Description:
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This study investigated the relationship between prostitution myth acceptance and rape myth acceptance in a sample of university undergraduates. Violent behaviors against women are associated with culturally supported attitudes that encourage men to feel entitled to sexual access to women, to feel superior to women, or to feel that they have license as sexual aggressors. Rape myths and prostitution myths are components of these culturally supported attitudes that normalize violence against women. Prostitution myths justify the existence of prostitution, promote misinformation about prostitution, and contribute to a social climate that exploits and harms not only prostituted women, but all women. Rape myth acceptance was positively correlated with prostitution myth acceptance among 783 university undergraduates from California, Iowa, Oregon and Texas.College men were significantly more accepting of prostitution myths than were college women. Results suggest that acceptance of prostitution myths might be a component of attitudes that justify violence against women. |