We speak of rape culture because it is crucial to recognize the often public nature of normalized violence in the United States. Street harassment for example occurs in public, in plain view of bystanders and witnesses. It can be argued, as scholar Michael Flood does, that the performance of masculinity, as evidences by acts of street harassment (formerly known as cat-calling), are actually enacted not for the woman on the receiving end, but for other male witnesses. The men who are witnessing serve to validate the masculinity of the harasser. Flood investigates the role of homosociality–the non-sexual bonds and relationships between men–in perpetuating a violent rape culture.
– Brett Goldberg
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