cultivation of rape (see culture#Noun which list 'cultivation') and even more blatantly 'a culture of rape'. Only interest here is encyclopedic, not linguistic. I initially thought it said rap culture which if anything is more culturally significant (but equally inadmissible as SoP and encyclopedia only). Mglovesfun (talk) 14:52, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

No opinion as to its SOPicity, but I think double lexical ambiguity is of linguistic interest. —Angr 14:55, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

I'm not sure how we got into the current trend of labeling things "encyclopedic", but I think it has trended away from things that are really purely encyclopedic. United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is purely encyclopedic because it is the name of a specific document, and is one not used by analogy as a reference point for discussing other documents. On the other hand, a piano bar is clearly something that should be described and discussed in an encyclopedia (as it is), but is also a dictionary term. However, a phrase like "rape culture" is a broad generalization that might be applied to practices in any culture. As I understand it, historically there have been some cultures where rape really is a part of the culture, and specifically where a man desiring to marry a certain woman "claims" her by dragging her off somewhere and having his way. On the other hand, the phrase was used quite a bit in the last election cycle to describe circumstances where rape, although officially condemned, is still encouraged by attitudes towards rape victims and the like. I don't think the existing definitions capture this sense, but I think there is something there that makes this a subject to be defined in a dictionary. bd2412 T 16:54, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

Well if we drop the encyclopedic bit, I could say it is of null lexical value. Mglovesfun (talk) 17:10, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

As the definition is currently written, I would take out the "rape is common" language ("common" being subjective and ambiguous), but as for the rest, to whom is it of "null lexical value"? bd2412 T 17:37, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

Human beings. Mglovesfun (talk) 21:49, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

Then I guess it's nice for humanity to have you to decide what is of lexical value to them. bd2412 T 04:17, 25 December 2012 (UTC)

The first definition is NISOP for sure and should be deleted. Can SOPs similar to the second definition be formed? I checked theft culture and it’s citable. — Ungoliant ^(Falai) 04:31, 25 December 2012 (UTC)

What about just blame culture? The first noun doesn't have to be a criminal act. Mglovesfun (talk) 15:25, 26 December 2012 (UTC)

compensation culture is comparable. I added that because I kept seeing it in newspapers etc. though it did seem a bit SoPpy. Equinox ◑ 21:54, 26 December 2012 (UTC)

Keep. In the phrases rap culture or nerd culture, culture is used literally. Either sense 1 ("the arts, customs, and habits that characterize a particular society") or sense 2 ("the beliefs, values, behaviour and material objects that constitute a people's way of life") can apply — the culture of nerds has arts like Star Trek and customs like Comic-Con, etc. But I've yet to see sense 2 of rape culture being used in a strictly literal way, that is, to describe a discrete set of "arts, customs, and habits" or "beliefs, values, behaviour and material objects that constitute a people's way of life." I've seen it used to describe the way in which sexual assault is often trivialized, or rape victims are blamed and judged. I suppose there's an argument to be made that sense 2 of culture applies to that definition, but I stop short of describing a pervasive cultural attitude or phenomenon as a culture unto itself. Hence I think that the use of culture in rape culture is idiomatic, or that we don't have a sense of culture that quite fits the sense it uses. And given the choice between keeping a potentially SOP term, or adding a reaching new sense to the entry for one of its constituent parts strictly to justify its deletion, I think the former is the lesser evil. Astral (talk) 06:44, 29 December 2012 (UTC)

 Keep per Astral. A lot of people seem to need a definition for it. ~ Röbin Liönheart (talk) 21:39, 10 January 2013 (UTC)

Keep. Ƿidsiþ 08:40, 11 January 2013 (UTC)

Keep per above arguments. bd2412 T 18:23, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

kept -- Liliana • 14:30, 16 April 2013 (UTC)