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.

You Go, Girl!

Actress, comedian, and now Golden Globe winner for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Precious, Mo'Nique made a big splash at this years award ceremony. She managed to make two important, yet very different, statements for women this Sunday night. One was speaking out to all survivors of sexual violence and the other was about leg hair.

Because they were both made at the Golden Globes, which are one of the most viewed awards ceremonies on TV, they resonated far and wide. While both messages are important in their own way, one of them is clearly more necessary and serious. Unfortunately, the less serious of the two statements may have received more attention.

First of all, during her acceptance speech, the actress, who played the role of an abuse mother, states: "For every person who's ever been touched [inappropriately], it's time to tell." The movie itself brought issues of incest and sexual abuse into the eyes of the public and her statement allowed the awareness to be carried even further.

In addition to her statement empowering victims to speak up, she herself was speaking up about standards of beauty. Even though she was wearing a floor length gown, Mo'Nique did not try to hide her leg hair from the world to see. By not being ashamed of her long locks, she sent a message to women that you can embrace your natural state and still be beautiful. The actress has stated in the past, "I must show America what a real leg looks like . . . because it's too much in the morning, every morning, to shave, to cut, you got Band-aids baby." Since the advent of leg shaving, god knows when, women have been made to feel dirty and gross for not fully eliminating their leg hair. There is no physical benefit for hairy or hairless legs so it could should be the woman's choice whether or not she wants to shave. No matter what the reaction to Mo'Nique's leg hair, whether outrage or kudos, the publicity her leg hair received brought the issue to the public's eye.

Now whether or not Mo'Nique's leg hair may have overshadowed her victim's empowerment message is up for debate but I give her props for having the audacity to make both powerful statements.

Even since it's release in November, Precious has received a lot of both positive and negative commentary. The issues discussed (race, gender, class, etc.) intersect with each other which makes for interesting debate.

photos courtesy of beastandbest via Flickr and nydailynews.com

Normalizing Violence: Have We Gone Too Far??

We're approaching "sweeps week," you know, that lovely week when television shows fight for ratings with extravagant tricks of plot twists, celebrity guest stars, girl-on-girl make-out scenes or musical numbers. Growing up, we've learned that this is to be expected and is "perfectly normal."

As a culture, we've accepted the message that sex/violence sells and may be have even encouraged it with our nation-wide viewing records. I would be a hypocrite if I were to say I've never been sucked into a Law and Order SVU marathon. Ice T and Mariska Hargitay aside, it has felt like these images have gotten worse and worse over the years.

Proving that I'm not an old lady, reinventing the perfection of "when I grew up," a new study by Parents Television Council/Women In Peril shows that we have, in fact, gone WAY too far. Over the past five years, there has been a 120% increase in the television depictions of violence against women and a 400% increase in the number of victimized teens!

While beatings were often the scenario of choice at 29%; stabbings, rape, torture and threats were not too far behind. The study also found that if the character did not consequentially die from the violence (19% of the time,) the graphic consequences were made visually explicit to the viewer (92%) rather than just implied or described (8%.)

Using these themes to lure an audience may be good for the network marketing director, but the effects of such extreme, normalized violence on a person and a culture goes far beyond the time in front of the tube.

Women In Peril describe short-term and long-term effects of viewed violence by saying that:
Short-term exposure increases the likelihood of physically and verbally aggressive behavior, aggressive thoughts, and aggressive emotions. Recent large-scale longitudinal studies provide converging evidence linking frequent exposure to violent media in childhood with aggression later in life, including physical assaults and spouse abuse. Because extremely violent criminal behaviors (e.g., forcible rape, aggravated assault, homicide) are rare, new longitudinal studies with larger samples are needed to estimate accurately how much habitual childhood exposure to media violence increases the risk for extreme violence.

Do you want our generation/the generation below us to become the next set of "data samples" needed for the extreme violence study? I sure don't!

Moral of the story:

Correlation is key: any country that on a whole actively watches young women victimized day-after-day is bound to be negatively effected. Please don't zone out to the tube, numb to what you are watching. Make your friends, family and networks aware that you will not stand for this trend to continue any more!

chart credit: Parents Television Council
photo credit: sternenrauschen on flickr.com

DNA Evidence Leads to Sexual Assault Arrest in LA County

The LA Times reports that a Long Beach, CA man, arrested on domestic violence charges, is suspected of sexually assaulting an 83 year-old woman earlier this year. The man underwent a DNA test upon his recent arrest, and his DNA matches that which was collected from the sexual assault case.

Los Angeles County currently has a backlog of untested rape evidence collection kits, which contain DNA samples from sexual assault cases, totaling around 12,000 kits! About half of the cases these kits are tied to have passed the statute of limitations.

By allowing rape kits to go untested, LA County has been depriving sexual assault victims of the justice they deserve, while allowing dangerous criminals to run free. In fact, in Los Angeles County, sexual assault has the lowest arrest rate of any violent crime - only about 25% of cases ever end in arrest.

When New York City began testing their recent backlog of nearly 17,000 rape kits, the arrest rate skyrocketed to 80%, with a very small dismissal and acquittal rate. Through examination of the DNA evidence contained in the kits, the city was able to not only find and convict serial rapists, but serial date rapists, as well.

This is extremely notable because date or acquaintance rape is often considered a less serious crime by authorities, and some recent investigation in Santa Barbara, CA shockingly revealed that SBPD will immediately dismiss acquaintance rape cases that involve alcohol. With a prominent university and community college located in Santa Barbara this unjustice is absolutely inexcusable.

Human Rights Watch has been investigating the LA County rape kit backlog and suspects the backlog is not isolated to Los Angeles, but is most likely a national crisis.

What can you do? Start investigating! Ask your local police department if they have untested rape kits. Find out what their procedure for testing rape kits is. If you find disturbing information, contact your FMF Campus Organizer.

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!

Summer opportunity for NYC feminists!

From our friends at the New York-based Pro-Choice Public Education Project:

Dear Colleagues,

We are currently recruiting for a focus/discussion group to speak with young women about the connection between Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and Reproductive Health, and we would appreciate it if you could forward the announcement below to the young women you work with. Please let me know if you have any questions!

CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS

The Pro-Choice Public Education Project is looking for young women to participate in a conversation about Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and reproductive health. If you’re a young woman between the ages of 14 and 25 and are interested in learning more about this issue, please respond to the email address below.

DETAILS

WHAT: Discussion about the interconnectedness of Intimate Partner
Violence (IPV) and Reproductive Health

WHEN:

Thursday, August 6th
6pm- 8:30 pm

WHERE: Location will be provided when you RSVP.

Dinner will be provided!

If you are interested in participating, please respond by Friday, July 31st at 5 PM to snew31@gmail.com or marym@protectchoice.org with the following information:

1. Your name:
2. Email address:
3. Phone number:
4. How you found out about this:
5. Organizations you are involved with:
6. Any special needs (child care, transportation help):

Mary Mahoney
Assistant Director
Pro-Choice Public Education Project
212.977.4266

CUNY Students Need Your Help

Guest post by Jerin Alam, CUNY Hunter College

Did you know CUNY does not have a university-wide sexual assault policy?
You can help change that. We are in a historical time because a task force has been assembled with CUNY faculty, staff, administration, Public Safety & students to create this policy, which WILL go into effect next year for all 450,000 students. Make it a policy that reflects YOUR voice.

Come to a public forum & tell the taskforce what you want to see on the policy. In attendance: Vice Chancellor of Legal Affairs & other taskforce members, including Hunter College student Jerin Alam. Because CUNY is a public university, all NYC residents are welcome at the forum.

Wednesday, April 29, 1pm – 3pm, Room 603 Hunter West

To view the policy visit: http://cunypolicy.blogspot.com/

Direction to Hunter College: 695 Park Avenue | Take 6 train to 68th Street/the West building is on the southwest corner

If you cannot make the forum, email comments to the blog, contact wrc-usg@hunter.cuny.edu or

stop by The Women’s Rights Coalition clubroom at Thomas Hunter 309

Be Kind To Your Mother: How FMF Got Involved With the Environment

When the Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) first approached me to talk about the possibility of creating a toolkit on women and climate change with FMF's Global Program, I didn't know what to say. Is it actually possible for me to be speechless, I hear you ask? I'll have you know that the answer is yes. Well, every now and then, that is ;)

The truth is, I had nothing to say because I didn't know anything about the issue. Aside from a mandatory class during my Master's "coursework," as the Brits would say, I did not know much about what the connections between women and the environment were. A hundred years ago when I was at UNIFEM UK (United Nations Development Fund for Women), I had to write a piece connecting deforestation in Africa to women's health, mainly respiratory issues through the burning of wood for fuel and food (scroll to pg 26). During my research for this article, I was shocked to uncover that this issue also carried with it a huge sexual violence component, a connection I never would have made.

Nevertheless, women and climate change pretty much ended for me there.

I decided to take the hand offered by WEDO to do this project together, and we brought Sierra Club, the nation's oldest and largest environmental organization, into the fold. I felt with the environment being an issue of huge interest with our students, it was time for FMF to make the women and climate change case for our Campus Program. After combing through an endless list of environmental "hot button" issues, we decided on exposing the gendered impact water had on women's lives. With that, our toolkit "Women, Water and the Search for Equity" was born :)

Deciding what issue we would work on was an education in itself. When I first started work on this project, I was more confused than confident. "What were the links between women and the environment? How are women paying a disproportionate price? Are they?" Let's just say I had my reading cut out for me!

What I learned through our collaboration with WEDO and Sierra Club is that women are tied to the environment in such quiet and intimate ways you would not think of unearthing. But the ties are there, just beneath the surface. Because women are the primary collectors of water in their homes, girls are often pulled out of school to help their mothers with walking the unimaginable distances to fetch water for their families. Hundreds of thousands of girls around the world are denied education as a result. Women are the first to be exposed to water-borne illnesses, resulting in low-birth weights and higher infant mortality ratios in some of the poorest developing nations. Because women have to walk into the forests to gather firewood for fuel, an immeasurable number of women and girls are raped by bandits who lurk in the dark. These are major trends we have seen in both Kenya and Darfur, Sudan.

In honor of Earth Day this year, I could not be more proud to introduce to you to the Feminist Majority Foundation's first ever toolkit on women and water. We have added a whole new page to our global feminism campus site. All the information you need on FMF, WEDO, and Sierra Club's campaigns can be found there!

This Earth Day is the first in my adult life where not only am I educated and aware of all the ways the environment impacts women's lives, but the first time that I am motivated to take action. With the knowledge I gained putting this very new campaign of ours together, came a sense of empowerment that makes me want to act!

This Earth Day, if nothing, take action by acknoweldging that we all have a reponsibility to ourselves and our environment, as women to our bodies and to our sisters around the world, to educate ourselves and each other on how the human population is causing the environmental degradation of our planet, and what we can do to make the destruction stop.

After all, as feminists we have a special responsibility to be kind to our mothers don't we? ;)

Check out FMF's campaign on women and climate change today and spread the word to your friends!

Happy Earth Day!