Last month (April, 2015), I led a twitter chat for Sssh.com’s weekly #SexTalkTuesday event. The event’s topic – rape culture – is difficult and volatile. As such, I was grateful for the opportunity to engage the discussion, but I was also apprehensive about doing the issue justice via 60 minutes of rapid fire 140 character messages.

I started the conversation out by defining rape culture from an academic, sociological perspective (re Q1) and then getting lots of feedback and commentary from participants.

The following questions guided the chat:

Q1: What is “rape culture”? #sextalktuesday

Q2: It seems to be ok to joke about rape if the joke is on the rapist and not the victim. But are any jokes ok? #sextalktuesday

Q3: Are rape fantasies “promoting” rape culture? #sextalktuesday​

Q4a: Should consent be intrinsically tied to discussions of rape culture, ideally to make them critical vs. conjecture? #sextalktuesday​

Q4b: Should rape culture be rebranded/reframed around consent – consent culture? #sextalktuesday​

Q5: Has consent become a joke? #sextalktuesday​

You can see an entire archive of the discussion via Sssh.com’s Storify archive right here. What do you think?

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Got a sociology question? Need some social justice informed life advice? Contact Dr. Chauntelle right here.