April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. It’s important to spread awareness, but this needs to happen more than one month a year in order to end rape culture. Don’t get me wrong– I think dedicating a month to sexual assault awareness is very helpful and a great thing to do, but more needs to be done.
“Preventing sexual assault takes more than giving women whistles or self-defense training,” explains Ethan Miller, student activist from American University in his article “Sexual Assault Awareness: Not Just a Month” for Huffington Post. “It takes more than safe-ride programs, well-lit streets and emergency blue phones lining college quadrangles.” A new culture of consent needs to be promoted. In our culture now, there’s a “narrative of masculinity, which currently revolves around roles of dominance and sexual conquest,” says Miller. There needs to be a lot more education for the public in order to change the current culture, and this should start on college campuses.
One in four women are raped on college campuses, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. This is an incredibly alarming statistic, and it is crucial to change this as soon as possible.
First, everyone needs to understand what rape is. The most recent definition of rape is defined by the U.S. Justice Department as, “penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.” Consent needs to be a very clear thing. The second someone says no in any way to any sexual act, it becomes sexual assault. Even if someone is about to have sex, and they’ve been consenting to everything up to that point, the second they say no to anything, going any farther is sexual assault. If you don’t want it to happen, it shouldn’t happen.
Second, everyone needs to understand that there is no spectrum when it comes to blaming either the victim or the aggressor. As an example, I’m going to describe two scenarios. In the first, a conservatively dressed woman is attacked and sexually assaulted by a stranger while walking to her car. In the second, a scantily clad woman is flirting with and kissing a man in a bar, but then he goes farther with her than what she consents to. Both women are as equally innocent. There’s no such thing as “asking for it.” Boundaries should not be crossed no matter how “far” someone goes in tempting them. There’s absolutely no spectrum when it comes to fault in sexual assault cases. It’s black and white: either yes or no. As soon as there’s a no, the blame is completely on the assaulter.
I’ve learned this might be a difficult concept for some college students to understand. I am a surviving victim of sexual assault, and I was talking with my close friends about it a couple months ago. One of them said, “Well, Bella…maybe you don’t realize that, by the way you act, you might make guys think they can go farther than you actually want them to.” This is the exact, infuriating misconception people have about victim-blaming. It doesn’t matter how the victim acts– as soon as they say no, or push their aggressor away, or anything implying non-consent, it is sexual assault. They could have been flirting, they could not have been flirting– it doesn’t matter. Either way, it’s zero percent the victim’s fault and 100 percent the rapist’s fault. For some reason, this is difficult for some people to understand.
Another thing that comes in to play with sexual assault is intoxication. Even if someone doesn’t say no, it is still assault if they are too drunk or high to give consent. According to Dr. Kathleen Young on her self-titled website, 74 percent of all sexual assaults involved alcohol. In some scenarios, “scoring” with an overly intoxicated girl at a party could actually be completely taking advantage of someone who is incapable of giving consent– just because there wasn’t a no doesn’t mean it was a yes.
Men of Strength (a violence prevention program for mobilizing young men to prevent sexual and dating violence), Students Active for Ending Rape (a group that empowers students to hold their universities accountable for having strong campus sexual assault policies and programming) and One in Four (a non-profit organization dedicated to the prevention of rape by the thoughtful application of theory and research to rape prevention programming) are just a few student organizations that should be spread to as many campuses as possible. On our campus, we have a Victim’s Advocate program, which, according to the UT website, is designed to “assist victims of sexual assault/misconduct…[and] help victims examine options and make personal choices.” If you feel that you need any sort of help, even just someone to talk to, after being assaulted, contact VA via your Residence Life staff member or directly by calling 813-257-3900.
Hopefully, education and awareness will grow in time. Although there are resources for sexual assault victims on most campuses, there is a lack of education among college students. We need to help people understand that sexual assault is a serious problem that affects them and their loved ones. Daniel Rappaport (Sexual Assault Prevention Coordinator at American University) said on Huffingtonpost.com, “you cannot change a culture by saying ‘this is wrong,’ saying that this is how it has got to be, but rather through education, broadening perspectives and meeting people where they’re at.” Education is key– and it needs to be year-round, not for only a month.
Annabella Palopoli can be reached at annabella.palopoli@spartans.ut.edu.