raise your level of awareness
Katie Rose McEneely
Issue date: 2/4/10 Section: Opinion
At Hillsdale, we've had discussions about prevalent real-life issues: pornography, underage drinking and alcohol poisoning. But we don't talk about the dangers of sexual assault.
Sexual assault is defined by the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network as "unwanted sexual contact that stops short of rape or attempted rape. This includes sexual touching and fondling." Rape is defined as "forced sexual intercourse, including vaginal, anal, or oral penetration. Penetration may be by a body part or an object," though in some states, rape is included beneath the umbrella of sexual assault.
It's understandable that we avoid this subject: even under the most consensual of circumstances, sex isn't an appropriate topic for discussion. When it comes up, people make jokes or change the subject to disguise how discomforted they are. And talking about nonconsensual sex is tantamount to playing with a loaded gun: no one's quite sure what's going to set it off.
But sexual assault is something the student body should discuss, and it is likewise something we should be uncomfortable about. Even if we consider Hillsdale a "safe" environment where the dangers of the outside world won't touch us, we will all graduate and move on sooner or later.
One in six women will be assaulted in her lifetime and college-age women are four times as likely to be assaulted. Odds are that sexual assault will somehow affect every one of us. To quote the Kate Harding article, "Schrödinger's Rapist," "consider the sheer number of rapes that must occur. These rapes are not all committed by Phillip Garrido, Brian David Mitchell, or other members of the Brotherhood of Scary Hair and Homemade Religion. […] If every rapist commits an average of 10 rapes (a horrifying number, isn't it?) then the concentration of rapists in the population is still a little over one in 60."
Most women are able to parrot back common sense rules of safety: don't go out or walk home alone, don't drink (or don't drink too much, or watch your drink), don't flirt. But because the risks seem so abstract, few take these guides seriously enough. At Hillsdale, where the campus is small and the parties smaller, it's easy to ignore them entirely.
We need to raise our level of awareness. By remaining silent and avoiding the issue, we're reinforcing the belief that the nastier parts of life can't hurt us and that they don't really exist or are greatly exaggerated. This is not a women's issue; most rapes are committed by men against women. Both sexes are involved and both sexes can work to prevent assault.
We're willing to entertain the idea that someone we care about may suffer alcohol poisoning, and many students carry Gordie Foundation-issued cards listing the symptoms in case of an emergency. Why shouldn't we recognize other dangers are out there, and educate ourselves accordingly?
Sexual assault is defined by the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network as "unwanted sexual contact that stops short of rape or attempted rape. This includes sexual touching and fondling." Rape is defined as "forced sexual intercourse, including vaginal, anal, or oral penetration. Penetration may be by a body part or an object," though in some states, rape is included beneath the umbrella of sexual assault.
It's understandable that we avoid this subject: even under the most consensual of circumstances, sex isn't an appropriate topic for discussion. When it comes up, people make jokes or change the subject to disguise how discomforted they are. And talking about nonconsensual sex is tantamount to playing with a loaded gun: no one's quite sure what's going to set it off.
But sexual assault is something the student body should discuss, and it is likewise something we should be uncomfortable about. Even if we consider Hillsdale a "safe" environment where the dangers of the outside world won't touch us, we will all graduate and move on sooner or later.
One in six women will be assaulted in her lifetime and college-age women are four times as likely to be assaulted. Odds are that sexual assault will somehow affect every one of us. To quote the Kate Harding article, "Schrödinger's Rapist," "consider the sheer number of rapes that must occur. These rapes are not all committed by Phillip Garrido, Brian David Mitchell, or other members of the Brotherhood of Scary Hair and Homemade Religion. […] If every rapist commits an average of 10 rapes (a horrifying number, isn't it?) then the concentration of rapists in the population is still a little over one in 60."
Most women are able to parrot back common sense rules of safety: don't go out or walk home alone, don't drink (or don't drink too much, or watch your drink), don't flirt. But because the risks seem so abstract, few take these guides seriously enough. At Hillsdale, where the campus is small and the parties smaller, it's easy to ignore them entirely.
We need to raise our level of awareness. By remaining silent and avoiding the issue, we're reinforcing the belief that the nastier parts of life can't hurt us and that they don't really exist or are greatly exaggerated. This is not a women's issue; most rapes are committed by men against women. Both sexes are involved and both sexes can work to prevent assault.
We're willing to entertain the idea that someone we care about may suffer alcohol poisoning, and many students carry Gordie Foundation-issued cards listing the symptoms in case of an emergency. Why shouldn't we recognize other dangers are out there, and educate ourselves accordingly?
Be the first to comment on this story