It’s difficult to read campus newspapers recently without seeing accounts of sexual assault, yet the reactions of women on campus have been missing from this deluge of media. Whether the articles in question have been reports on the alarming number of campus assaults, accounts of local atrocities like the rape and near-homicide that occurred on the Capital City Bike Path, discussion of college surveys on the topic, news of reactionary student organizations or opinion pieces, these stories have not represented the fear and disgust expressed in conversation by many of the women I know.
When concerns over safety dictate our actions, whether we go to that party and whether or not we feel secure biking home, it is hard not to feel frustration. Coverage in both The Daily Cardinal and The Badger Herald of the “Take Back the Bike Path” march, a community event providing support for the survivor of the Sept. 12 Capital City Bike Path assault, included the powerful voices of community women, but not students.
A notable quote came from Ali Treviño-Murphy, an instructor at Villari’s Martial Arts and Fitness, who said, “Women are strong, physically, emotionally and mentally. Women survive every day. We survive sexism, we survive being disrespected, we survive on less pay … We fight every single day,” as reported by The Daily Cardinal.
While Treviño-Murphy has crafted a rallying cry of support, women on campus have been primarily silent. To my surprise, the only opinion writers who have broached the topic of sexual assault are male. This is not an inherently bad thing; outrage and reactions to sexual assault shouldn’t be limited to a particular gender, but felt by the community as a whole. However, where it becomes problematic is in the scope of the argument.
In an opinion column of The Daily Cardinal expanding on a stranger grabbing the butt of the male writer’s girlfriend, the writer discussed how he “became sick thinking that it took something like this for me to put it [sexual assault] in the correct context: to view it in a personal light.” This illuminates how important it is to bring men into the conversation, to find a way to make sexual assault personal for everyone, because as the writer pointed out, he is “coming at this from a perspective of an individual that belongs to a group [white, heterosexual men] that, historically, has not had to worry about sexual assault or sexual violence being committed against them.”
Sexual assault is not a women’s issue, it’s not only a feminist issue—it is an intersectional issue that our entire campus community needs to fight.
Although this opinion article was beneficial in the sense that it emphasized bringing sexual assault into the consciousness of white, heterosexual men on campus, the conclusion of the article focused on aftermath, not prevention. An attitude of retaliatory justice, in which we “hope and pray that if you [the stranger] ever do something like that again, an onlooker takes it personally enough to identify you and give your victims the justice they deserve” leaves out the most important part of the conversation: what we can do to prevent sexual assault from occurring in the first place. True justice needs to mean more than consequences for perpetrators.
The student organization “We’re Better Than That: Men Against Sexual Assault” is another example of bringing men into the conversation. As reported by The Badger Herald, the growing group was founded after “realizing the absence of organizations that provide a platform for men to address sexual assault.” This organization seems to have good intentions, but falls short of delivering blunt, necessary conversation.
Joe Naughton, a co-founder of the group, is quoted by The Badger Herald as saying, “We do not like the term ‘rape culture.’ As the young men of [We’re Better Than That] have observed, the use of this phrase only perpetuates the vicious cycle of victim focus.” It may be true that it is beneficial to move away from negative terminology, and strive to take on “consent culture” as the new, more positive mantra. But in reality, what we have is a rape culture that is pervasive and malignant, and straightforward discussion of it should not be marginalized “out of fear of driving away the male demographic.”
In simple terms, this is an overarching call to action. Discussion of sexual assault should not be limited to groups with one gender identity, should not pander to any particular demographic and should not stop just because we’ve gone a few days without another crime report in our inbox.
Theda is a sophomore creative writing major with a certificate in graphic design. She is a copy chief at The Daily Cardinal. Please send all comments to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
