Rape, Assault and other happy things

It's been a while! So today my group presented on Rape Culture etc. I thought the discussion went really well; I was excited to see the class turn so quickly to our campus and to relating these issues personally. Researching rape and discussing it so much in the past couple weeks has been intense. It's been hard because looking at all this terrible and horrific side of our culture is overwhelming. There is so much to fix and it seems impossible. But awareness is the first step.

In the reading we assigned, Valenti talks about something she calls a "rape schedule." We discussed this in class a bit and I got to hear other young women's perspectives. I know I am a rather paranoid person, but I also know this is not that rare. Hearing both sides of the spectrum - women who are over-alert like myself and women who don't worry much about it - was very interesting. Listening to the guys asking questions and relating it to personal experience was also one of my favorite parts of the discussion. Some men, particularly minorities, have felt threatened in a similar manner. When you think about it, this fear can be applied, on some level, to any minority. Be it gender minorities or minorities in race, sexual orientation, religion, etc. It all makes perfect sense.

Also on the subject of rape/sexual assault on college campuses, this is an interesting project I came across: http://acvoice.com/2012/10/23/surviving-at-amherst-college/. If you scroll down there are photos featuring what rape victims were told by college official, friends, perpetrators, and others. One of the ones that stood out to me: “Are you sure it was rape? He seems to think it was a little more complicated.”
 from an Amherst College Administrator.

I'll hopefully be continuing to update again. Looking forward to leaving the presenting to other groups and hearing what they have to say.

-Sara

Backbone Zone ads

I love these ads, and I am really happy to see them up around campus, though I wish they were in more prominent places then the hallway to the bookstore and health and wellness... The use of the the word "violent" in these ads caught my attention ("Sexist and homophobic words are violent and they're everybody's problem") and made me think of Gender and Conflict. In the tiny print it also says "violent words support violence." I think my other favorite thing about these is the tag line of the campaign - "Everybody has a backbone. Use yours." I can't phrase exactly what I like about it, but it's something about the no-excuses phrasing.


All the posters are shown here on their website:http://www.mecasa.org/backbone/materials.html

Also...

I came across this article/blog post and I thought it was very relevant to our topic: http://viewsfromthecouch.com/2012/02/12/you-didnt-thank-me-for-punching-you-in-the-fac/
[warning: language]

It talks about how messed up it is that we tell our little girls "oh, he's only pulling your hair/pushing you/teasing you because he LIKES you." And what that really is saying about the relationship between boys and girls. Messed up, right? It's super short, and very interesting!