To fix rape culture, we need more options than silencing or sentencing by Ning Chang
I read shado Culture Editor Ning Chang’s article about the different ways that society deals with the permissiveness of rape. She spoke to artist, advocate and survivor Marlee Liss about how the current justice system mishandles victims’ needs and only provides a narrow form of support.
Instead, the alternative approach of restorative justice embraces real accountability and healing by facilitating direct communication between those harmed by crime and those who perpetrated it, in a safe environment.
It seems grimly relevant to discuss sexual violence now that Louis Theroux’s ’Inside the Manosphere’ documentary has shone a brighter light on the misogyny influencer complex.
The documentary has mainstreamed the conversation about the increasing sexism in our society due to this trend, which feminist activist groups have warned about for much longer.
trauma cycling
Rape culture. You may already be familiar with this term, or may not know anything about it. It describes a society where sexual violence and abuse is normalised – by not being taken seriously (making jokes, downplaying or dismissing it) – and the experiences of women and girls, and rape victims, are not deemed worth listening to.
Rape culture is the reason our criminal justice system fails victims of sexual violence: indeed, less than 5% of reported rapes in England and Wales resulted in a conviction in 2021. And the process when victims come forward is described as drawn out, distressing, invasive and ultimately unsatisfactory, with a high rate of those pressing charges opting to drop out.
Who can blame them? The whole ordeal sounds extremely retraumatising. The carceral system more broadly has a habit of recycling and reusing trauma, meaning dangerous ideologies like misogyny are further spread into society rather than lessened. Root causes of harm are not addressed, forms of violence are merely switched for another.
Institutions reflect our own biases and the failures of our systems, so it’s no wonder the justice system trends towards patriarchy and protecting the powerful.
As Ning puts it, “We deal with social ills by excising them and putting them out of sight and out of mind – from prisons to asylums.”
Due to the complexity of the legal system, its binary outlook (guilty/not guilty) and the impersonal rules of the courts (only communicating via proxies), Marlee argues real accountability or closure is prevented. Victims relive their trauma in a managed way, designed by solicitors to try to squeak through and become one of the shockingly less than 2% of rape cases that end in conviction for the perpetrator.
punishment ≠ justice
Restorative justice is a far more equitable antidote for rape culture. Marlee spearheads such initiatives based on her own example.
After suffering an assault and going through the courts, she grew disillusioned with the process. With the support of the prosecution, she proposed a deal to her assailant: she’ll drop all charges if he agrees to a restorative justice programme set out by her to directly address what happened and give her the chance to heal sufficiently.
“It blew my mind in terms of how healing it was,” she told Ning.
She was able to directly face what happened in a safe environment which centered her needs. It allowed her to be heard and her experience to be properly acknowledged. Rather than re-living what happened to a jury in a sterile courtroom, she was able to take the time to air it out and contextualise it directly to the person that committed the harm. This feels like a better way to heal beyond dwelling.
Ning also makes a good point that forms of restorative justice are already practiced, in post-genocide societies, where truth and reconciliation committees are formed to apply principles that knit communities closer together, not have the crimes committed tear them apart further.
Beyond punishment or passivity, actual forms of justice which lead to accountability and give the impacted community the means to heal is the only way forward.
The domination of misogyny and rape culture, exemplified by the disgusting rise of ‘manosphere’ influencers, can’t be fixed by a judge’s gavel. Fighting against oppression means also defeating systems which enable the status quo.
We fix us. We wouldn’t believe another world is possible if we thought otherwise.
~ Tommy
Sharks in the Bahamas Are Full of Cocaine, Caffeine, and Painkillers
A new study published in Environmental Pollution found that sharks off the coast of the Bahamas are carrying trace amounts of various drugs. Substances found included caffeine, ibuprofen, anti-inflammatory drugs and, in one case, cocaine.
How are the sharks getting so many drugs? From our piss, of course.
Sewage runoff, waste discharge and tourists pissing in the ocean seem to be the main causes. Our urinary flows contain all the pleasures and forms of relief that we’ve ingested. In the same way microplastics are invading our own bodies, as well as our bodies of water, the shit we ingest is who we are. And now it’s what the world is.
The consequences of marine life ingesting our drugs is yet to be fully seen, but it doesn’t bode well if we look at the effects of cocaine on humans.
Anyway, fancy a line?
Mixed Signals – How a joke sound defined 90s rave
An interesting look at how an iconic rave sound developed from Japan to the U.S to Belgium to the Netherlands to the UK. The joke “hoover sound” – as the Brits coined it – dominated the soundscape of the 1990s.
Mixed Signals, a channel about music production and the history of electronic sounds, does a great job exploring these origins, and tracing this particular synthesiser effect to other genres.
1tbsp - Pink Dress (feat. Cherry Chola)
Incredibly dancey and addictive track by alternative producer 1tbsp, I discovered this the day it was released and can’t stop listening.
Upcoming Australian/Venezuelan singer Cherry Chola’s whispery vocals in alternating Spanish and English rides the jammy bassline so well. By the time the cheeky keys come in near the end, you don’t want it to end!
The Blindboy Podcast – Artificial Intelligence is Disgusting and it will never replace Artists
I know I go on about how AI art never be human, but this Blindboy podcast episode synthesises exactly how I feel, and why it disturbs me so. And it should disturb you, based on our current trajectory.
I highly recommend listening to the whole episode, but the crux of it comes down to a hollowness and lack of feeling being present in all AI art. By its very nature, it cannot contain the human condition of fragility and vulnerability.
“AI can’t have its heart broken. AI can’t get jealous of other people. AI can’t get insulted. AI can’t fall in love. AI doesn’t want to impress other people. AI isn’t insecure about how other people see it.”
These emotions are what creates art that we connect with. It inspires other artists. It’s meaning that goes beyond mere entertainment or getting attention. But the more we seek quick, cheap and ultimately fraudulent AI art, the more we lose the essence of the journey of the creative process, and that core emotional connection.
Jermaine Fowler (The Humanity Archive) – This Is What It Looks Like When Reality Collapses
A brilliantly incisive look into the recent rumours that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was dead and the internet-wide analyses of whether subsequent videos of him were AI.
It demonstrates our social desperation for some form of accountability or consequences for the crimes of our age. This has collided with the fact that we cannot distinguish between what is real or not.
Everything’s a psyop. The very fabric of our reality has been stretched and molded by tech oligarchs, leading to disinformation paranoia and AI suspicions around everything, even things which are ‘real’. We’ve even got to a place where we can’t tell if new media is emulating AI art.
“Quietly, the thing you stood on when you said “I know what is real” is no longer there,” writes Fowler.
“In its place: data centers the size of city blocks, running on more electricity than your neighborhood will ever see, cooled by water your city cannot afford to waste, built where the newsrooms used to be, where the new schools should be, humming in the dark, generating everything you need to believe.”
“When reality collapses, what fills the gap?”
I recently attended International Film Festival Rotterdam 2026, these were my top picks you should check out! Support your local independent cinema if you can.
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