Part #2 Philosophy Cover Letter:

Rape Culture is nothing to look past. It is a culture where there is a certain attitude and
certain behaviors of normalizing sexual assault. Many people, men and women, have been
affected by the unfortunate culture. Rape culture is still prevalent and there are many
things that need to be done in order to work towards taking it down.

There are many places where I think rape culture is more active, one being college
campuses. One example of this is from an article by Molly Hopkins, ​Sexual Assault on
College Campuses: Feeding a Culture of Dismissal. I​t states, “The central issue of campus
sexual assaults is the lack of justice for victims. A small percentage of victims of sexual
assault report their perpetrator and those that do are routinely dismissed. Perpetrators are
not punished but rather slapped on the wrist and told not to do it again. Some schools are
stricter on plagiarism than rape.” I believe this to be true, as well. After reading about life
on campus with sexual assault, there are not many regulations that the administration can
or has instilled in order to punish these students. The students who have participated in
rape culture should be held responsible for their actions, whether that includes expulsion
and/or prison time. Understanding and having an idea of what rape culture is like on
college campuses and then coming up with new ideas on how to get rid of it will be crucial.

Another interesting piece of research, that I have developed an opinion on, is how many
people are taught how to avoid sexual assault when, really, people should be taught how to
not commit sexual assault. There are many strategies and tools to help people when they
are in danger of getting raped, but I think that those tools and strategies really show what
is wrong with many places and people. Many people want to deny the truth. From an article
by TIME, ​Rape Culture is Real, ​it explains, “It’s no surprise that we would refuse to
acknowledge that rape and sexual violence is the norm, not the exception. It’s no surprise
because most of us would rather believe that the terrible realities we hear about aren’t real
or that, at least, we can’t do anything about it. The truth is ugly. But by denying the obvious,
we continue to allow rapists to go unpunished and leave survivors silenced.” A main theme
around rape culture is that it is ignored and looked passed. Speaking out, sharing stories,
and telling the truth is key to destroying this culture. I think that many people who
participate in the rape culture are seeking some sort of power or perhaps they simply
haven’t learned about consent. There are many theories as to why people rape and I want
to dig deeper to reveal that and really understand what goes through peoples’ minds. I
think it is important to hold these people responsible and work towards making change.
My overall understanding and opinion is that we know that there are still many things
wrong and there are still people that have never had to deal with the punishment after
committing these crimes. We need to have some sort of system to really help and teach
people, whether it is part of our national school curriculum or available educational
resources, to not rape and help people understand what consent means and the seriouse
consequences that could come if someone were to commit such crimes. Rape culture is a
very sad and horrendouse thing and it needs to be demolished.

Sources:
Hopkins, Molly. “Sexual Assault on College Campuses: Feeding a Culture of Dismissal.”
Sexual Assault on College Campuses: Feeding a Culture of Dismissal - Ramapo Journal of
Law & Society​,
www.ramapo.edu/law-journal/thesis/sexual-assault-college-campuses-feeding-cultu
re-dismissal/​.

Maxwell, Zerlina. “Rape Culture Is Real.” ​Time​, Time, 27 Mar. 2014,

time.com/40110/rape-culture-is-real/​.

10 9 8 7 5 0
Complete Strong execution Meets the Approaching the Below the Standard is not
execution of the with some room to standard standard standard present in the
standard improve paper
 
Category Score/Feedback

Depth of Thinking and Argumentation (10) - I did a good job at adding my

● Student shows DEEP thinking about their philosophy arguments and my own perspective
of justice and why I thought what I thought.
● Student defends their philosophy with sound - I think I could have dug deeper even
argumentation more in having more opinion and more
● Students’ commentary and evaluation makes thoughts to add. I should have made
connections between any evidence or examples or more connections. ​9
makes connections between another text.
● Student incorporates ​at least 2 ​outside texts from
their issue research
● Each paragraph is focused around a clear idea that is
relevant to the main argument
● Argument is logical and persuasive

Applying your Knowledge (5) - I did good at taking what I knew about
● Student is able to meaningfully apply philosophical justice and find something I was
 concepts learned during this unit to their chosen interested in. ​10
issue

Refinement/Beauty (5) - I think I did a good job reading this over

● Cover letter meets the minimum length requirement and doing some refinement after my
● Meaning of your sentences is clear and easy to peer critique. I think it is clear and easy
follow to follow.
● Cover letter is carefully proofread for grammar, - I could have added more strategies, to
spelling, and punctuation errors bring in the reader. I could have made
● Cover letter incorporates rhetorical strategies to it even more interesting and relatable.
maximize impact on the audience 8
● Cover letter has been refined for grammatical
mistakes and contains no typos
● Try to use proper in-text citation formatting! ​We’re
practicing now so we can play to perfection with the
thesis paper next semester.