The good, the bad, and the ugly: campus SA policies

Most of us are all too familiar with the hot mess that is college sexual assault policies. Unfortunately, colleges like to pretend rape and sexual assault don't happen on their campuses. If they do happen, it is supposedly when strangers in the bushes jump out and break into your unlocked dorm, or assault you as you are jogging and are wearing an iPod and headphones.

Thanks. Not realistic, and not appreciated. Colleges appear to routinely ignore:

a) USDOJ's report The Sexual Victimization of College Women, which is extremely reader-friendly and should probably be required reading for all campus feminists, and

b) the Clery Act [scroll halfway down the page linked]. The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act requires all colleges and universities to collect and publish campus crime statistics annually. If you believe some of the reports coming from campuses, only a couple students get assaulted each year. Tip: feminist parents can use this US Dept of Ed website to compare college crime statistics, for what it's worth.

Colleges effectively discourage crime reporting, forcing survivors to wade through layers of bureaucracy, go across town for a rape kit, and recount their experience to multiple offices. Awesome. So campuses then shrug and pretend the low numbers of reported crime reflect reality. This underscores the importance of having an assault policy that supports survivors with full-time, staff advocates on campus, and encourages reporting and prosecution of students found guilty of violent crimes.

USDOJ disperses grants to colleges fighting gender-based violence. If your college isn't yet a recipient, definitely apply ASAP. Letters of intent to apply for this year's fall grant are due WEDNESDAY, FEB. 17 so work with campus staff and administrators and submit a letter!

Below are some choice examples of strong and pitiful SA policies.

The Good

Lehigh University in Pennsylvania has a great online, anonymous, sexual violence reporting form. Kudos to the Women's Center for providing this service. Every campus should have one. If yours doesn't, collaborate with your Women's Center and campus administration to create one immediately.

The Bad

CUNY Hunter College in New York has a sexual assault policy in place that's ok. The fab Hunter Women's Coalition is working with the City University of New York administrators to install a CUNY-wide sexual assault policy that applies to all of the campuses, as currently some campuses have a policy and others have none at all.

Consider one page on the Hunter Public Safety website titled "Steps to follow if you become a victim of rape." You know, should a rape suddenly materialize out of thin air. Colleges everywhere like to strategically employ the passive voice in their SA materials, to pretend like there is no perpetrator, much less a perp who is a fellow student there. Try instead, "Steps to follow if somebody rapes you."

The Ugly

Valdosta State University in Georgia has really wonderful feminists, and seriously slut-shaming "sexual assault prevention" tips on the VSU Public Safety site. I was hoping it was a cruel joke by some misogynist student. But no, some overpaid misogynist at Valdosta took the time to post 13 sage tips just asking to be excoriated by the feminist community (and general public, for that matter). If I ever visit, I'll be sure not to pack my mini skirt, my uncovered drinks, my dancing shoes, and my Come Hither t-shirt.

Colleges figure they can wait out any indignant students impertinent to try to change the SA policy, so be sure to be in it for the long haul. Good luck, and let us know if we can support you in any way.

Statement of Eleanor Smeal On the Arrest of Roman Polanski

The Feminist Majority Foundation joins our sister feminist organizations in working to ensure rape is prosecuted as the heinous crime that it is, especially against girls.

The Feminist Majority Foundation is a leader in the fight to end all forms of violence against women and is demanding the expeditious processing of all back-logged rape kits in the possession of law enforcement authorities so that perpetrators can be brought to justice.

The Feminist Majority Foundation believes Roman Polanski should be extradited to the United States to face the consequences of his conviction for raping a 13-year old girl in 1977. No one is above the law.

The chair of our board, Peg Yorkin, was quoted in the Los Angeles Times yesterday providing her personal opinion on the matter of Polanski's arrest, but wants to make clear she condemns rape. Her statement on Polanski's arrest, however, does not reflect the position of the Feminist Majority Foundation.

OK State Woman Fights Victim-Blaming

Oklahoma State University PhD candidate, Karen Sisk, recently wrote an article in the Daily O'Collegian about VH1 cancelling its show, "Meagan Wants a Millionaire," following a contestant's alleged murder of his wife.

Upon the article's publication, Ms. Sisk received comments and feedback excusing the murder of of Ms. Fiore (the victim), saying such abhorrent things as, "If you put your man down in public, you should probably expect that he will kill you, mutilate your body, and leave it in a Dumpster. She was ASKING for it!"

While she could have simply shaken her head in disgust and moved on, Ms. Sisk took it a step further and bravely re-addressed the issue, exposing her own deeply personal connection to the story.

Here is Karen Sisk's second article in its entirety:

When I wrote my last column about Ryan Jenkins’s alleged murder of his wife, Jasmine Fiore, I got an interesting response online.

Someone believed that Fiore deserved what she got for the way she treated Jenkins. Her behavior was apparently a good reason for her to expect a violent outcome.

News reports said Fiore maintained friendships with several of her former flames and might have had physical relationships with one or more of them.

She should have known better than to cheat on a psychopath, apparently.

News reports also said Fiore repeatedly insulted Jenkins at a poker party the night before her disappearance. She also should have known better than to insult him.

Obviously, this behavior was grounds for her to wind up mutilated in a dumpster, right?

This response shocked me. Not because I do not know that people have these sorts of reactions — I am well aware that they do. But, because people usually do not intimate them, refusing to come right out and say them.

As a culture, we tend to blame women for being the victims of violent crimes. They should know better because men will take advantage of situations to do us harm. We should protect ourselves from them.

I would love to see this attitude change. Women do not deserve to be harassed, stalked, raped, beaten or killed no matter what they have worn, said, imbibed or done. The worst a woman — or anyone — deserves is to be broken up with. If Fiore behaved in a way that was unacceptable to Jenkins, he should have broken off their relationship.

She should not have wound up in a dumpster mutilated to the point where police used the serial numbers on her breast implants to identify her.

I say this not only as a woman but also as a survivor of sexual and physical violence.

I have spent years in therapy trying to figure out what I could have done differently to avoid being raped by the first person I was ever involved with. But, it was not my fault. I was the victim of a predator. Now, I am a survivor.

When I was 14, I was a shy, awkward and unpopular girl. When a 20-year-old man I met at a friend’s house paid attention to me, I was over the moon. I did not know how different 14-year-old girls were from 20-year-old men. So, I started dating him, and he started brainwashing me.

He convinced me to lie to my parents about his age, job and schooling. He sent me lavish presents and followed me everywhere I went. The only thing I had done to get his attention was to be in the wrong place at the right time to meet him.

Within a month, the unwanted sexual activity began, and it lasted for almost two years. After the relationship ended, I successfully prosecuted him. He was sentenced to two years in prison for the two years of my life he stole from me.

However, he only served a year and began stalking me upon his release — even showing up at my high school graduation. Luckily, the police department quickly helped me get a restraining order.

As difficult as it was to endure, the most difficult part was and continues to be my father’s reaction to the entire situation. He blamed me. He told me that I should have known better. He did not support me prosecuting my abuser and did not come to the trial.

For years, his attitude kept me from healing. It still holds me back. It was something I was unable to resolve with him before he passed away from lung cancer nine years ago. It has taken me much of that time to work toward forgiving him.

Unfortunately, my father held an opinion many hold when dealing with victims and survivors of any kind of violence. He assumed that I must have said, done or worn something that led my abuser to abuse me. My father assumed that a 14-year-old girl was savvy enough about men and sexuality to make her own decisions about her body.

Sadly, he is in the majority, not the minority. I did not do anything that made me deserve the abuse I received. I didn’t know my own rights over my body. What my father never understood was that my choice was taken from me. I was powerless. But he blamed me, assuming that I could have done something different.

Fiore did not deserve to die anymore than I deserved two years of sexual abuse. No one deserves rape, violence or death no matter what she has done or to whom she has done it.

Photo credit: flickr.com/ben pollard

REMINDER: Vote for YWCA!!

REMINDER!! Don't forget to vote for YWCA today!!

We all know the YWCA is a great organization that helps thousands of women and girls every day – now we have an opportunity to help them! The YWCA and its domestic violence program iscompeting with four other organizations for a $100,000 prize. Right now, they are in second place, but about 5% behind the current leader.

Help the YWCA help women and girls! Vote today!

You can vote once every 24 hours – so keep coming back, and tell your friends!

YWCA logo courtesy of www.ywca.org

Click to Empower - Vote for the YWCA!

We all know the YWCA is a great organization that helps thousands of women and girls every day – now we have an opportunity to help them! The YWCA and its domestic violence program iscompeting with four other organizations for a $100,000 prize. Right now, they are in second place, but about 5% behind the current leader.

Help the YWCA help women and girls! Vote today!

You can vote once every 24 hours – so keep coming back, and tell your friends!

YWCA logo courtesy of www.ywca.org

Rape Culture - How do you define it?

We've all heard the statistics: 1 in 4 women, 1 in 6 men. 1.3 sexual assaults per minute. 4.7 times more likely of a repeated rape. 13.3% college rape. known attacker. force. coersion. guilt. confusion. fear. anxiety. ...the list goes on.

But what is "rape culture"?

An amazing group of Chicago-based youth and young adults have worked to produce the powerful video you see below. They consult experts, survivors, and their peers to address the question and the reality of rape culture.

How do you define rape culture? What actions are you taking to combat it? How can the Feminist Campus team support your efforts

Post a comment. Email us at campusteam@feminist.org. Raise your voice!

Chris Brown Schedules First TV Interview Since Attack

R&B singer Chris Brown will be formally sentenced tomorrow for his attack of former girlfriend Rihanna Fenty. I wrote a post a few weeks ago about the plea deal he was granted - 5 years probation, 6 months community service, and a course on intimate partner violence - and tomorrow, that penalty will be officially doled out.

After the sentencing, Brown is scheduled to interview with Larry King. According to a post on radaronline.com, Brown's representatives hope that in the interview, "the singer will be able to get his apology across without facing brutal questioning." Brutal questioning, I can only assume, would mean asking him why he physically assaulted Rihanna to the point of hospitalization. But of course, after Brown's video apology, we know that he is remorseful and wants to take responsibility for his actions.

Brown's quest for good publicity, though, hasn't been accepted by everyone. Apparently, Oprah was approached to interview Brown, and she turned him down. Oprah has been a strong advocate for victims of intimate partner violence, recently devoting an entire episode to the issue. She had Rihanna on her program less than a week after the assault and warned her that it is extremely rare for an abusive partner to get physically violent only once.

I personally think it is terrific that Oprah has refused to grant Brown what will be his first interview since assaulting Rihanna in February. It is admirable that she does not want to give Brown any more publicity than is absolutely necessary. At the same time, Brown's "interview" by Larry King is looking like it will be just another public apology, and not a chance for a public figure to ask Brown some tough questions. Oprah had a chance to have the singer on her program, and could theoretically (with some negotation from Brown's representatives) have asked him those "brutal questions" about his crime and why he did it.

I respect Oprah's decision in this case, but part of me wants to see Chris Brown deal with some tough questions, and she would have been the ideal candidate for that. What do you think?


Photo courtesy soccerluver at flickr