Not That Bad: Lessons Women Learn in a Rape Culture

In 2018, Roxane Gay assembled an anthology that addresses the severity of rape culture, rejecting the common belief that some sexually violent acts, compared to others, are not that bad. This collection, titled Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture, compiles pieces from thirty different authors and sheds light on how the notion of not that bad contributes to a broader structural social problem involving sexual violence. This social problem, known as rape culture, is commonly defined as a culture that normalizes sexual violence and blames victims of sexual assault (“What is Rape Culture?”). In other words, rape culture trivializes sexual violence to a point at which victims “fear they won’t be believed—and know that even if they are believed, they’re likely to be mortified and harassed, blamed and shamed, throughout a legal process that ultimately leads nowhere” (Harding 1). In this particular anthology, authors xTx and V. L. Seek recount their experiences with rape culture and the notion of not that bad, unveiling the distinct ways in which this culture is reproduced throughout childhood and within the legal education system. By using their testimonies to guide our interpretation of rape culture, we can begin to understand just how bad it really is and start working toward a future free from sexual violence.