1/29/15

Earlier this week, and last week I decided to look further into the Cultural Studies of rape/sexual assault of college campuses. This has been a very interesting topic because I am a college student, and face the same academic and social pressures as any other college student does. However, I feel it is very troubling to see the statistics and high numbers of those who have fallen victim to sexual assaults on college campuses.

I have found many articles explaining certain recent, and even older cases of rape and sexual assault. However, one was very interesting to me more so than any others. The article was about over 40 sexual abuse cases which went unnoticed and ultimately downplayed at a Christian University.

In class on Thursday, we were asked to break off into groups and discuss something we would like to go into more detail about as a class. This is the topic I chose to talk more about. I wanted to discuss the differences of values that separate private universities from public universities. It is clear that the values held at private universities are usually more faith oriented, and therefore should take the act of sexual abuse much more seriously. The fact that these schools are so much smaller than large public universities makes it appalling to me that over 40 cases of sexual abuse at this one school were undermined.

The article was one from the President of the university, openly apologizing to these 40 victims for not creating a loving environment in which they hold standard under their own values system. When we talked about this further in class, we came to the conclusion that it was very bold of the University to come forth and say these kinds of things to the press and media. It was very brave to not "hush-up" this situation. It was also an admission of guilt [which would stand up in their defense in the court of law]. At any other large institution, people of a higher power are told not to apologize. However, that is why this case is so much different. It is important for other universities to also take an admission of guilt, and to empathize victims of acts such as rape and sexual assault.

In class, we also talked about what we would ban in order to put a halter in sexual assault. We could not come up with anything, because we felt that banning anything is only going to have a backfire effect. You cannot regulate things such as alcohol consumption, etc. People will always find their way around it. Instead, we came up with certain positive steps in which would potentially help with sexual assault awareness.
Here is what we came up with:
1) required campus apps
2) gender-oriented sexual assault awareness classes
3) social media safety programs
4) more qualified people dealing with rape victims
5) ABC=Always Be Cautious.

Culture of Silence

Article: 
http://womensissues.about.com/od/rapesexualassault/a/rapeoncampus.htm

It is becoming increasingly more aware that only 60% of rapes that occur are actually reported. This number is startling to me, because the number of rapes that happen annually is larger than we can believe. Women have a much higher chance of being sexually assaulted on college campuses than men. In fact, only 95% of rapes that occur on college campuses are never reported.

From the article: "Many victims don't report at all, because they blame themselves, or don't identify what happened as sexual assault.... Local criminal justice authorities regularly shy away from such cases, because they are "he said, she said" disputes sometimes clouded by drugs or alcohol."

At first, I was confused why this number was so large. Why would anyone choose not to tell their story and get the justice they deserve? Well, there are so many reasons as to why someone would not want to report their sexual abuser to the police. For one, there is the social factor of it all. There can be scrutiny, intense questioning, and even doubtfulness from your peers.

There is also a phenomenon called, "blaming the victim". Often times, especially in the media it is depicted that the victim was essentially "asking for it". Whether the victim had been drinking, under the influence, or even wearing provocative clothing. That basically means, if a young women was drinking than it is her fault for putting herself in that vulnerable position.

There is also something called slut shaming. Basically, by the humiliation and scrutiny a person can undergo, the victim it will essentially dissuade to come forth.

Blog Post 2-After class discussion

I have heard of many instances of sexual abuse. One in particular happened in my own hometown. I was in third grade when my best friend of the time had tole me her stepfather had been sexually abusing her. At the time we were so young that it was hard to comprehend. Therefore, I told my mom who contacted the school. We talked to my friend about it, and she agreed to talk to her mom about the situation. Even though it broke up her mother's new relationship, it was the right thing to do. My friend and her mother moved away and that was the last time I had heard from her and her family. Thinking back on it now, it is very hard to even understand how hard it must have been for my friend to tell her mother this kind of thing. It made me think of how many other people going through this problem decide not to come forward, just because of other outlying factors in their lives. Any type of sexual harassment, assault, or rape is devastating to the victims. However, when people question those who claim to have been sexually violated it makes me question our society altogether. As if this person has not been going through enough, now they have to face the scrutiny and judgement of the public eye.

As far as sexual abuse on college campuses, there are a lot of things we went over in class today that I found interesting. There are a lot of things to take into account when understanding the culture that surrounds sexual assault. There is a lot of rhetoric that goes into how one perceives this phenomena. How do we as people understand why this type of thing happens? There is honestly no way to wrap your head around this kind of thing or justify why it happens.

We also talked about the people in colleges or universities are in charge of dealing with sexual assault on campus. How do they go about it, and what do they do to help the victims? These are some questions we pondered.

Should colleges be held more liable to increase the amount of knowledge their students go through while in school? Should the students be held liable for their own well-being? Colleges cannot make you make good choices. They can however, make it more well known as to what good choices are, and how they can be made. However, how can you go about applying this knowledge in the most constructive way to their students? Of course, colleges will spend most of their money on what they find most important to their own set of values. An example would be providing core classes, or changing the general education models to provide knowledge and prevention of sexual assault, abuse, etc. There are going to be problems, constraints, and overall logistics that all universities will have to acknowledge. Budgeting models always shed light on what a university finds more valuable and lucrative to their establishment.

Blog Post 2

Facts group: Legal definitions of sexual harassment and sexual assault. Survey results about harassment and rape: Who does it? How many people are subjected to it?

Sexual Harassment:
harassment (typically of a woman) in a workplace, or other professional or social situation, involving the making of unwanted sexual advances or obscene remarks.

Sexual Assault:
is any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient.  

 Sexual violence can refer to a lot of things. It can happen to anyone, and anyone can be the "perpetrator". Whether it is someone you trust, or a stranger all forms of sexual violence are punishable by law.
I heard that most victims know their attacker..that is the most disturbing thing I have heard and yet, it does not surprise me.
-I looked up factors that may increase the risks for sexual assault. This is what I found:
-sorority membership, having numerous sexual partners, being an under clansmen at a school or institution, certain days of the week (more then 1/2 of sexual assaults take place on the weekends between midnight and 6 am), being at an off-campus party, being intoxicated.

-Factors that affect physically forced sexual assault:
-experience with prior sexual assault, experience dating violence before, experience with multiple sexual partners, race.


I have heard of many instances of sexual abuse. One in particular happened in my own hometown. I was in third grade when my best friend of the time had tole me her stepfather had been sexually abusing her. At the time we were so young that it was hard to comprehend. Therefore, I told my mom who contacted the school. We talked to my friend about it, and she agreed to talk to her mom about the situation. Even though it broke up her mother's new relationship, it was the right thing to do. My friend and her mother moved away and that was the last time I had heard from her and her family. Thinking back on it now, it is very hard to even understand how hard it must have been for my friend to tell her mother this kind of thing. It made me think of how many other people going through this problem decide not to come forward, just because of other outlying factors in their lives. Any type of sexual harassment, assault, or rape is devastating to the victims. However, when people question those who claim to have been sexually violated it makes me question our society altogether. As if this person has not been going through enough, now they have to face the scrutiny and judgement of the public eye.

Blog Post 1-After Class Response

I felt that today's discussion on rape culture was particularly important. Before I get into that, I also find it very interesting how much the ancient ideals of earlier rhetors still applies to today's society. Today we started talking about commonplaces. This is especially apparent with ideals such as rape culture. Rape culture is something that is kind of widely accepted, and not unusual at all. We have become so normalized to this state of mind that it is undeniably a large factor into why rape happens.
We also talked about Aristotle's questions, in regards to rape. How did it happen? Why did it happen? Did it really happen?
There are many commonplaces that surround sexual harassment. My group and I talked about the degrees in which something can happen. When certain degrees of rape are normalized to sound less harmful than others, it is easier for the media, and the greater public to accept why rape happens. Therefore, what will the future of our society hold in terms of rape culture? Well, honestly it seems that not much is going to change. In our day and age a lot of perpetrators are being protected due to their gender, race, class, and profession. As long as this type of scapegoat exists, so will the rape culture that surrounds it. We talked about many cases in which football players get away with rape, due to their profession. It is as though the gender roles placed in our society place women as lower, or even less valuable...

Blog Post 1

There was one particular article I came across in my last semesters English 301 class. It was an especially disturbing case of rape in which a younger girl in middle school was raper repeatedly by 5 twenty year old boys. After reading the article I felt disgusted in humanity, and asked myself what the reason for going over this in class could be? Well, the article and the way in which it was written had a very disturbing message. The class went through each section line by line, and really pulled apart the rhetoric of the article. The article would not state the young girls name. In fact she was De - personalized in a way that seemed cruel and unimportant. The reporter included that she was wearing a tank top and makeup. It also went over the fact of all the speculations this town had about the incident. They could not believe such an act could happen in their perfect small town. The article became more or less about the poor town, and how will they recover from it? What was disturbing was the fact that no one seemed to care about how could this act of aggression be taken out on a young innocent girl. Today, in the media especially there is a lot of speculation over rage cases. There is a sort of culture centered around these acts. For one, the women who have been violated often never truly get justice. Even if they win a short appeal, they will still have to deal with this sort of trauma for the rest of her life.

The rape culture we live in is so normalized that a reporter can be able to say "the young girl was wearing makeup, etc." and make it as though it is the girl's fault that this happened. I was so horrified that this piece of crap could have even gotten published in the first place, yet in our society it is not uncommon.