Bonifacio Castillo

Professor Makarosyan
ENG 114B
11, May 2015
The Damaging Effects of Rape
Rape is a very serious issue that has proven to be traumatizing for every single victim.
Rape can last for only a couple of minutes at times but, nonetheless, the effects last a lifetime.
Rape is a terrible act that should never be joked around with. Many rapists experience a sense
of power and dominance as well as sexual pleasure when they rape someone. Rape is not
limited to a man and a woman that do not know each other. Many times people are raped by
someone they know, often a family member. Many times, in an abusive relationship, a
husband can rape his wife or a boyfriend can rape his girlfriend. There are many forms of
rape and one rape is not worse than the other. All rape victims experience trauma on many
levels. Not only do rape victims experience trauma because of rape itself, but they also
receive a big amount of negativity from society. In the story No Name Woman, the
protagonist gets raped and her whole village mistreats her. After the village breaks into her
home, she gives birth to her child who was conceived from the rape and commits suicide,
taking her childs life along with her own. The nameless woman was in so many traumas, that
it drove her to kill herself. She is not only dealing with the pregnancy, she is also dealing with
all the people from her village that blames her for something that was not her fault. Female
victims of sexual abuse experience tragic outcomes because they are blamed, shamed and are
traumatized.
Female rape victims are often blamed and are viewed as the cause of rape. It is not
every case that rape victims are blamed for what happened to them, but many times they are.
There are many stereotypes that follow women rape victims. Common misconceptions are

that women secretly want to be raped, they lie about being raped for attention, and that it was
their fault that they were raped. These misconceptions are difficult to understand when you
are a victim but the community does not realize this and continues to blame. Patriarchy
and gender inequality are major factors in the aetiology of rape and attitudes toward rape and
that underlying patriarchy and gender inequality are gender stereotypes and false beliefs
(myths) about rape (Boakye 1633-1651). A male dominated society leads people to believe
that rape is the victims fault. Rape is merely a symptom of gender inequality and patriarchy.
Gender inequality is at play when women are raped and blamed. If women were to be seen as
equal, then there would be no blaming. In No Name Woman, the villagers broke into the
rape victims house and destroyed all her belongings. It seems that the villagers were aware
that she was pregnant with a child that was not her husbands and jumped to the conclusion
that she cheated on him. Instead of inquiring as to how this child came to be, their ignorance
made them believe that she was a cheater. It is unclear whether they knew she was raped or
not but assuming they did know they did not offer her spiritual and emotional help instead
they inflicted more pain. Blaming the victim is never the right thing to do; it is not their fault
that they were sexually abused.
On the other hand, a male victim of rape and a female victim of rape are treated
differently because females are normally blamed whereas males are not. Male victims do not
have to carry the weight of feeling at fault because they are not blamed. People tend to think
the opposite when it comes to women. This is because many times males are the ones who
are blaming the victims. Study results found that male respondents had higher rape myth
acceptance (Bartgis 2021). When men are the ones who lead the blaming, men who get
raped are more likely to receive sympathy. There is an exception to this, if a man is
homosexual or transgender then the blame would still be put on them. A study was conducted
to assess how people react towards victims of sexual abuse if they were transgender. It was

predicted that the heterosexual victims would be judged the most positively and that
heterosexual male participants would make the most anti-victim judgmentsResults
conformed the predictions (Davies 237-247). If a heterosexual man were raped, then the
community would judge him more positively and would receive more sympathy. If a
transgender man were raped, he would receive negative judgment. It seems that the study was
conducted to see how males responded to the rape scenarios; nowhere in the prediction or
results does it show that women negatively judge someone based on their sexual orientation.
Someones sexual orientation is a major factor in how people, in particular men, judge
victims of rape.
Victim shaming is similar to victim blaming but the difference is that shaming
someone is the result of the blame. There are many cases of rape that go unknown because
victims are aware of the shame and embarrassment it would bring them if they were to report
the incident. Victims must repeatedly tell their story to a number of detectives and, at times,
even the media will get involved. There isnt even a guarantee that the victims perpetrator
will be brought to justice. 14 percent of sexual violence victims report the offense to the
police. Of these, 30 percent proceed to prosecution, 20 percent are adjudicated in court, 12.5
percent are convicted of any sexual offense, and 6.5 percent are convicted of the original
offense charged. (Daly 565-650). Victims know the persecution they would receive if they
came forward and reported their crime. Only 14 percent report the crime and of those 18
percent actually face criminal charges. That means that 2.5 percent of all sexual violence
assaults are actually brought to justice and of those only .91 percent are charged with the
original criminal offence. The reason that the numbers are so low is because rape is very
hard to prove and many women do not want to expose themselves to the shame that it can
potentially bring them. There is a reason only 14 percent of sexual violence crimes are
reported. A woman, or anyone, does not want to experience the shame and prejudice that

comes along with going through the process. Every microscopic detail must be told at trial in
front of a judge, attorneys, a jury, and the accused rapist. When someone is forced to tell the
story over and over again, in the persons mind, they relive what happened. Eventually,
victims shame themselves for believing they could have prevented the assault. This shame
can also branch off to families. In No Name Woman, shame is brought upon the family
when they find out that the woman had a child outside of her marriage. Not only does the
victim experience shame, but her family does too. The refusal to say that the woman even
existed is evidence enough that she brought shame to the family. Victims experience shame
when the community looks down on them and victims can experience very harmful effects.
Victim shaming brings nothing positive and can hurt the victim even further.
Rape causes a lot of psychological damage to the victims and many times, victims
experience negative feelings that can drag through their life. The psychological effects of a
rape victim can be devastating. Women suffer the most because they have the additional
trauma that society inflicts on them. There are different types of traumas that a person can
face after they experience rape. Lower levels of hope, present perceived controlalong with
an increased tendency toward substance use for coping, higher propensity for self-blame,
higher levels of behavioral disengagement, and a tendency to use denial and self-distraction
for coping (Carretta). Rape victims lose the ability to feel in control after a rape incident
because the rapist did whatever he wanted for that period of time. Self-destructive acts can be
a way of coping with traumas. Traumas are almost always present when dealing with rape.
Findings from this study found no statistically significant differences among the groups -highlighting that rape is a traumatic experience irrespective of the perpetrator (Carretta). It
does not matter the rapist was a relative, stranger or husband, rape trauma is present. The
physical violation of rape lingers on in a persons mind and continues to haunt them. It
centers on the contention that rape is traumatic, and depicts this trauma as unique, severe,

long lasting, and in need of healing (Gavey 433-456). It is difficult for a victim of rape to
tell anyone what has happened to him or her. Many of them fear of the shame it can bring
them. Regardless, a person needs to face their situation and it requires them to seek help. The
effects of rape can last a lifetime, especially if one does not seek help. The protagonist in No
Name Woman eventually cannot take it and commits suicide. If her community would have
been more understanding then it would have been unlikely that she would commit suicide.
Being raped and the addition of the disgust of the community drove her to commit suicide.
Female victims of sexual abuse are blamed, shamed and traumatized by their
communities. In No Name Woman, the protagonist was raped by a villager and her
community destroyed her belongings because they blamed her for the wrongdoing of the
villager. The woman was blamed for the occurrence. Her own family blamed her and they
were ashamed to call her part of the family. The nameless woman was in such a deep trauma
that she committed suicide and took her baby child along with her. In her case, the
community did not understand and they gave her no other choice than to kill herself. When
people come together, they are a force to be reckoned with. This community did not have to
kill her to get rid of her; they just had to push her to the point to where she would do the job
for them. There was no remorse by the community or by her family. No one seemed to care
that she had past. She died because of her community; they blamed, shamed and traumatized
her. Unfortunately, these are things that occur to this day. If this does not change, victims will
continue to suffer traumas and endure suicide/suicide attempts because of embarrassment due
to being blamed and shamed.

Work Cited
Boakye, Kofi. Attitudes Toward Rape and Victims of Rape. Journal of Interpersonal
Violence 24.10 (2009) : 19. Print.
Bartgis, Lindsey. Measuring rape myth acceptance and homophobia by assault victims.
Masters Abstracts International 50.03 (2012) : 1. Print.
Davies, Michelle, Hudson, Jenefer. Judgments Toward Male Transgendered Victims in a
Depicted Stranger Rape. Journal of Homosexuality 58.2 (2011) : 11. Print.
Daly, Kathleen, Bouhours, Brigtte. Rape and Attrition in the Legal Process: A Comparative
Analysis of Five Countries. University of Chicago Press, IL 39.00 (2010) : 39. Print.
Carretta, Carrie. Rape trauma: A study of preferred rape disclosure methods and factors
influencing psychological outcomes in rape victims. Dissertation Abstracts International, B:
Sciences and Engineering 73.10 (2013) : Print.
Gavey, Nicola, Schmidt, Johanna. Trauma of Rape Discourse: A Double-Edged Template for
Everyday Understandings of the Impact of Rape. Violence Against Women 17.4 (2011) : 24.
Print.