The Detrimental Affect Sexual Abuse has on Mental Wellbeing as Shown in ‘Pop-Culture’ and Modern Literature

Abstract

Rape, by definition is; ‘The crime, typically committed by a man, of forcing another person to have sexual intercourse with the offender against their will.’[1] Rape is caused by rapists. Not by the volume of alcohol someone has consumed, not by how a person behaves or what they happened to be wearing. Including what is beneath their clothes. Age is irrelevant. They can be either male or female, “typically by a man,” although not false, the stigmatism behind the victim consistently being female with a male abuser is staggering, the OED even implies this stereotype. A stigma which Chbosky removes throughout his novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower. How would having sex with a person ‘against their will’ affect, ‘a person’s condition with regard to their psychological and emotional well-being?’[2] Sexual abuse and its harmful psychological affects is still a taboo subject throughout contemporary culture, even in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, the reader is unaware what has happened to Charlie until the end of the novel, as is Charlie.

[1] OED, (2018) <https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/rape> [accessed 19 November 2018].

[2] OED, (2018) <https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/mental_health> [accessed 19 November 2018].