More research is being done to determine how rape myths affects bystanders when they see or hear of a rape.
Not enough research has been on rape myths and bystander attitudes for different ethnicities to make any generalizations based on race.
But sexual violence is much more than a weapon of war, activists said, and reflect widespread acceptance of patriarchal norms and rape myths.
Such "rape myths" are social messages that command women to assume pre-defined gender roles concerning sexual behavior.
Rape culture perpetuates particular rape myths that are then codified into law.
But with all their noise about rape myths, rape-crisis feminists are generating their own.
However, they also state that "individuals may endorse rape myths and at the same time recognize the negative effects of rape."
MacKinnon argued that pornography leads to an increase in sexual violence against women through fostering rape myths.
Such rape myths include the belief that women really want to be raped and that they mean yes when they say no.
It gives docudrama authenticity to what has been called the "rape myth," namely, the notion that women secretly want to be raped.