Why I use the term Rape Economy.
I use the term "Rape Economy" to explain the market structures that connect the commercialization, commodification and exploitation of the female body and its unique, vital, necessary reproductive functions.*
Prostitution is a market for women to be raped for payment, often handled through an exploitative third party- a brothel or pimp. This puts a price on female sexual acts,
Surrogacy is a market for women to become pregnant, give birth and be forcibly separated from her child for a demeaningly low charge, often handled through exploitative "donation" sites or adoption agencies.
The cosmetics industry is a market that, along with global media and marketing agencies, generate body dysmorphias and insecurities in order to women and sell them a cosmetic remedy. These remedies are usually a derivative of the chemical or extraction industries.
Pornography is a media market where real-life women are forced to have sex on camera, whether they desire that sexual encounter or not. That resulting videotape is then sold and uploaded to a fetish market online (the fetish being vouyerism) where an overwhelmingly male audience is permitted access to the video evidence of the woman's sexual encounter. These videos often feature additional sexually, physically, or emotionally abusive content including slapping, hitting, choking, or the use of racial slurs, offensive stereotypes, gendered insults. Note that It is almost impossible for a passive viewer to know whether a pornographic film features consensual sex or an act of rape.
I'm not sure if anyone else has used the term rape economy before, but I began studying radical feminist theory I began to notice a trend of commodifying female bodies. Please forgive me if this term is used elsewhere, as it is has been hard to search online and see any use of it so far. Regardless, I give it to you all for your use, knowledge, and documentation of female commodification.
