The Million Dollar Question

     In my last post, I merely speculated that traditional gender roles are what lead to sexual assault. However, an article by Rutgers Student Affairs all but confirms this. The article elaborates on gender roles in sexual assault, making clear that offenders take advantage of their more powerful role to abuse women. Even though their actions are ill-intended and can leave their victims psychologically damaged, the article still claims "a man who pressures a woman for sex is often perceived as behaving acceptably" (Rutgers par. 3) The offenders also take advantage of alcohol or drugs, whether by forcing them on their targets or simply waiting for them to get drunk, to put them in an even more submissive state. Although it is not a direct cause of sexual assault, many tend to blame the victim rather than the abuser, therefore enabling the abuser to continue doing what they do.

     Refer back to the essay by Jessica Bauer from my past post, Roles and Rejection. Bauer was a P.E.E.R. (Peer Educators for an Environment free of Rape and Sexual Exploitation) educator for the University of Pittsburgh. (Bauer par. 1) During her time at the University of Pittsburgh, a group of frat boys gang raped a drunken freshman during a party. The incident spread like wildfire across campus, yet nobody from the fraternity came forward about what their bretheren did. The freshman finally made the brave choice of coming forward herself, which is very hard for assault victims to do considering the shame that follows. The outcome? The freshman was ridiculed by her fellow students, who refused to believe she had actually been assaulted. Meanwhile, the fraternity only revoked their privileges to accept pledges during the semester. The freshman, a "broken women" at that point, attempted to continue her education but ultimately dropped out.

     Sound familiar? That was every point of the Rutgers article in action. The girl was intoxicated, the fraternity had the power position when they assaulted her, and the victim ended up taking the brunt of the shame rather than the abusers. I'm sure the author of the Rutgers article would understand the causes of the case in Bauer's article. Teaching women to protect themselves is valuable, but we could just as easily apply those principles to those with more power.

     Which brings us to our million dollar question. How do we teach men not to assault women?

A student designs a T-shirt as a band performs in the background at a Take Back The Night event at Front Range Community College's Boulder County Campus. These events are run all over the country to bring awareness to sexual assault and ways to prevent it. Photo by Cliff Grassmick of the Longmont Times Call.

     Rather, where do we begin? Upheaving gender roles that have been rooted in our society for centuries is no easy undertaking. However, it's just as important to take small steps toward the ultimate goal. Ujamaa Africa, a non-profit organization centered around empowering the vulnerable, runs a program called "Your Moment Of Truth" in Kenya. 1 out of every 4 school girls experience sexual abuse in Kenya, a testament to how rampant rape runs in their country. Your Moment Of Truth teaches young men and boys about the slow normalization of male-on-female abuse in their country and how to effectively counteract it. Building confidence, learning when to say no, and making hard choices are key elements of the course. The course has been very successful; the rate of boys who took the course and believed no meant maybe decreased from 58.5% to 22.8% ("Reducing Rape" par. 3). Additionally, 70% of those who took the course and later witnessed a sexual assault were successfully able to intervene and stop it before it could escalate ("Reducing Rape" par. 3). If men are the ones who hold power, they need to use it for good.

     In other words, boys shouldn't be boys. We should be men.

     In my very first blog post, I brought up a study by RAINN and mentioned the harrowing statistics it utilized. An American is sexually assaulted almost every half minute ("Scope Of The Problem" sec. 3). That's a little over a minute and a half. This leads to 321,500 Americans over the age of 12 being assaulted every year ("Scope Of The Problem" sec. 2). Of these victims, 90% of them are female ("Scope Of The Problem" sec. 3), and 55% of them are assaulted at or near their home ("Scope Of The Problem" sec. 4). Despite these massive numbers, however, sexual assault has actually declined from 1993 to 2016 ("Scope Of The Problem" sec. 1), and it's largely in part to the efforts we've taken to curb sexual assault as much as we can.

     This concludes my research for now. I wholeheartedly believe we need to focus on teaching men about the effects of sexual assault and how they, the ones who are most likely to commit such crimes, can prevent themselves and others from doing it. Will the rate of sexual abuse continue to go down over time? Only time will tell.

Works Cited

“Why Does Sexual Violence Occur?” Violence Prevention and Victim Assistance, vpva.rutgers.edu/sexual-violence/why-does-sexual-violence-occur/.

Bauer, Jessica. "Campus Culture Allows Rape to Go Unpunished." Date Rape, edited by Mary E. Williams, Greenhaven Press, 1998. At Issue. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, http://link.galegroup.com.frccwc.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/EJ3010008235/OVIC?u=west59484&sid=OVIC&xid=1a4a8c79. Accessed 10 July 2019. Originally published as "Duke Rape Case Hits Raw Nerve," ReadingEagle.com, 2006.

“Reducing Rape and Sexual Assault through the Education of Adolescent Boys.” New Tactics in Human Rights, www.newtactics.org/tactic/reducing-rape-and-sexual-assault-through-education-adolescent-boys.

“Scope of the Problem: Statistics.” RAINN, www.rainn.org/statistics/scope-problem.

Roles and Rejection

     In my previous blog post, I said that to truly get to the issue of who to teach, we need to start at the very beginning and analyze traditional gender roles. A peer reviewed article by Amy M. Blackstone describes the history and biology behind the gender roles so firmly rooted in our society. Contrary to how people confuse it, gender refers to the roles humankind has created and assigned to each sex and is a purely social construct. While men were taught to be strong leaders, both mentally and physically, women were taught to nurture their young and raise them into capable human beings. It has even been suggested that "women have a natural affinity toward the feminine gender role and... men have a natural affinity toward the masculine gender role" (Blackstone 3).

A wife serving her husband dinner in an example of the traditional gender roles. Photo by George Marx.

     However, feminists have often remarked that gender roles can be unlearned as easily as they can be learned. They argue these roles are based on outdated and exaggerated stereotypes concerning what men and women should do. For example, males are stereotyped to be cool and stoic, while females are overly emotional and care more about what others think of them than males do (Blackstone 3). They also believe that gender roles come from positions of power, such as men being in control of the fiancial aspects of their families. (Blackstone 3). Is the power position men are normally associated with a reason why sexual assault is usually man on woman?

     An essay by Jessica Bauer would suggest so. It describes a rape case at her university, in which a nearly unconcious freshman girl was gang raped by a fraternity. While the case made the university's newspaper and became the talk of almost everyone around, the members of the fraternity chose to keep it a secret and not let anyone know. The freshman came out about what had happened to her, only for others to decry her case and accuse her of lying. This quickness to disbelieve the words of a broken student came from the Duke rape case, in which a lacrosse team was falsely accused of rape. The end result was the girl eventually dropping out college and being hollow and broken, while the rapists only lost the privilege to accept pledges. "Big freaking deal," Bauer sarcastically describes their punishment. (Par. 2)

     Absolutely pathetic. Why are we so quick to call lies on such a series issue and believe said lies just as easily? What can we do to change this backwards mentality and at least reduce the frequency of these cases? How can we make everyday life more comfortable for women constantly in fear of being assaulted and not even being believed after doing everything in their power to come forward? I will continue to explore the answers and solutions in my next post.

Works Cited:

Blackstone, Amy M. “Gender Roles and Society.” The University Of Maine, Aug. 2003,                           digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=soc_facpub.

Bauer, Jessica. "Campus Culture Allows Rape to Go Unpunished." Date Rape, edited by Mary E. Williams, Greenhaven Press, 1998. At Issue. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, http://link.galegroup.com.frccwc.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/EJ3010008235/OVIC?u=west59484&sid=OVIC&xid=1a4a8c79. Accessed 10 July 2019. Originally published as "Duke Rape Case Hits Raw Nerve," ReadingEagle.com, 2006.

Who Should We Be Teaching?

The question I will be answering in my blog is why we should put more effort into teaching men how not to assault women than teaching women to defend themselves from abuse. This applies to both physical and sexual assault.

(Photo by Rio De Paz)

Throughout time, we have perceived women as subordinate. There was a point in the past where we put them on the same level as children and even animals. Despite men and women being the same species of the same age, the men held all the power and the women were completely under their control. However, many women have clamored for equal rights and slowly narrowed the gap between the rights of men and women. Even today, though, these long-standing traditions stand in the form of regular male-on-female abuse. If we want men and women to be truly equal, we need to do as much as we can to bring these cases to a halt. Women are no longer subordinate playthings. Despite everything tradition has told us, women are just as human as men.

Sexual assault in particular is a harrowing issue of today's society, and women receive the brunt of it. According to a study by the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network, 90% of assault victims in America are women. A particularly scary observation the RAINN study made is 55% of sexual assault cases occur in or near the victim's home. The study also revealed 48% of these sexual assault cases happened while the victim was asleep or doing another activity in their home. Even with the social justice movement on the rise, many women feel unsafe in public due to the looming threat of an assault waiting to happen. We shouldn't need to normalize the constant anxiety women feel about potentially being assaulted without warning, both at home and in public.

I frequently hear about how women should defend themselves when out in public. It makes sense at the surface level, but once I think about it more in-depth, it confuses me why I hear so little about educating men not to abuse women. We are almost treating these regularly occurring instances of abuse as something inevitable, even natural. Why do we do this as a society, even though we have made many attempts to provide equal rights and opportunities to everyone regardless of their race or gender? Why do we focus on finding a workaround for this issue rather than getting right to the source?

To find the answers, I will need to look into sources documenting the history of gender roles both then and now. The feminism movement has spawned a plethora of writers desperate to get their word out, and I feel their works will be vital. I will need to stick to educational resources and peer reviewed journals to find the information I need, however, as I could definitely stumble upon biased and misinformed articles.

“Scope of the Problem: Statistics.” RAINN, www.rainn.org/statistics/scope-problem.