In college culture, drinking laws are thrown out the door, and replaced with the hurriedness of adult situations, that a student may take advantage of. Journalists Emma Brown, Steve Hendrix, and Susan Svrluga of The Washington Post find that, in a student poll, “...dozens of students who responded in the poll...had experienced unwanted sexual contact while in college, most said they had been drinking before the incident.”2 Alcohol is truly a vice to the college student; often loosening one up, but “blurring the lines” between consent and rape. The “Yes Means Yes” law takes away the ambivalence of what is or is not consent; if they are not sober enough to willingly agree, they simply do not consent. This takes away the idea of someone continuing an unwanted sexual act, simply because the partner does not protest. In an interview with student victims of sexual assault, “Some said they had been too drunk to know or articulate what they wanted and what they didn’t want...”.3 To avoid miscommunications in inevitable college drinking situations, it is easiest to take all interpretations away from consent, and have there only be one single keyword, that is understood by all. Although indeed precarious circumstances, the victim should never have to be blamed and burdened with an attacker’s malicious …show more content…
An all-too-common response to sexual harassment on campus is to somehow blame of the victim; proclaiming they “asked for it” in some subtle way. The “Blame the Victim” style of movement enforces that women should sit down, shut up, and cover up in order to not seemingly “invite” a perpetrator's attention. The “Yes Means Yes” law takes away the oppression of sexual assault victims, and begins to put the blame on the offender for their crimes, rather than a victim for their skin-tight dress and stilettos; it denounces the ignominy that coincides with existing as a sexual being, and instead, propels justice. Vice President Joe Biden4 elaborates upon the issue, stating that , “No matter what she’s wearing, no matter whether she’s in a bar, in a dormitory, in the back seat of a car, on a street, drunk or sober — no man has a right to go beyond the word no.”5 The “Yes Means Yes” law further explains the rigidity of dual consent, no matter what someone may imply, the only way to know is through permission. It also takes away the excuses of “not knowing” if a member is not complying, because they did not protest. Yale Law Student and feminist Alexandra Brodsky explains that, “We cling to a faith that respectability is protective, comforted by the myth that with longer skirts and fewer drinks we can differentiate ourselves from those vulnerable to rape.”6 In reality, no change in appearance or attitude can prevent rape, but the new law applicable in California schools can provide comfort to those who fear false allegations, and impaired motives. Nothing is longer open to interpretation, through any sort of excuse or
Allegations of sexual harassment are thrown about freely in today’s society and it seems that individuals do not fully understand the gravity of the word or what it actually conveys. Daijah Wilkins, a senior this year explained that until her sophomore year she didn’t fully understand either. She was standing in the hallway when she overheard a teacher, Mrs. O’Conner, tell a couple that she felt sexually harassed by their actions. The couple, as well as Daijah couldn’t understand how that could be possible when the two were simply kissing. After the students explained to Mrs. O’Conner that sexual harassment was only possible if someone physically touched another
In the article “Athletic club weekend turns into a nightmare for college freshman” by Carol smith and Lee Van Der Voo, Emily Lorenzen shares her story of being a rape victim. Emily shares her account because she wants to help to prevent rape from happening to anyone else. After interviewing Emily the authors shared a statement expressing that “Emily lorenzen believes that if people hear her story, they will be more comfortable confronting the issue of sexual assault on campus. She wants more conversation, so that men get a clearer definition of rape, face stiffer penalties if they ignore it and administrators learn to reach out to women like her and show compassion. She especially wants bystanders to step up and protect people who are vulnerable.” Rape victims need support to not feel guilty or ashamed, and that is exactly what Emily and her father desire. On this topic, Shipman an influential contributor of the Spokane sexual assault
In Daniel Luzer’s article, “Is Alcohol Really to Blame for the Prevalence of Sexual Assault on College Campuses?” published on November 18, 2013 by Pacific Standard, the author argues that alcohol is not the only thing to blame for sexual assault on college campuses. He observed that alcohol has always been a risk factor when it comes to sexual assault, but drinking is not what has changed throughout the years. What has changed is the way men and women socialize with one another. Throughout the years, interaction between young men and women in college has become less instructed. Back then colleges were not coed and there were rules for when women were allowed in the male dorms including certain times they were allowed there. There are not as
In Daniel Luzer’s article “Is Alcohol Really to Blame for the Prevalence of Sexual Assault on College Campuses?” he suggesting that alcohol is not the reason for the continuous sexual assaults at the college level, published on November 18, 2013 by Pacific Standard. In this article Daniel along with other sources suggest that all of the sexual assaults in college, although may involve alcohol, should not be blamed on alcohol, but on the society we have become. They suggest how college students mingle today is different than how they did years ago, and college students are not assaulting females because they are drunk, but because they have not been taught that it is wrong to do so. Different studies have shown that alcohol in colleges has not
In Daniel Luzer’s article titled “Is Alcohol Really to Blame for the Prevalence of Sexual Assault on College Campuses?” published on November 18th, 2013 by Pacific Standard, the reality about sexual assault is shared. While in college, many teens are reporting more sexual assault cases on campus, but is alcohol really to blame? Due to the consumption of alcohol, behavior changes occur for both men and women. Many believe girls are at fault for putting themselves in the position to be assaulted because of their decision to drink. On the other hand, people also blame the boys for their drunken violence towards girls while intoxicated. Alcohol is not the only misdemeanor in this case. Throughout history, changes are occurring in teens’ social
In Daniel Luzer’s article “Is Alchohol Really to Blame for the Prevalence of Sexual Assault on College Campuses?” publish in Pacific Standard, on the 18th of November in 2013, the answer to the question is shared. In several cases of sexual assault drinking is present. Even though, drinking has continuously been done by numerous college students over the years the number of assaults are continuing to rise. Why is this happening so often? According to Luzer, things have changed from the past, but not the amount of drinking being done by students. Environments in which boys and girls have now has changed drastically compared to the past. Rules have changed, dorms, going to church, the way students dress, and other factors have all changed. Therefore,
In David Luzer’s article “Is Alcohol Really to Blame for the Prevalence of Sexual Assault on College Campuses?” published on November 18 2015 by Pacific Standard, introduces that alcohol is not entirely to blame for the matter of rises in sexual assault. After thoroughly overviewing the many cases of sexual assault from modern time to back mid 1900’s, before co-educated colleges they realized the numbers have significantly increased. Without any evidence as to why except the common factor alcohol, they started to put blame where it does not belong. Alarmingly, the numbers have increased in many colleges causing people to caution woman about how they act at celebrations. Many people disagreed with the caution of woman, and decided the blame
‘Sexual Violence is more than just a crime against individuals. It threatens our families; it threatens our communities. Ultimately, it threatens the entire country’ (qtd. in Burleigh pg. 2). In the article, “Confronting Campus Rape” written by Nina Burleigh; a writer, journalist, and professor at Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, describes what students are doing to force universities to take a stronger stand against campus sexual assault. Moreover Burleigh describes what the government is doing to make a difference on the issue. This includes laws that have created consequences for the assaulter and laws that protect the victim. According to Burleigh, a young woman called Laura Dunn was sexually assaulted on campus. Dunn was a student of UW. On April 4th, 2014, Dunn lost her virginity to two UW athletes. That night, Dunn was attending a party at the university. Dunn was enjoying the party and lost count of her alcohol intake. Dunn remembers being led out by two older teammates, who she knew. Dunn was very intoxicated, enough to stumble on her way back to what she thought would be another campus party, as one of the athletes helped her walk. The athletes led Dunn to one of their apartments where she found herself on a bed with both of them on top of her. Dunn was so intoxicated that she couldn’t help but to drift in and out of conscious leaving her unable to stop the two men. Dunn began to feel sick and was led to the bathroom by one of the athletes, where he penetrated her from behind while she was throwing up. That was a date Dunn would never forget. Dunn like many other women at the UW have been sexually abused by other students. Although Dun’s incident is shocking, it is not uncommon for women to be sexually assaulted on campus. A woman at the university of Wisconsin is more prone to being sexually assaulted than any other woman in the country because of alcohol intoxication; this is a problem that must be resolved.
In her essay,” ‘Hooking Up’: What Educators Need to Know”, Kathleen A. Bogle illustrates that college students are having more casual sex aka ”Hooking Up” (248). Also Educators need be able to tell the different of casual sex and sexual assault. Bogle illustrates hooking up is a more common practice because the shift of social and dating. She explains that hooking up is the new dating system for college students to find “sexual and romantic partners” (249). According to Bogle hooking up is the thing to do for today’s generation even if it has been a part of social culture since the 1960s. Because so many students are doing it in today’s generation Bogle believes hook up culture has changed the way we react to subjects such as sexual assault. “Sexual assault on the college campus stems from the ambiguity of the ’unable to consent’ provision of state laws” (Bogle 250). “Hooking Up” usually occurs at parties towards the in the night when students are under the influence of alcohol. In Bogle’s view the shift of dating practices to hooking up have created more problems in the prevention of rape. She goes to explain that because of the rise in drunken hookups sexual assault is no longer limited to date rape situations. Bogle states that students also have a hard time of distinguishing a sexual encounter and rape due to victim-blaming. Bogle stresses that though college administrators can’t stop the fact that students are going to hook up they should educate students more on the
When congress passed the gender-equality law known as Title IX (1972) more than 40 years ago, no one expected it to make colleges responsible for handling sexual assault. Title IX was a “stealth law” aimed at helping women get through the doors of higher education and is now being interpreted to require colleges to investigate and resolve students reports of rape, determining whether their classmates are responsible for assault and, if so, what the punishment should be. (Wilson, Paragraph 1-2) The term Sexual Assault was defined by the district as any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient. With that definition, the term on campus was
This paper will discuss sexual assault policy from 1972 to 2013. Sexual assault has been addressed in six pieces of legislature. Two of the six policies are layered policies intended to amend failures in preceding policy. Current sexual assault policy exists in the form of Title IX of 1972, the Victims of Crime Act of 1984, the Jeanne Clery Act of 1990, the Campus SaVE Act of 2013, and the SAFER Act of 2013. Of the six, the Campus SaVE Act and SAFER Act were both created to amend earlier policy – the timeline of this amendment reflects several key actions by President Barack Obama and his Vice President Joe Biden. This will be further expand on later in this paper.
Current data and statistics involving sexual assaults on college campuses are very sad and depressing. According to Monique DiCarlo, who used data from the Department of Justice, 1 in 5 women are likely to be sexually assaulted during their time on campus (M. DiCarlo, personal presentation, October 17). However, many of these assaults go unreported to authorities or the universities. Some of the reasons victims do not report are because victims do not believe the school will do anything or help, do not believe it to be important enough to report and fear of reprisal (M. DiCarlo, personal presentation, October 17). With major advancements in policy including Title IX, the Cleary Act, and defining what is consent, one could assume sexual assaults on campuses should be declining. However, sexual assaults are not declining and many departments such as athletics and international student offices have to deal with the problem. In this paper, I will discuss the current climate of sexual assault on campus, provide a brief overview of rights and protections of Title IX, discuss how the office of international student services could be impacted and how Title IX coordinators are handling the problem and what still needs to be done to help protect all students.
A stressed college student, Margot, is walking back to her dorm late at night when suddenly she feels a tap on her shoulder. When she turns around, she sees a seemingly kind face of a peer. He offers to walk her to her dorm and asks to come inside. The next day she is still in shock from the night before, she never said no when he came onto her, but she never said yes either. She doesn’t want to cry rape in fear of what people might think. This is the harsh reality for college students all across the United States today. Nobody wants to believe that their child or friend could be guilty of such a harsh, but common crime. The truth is, these crimes happen on a daily basis. Sexual assault has been an issue on college campuses since the early
“Among undergraduate students, 23.1% of females and 5.4% of males experience rape or sexual assault” (RAINN). Rape is a threat virtually anywhere people go, but no place has a higher risk for sexual assault than college campuses. However, many of these occurrences go without penalties against the attacker, and even more are not reported at all. The lack of consequences for the accused indirectly suggests that rape and other forms of sexual assault are allowable and create further problems for the victims of the horrendous actions. Harsher punishments need to be given out for sexual assault on campus, as the current rulings are biased and immoral.
One night, “Amy,” a student at State, was hanging out with some friends in her room. “A bunch of people were there, and one guy I didn’t know was obviously drunk and kept asking me out. I tried to brush him off, and didn’t take it seriously because he was drunk. I left to go to sleep. “He followed me to my room and kept banging on my bedroom door, trying to push it open and asking me to talk to him. I talked to him for a little while just to appease him.” Finally, the guy’s friends coaxed him away from Amy’s door. “I don’t know if that’s sexual harassment,” she said. “I wasn’t worried that he was going to assault me. The whole thing was just annoying.”