[/media-credit]I wrote this response to give my interpretation of the controversial signs posted around campus. To me, these signs are meant to be constructive social criticism about the fact that the majority of sexual assault campaigns are geared towards women and what they can do to not be raped. This approach, to put the responsibility all on women, does not root out the real problem. Instead, it only further victimizes women by telling them they are responsible for preventing an act they have no control over.
The real problem is that society ignores the fact that the rapists, not men and women who are raped, are to blame. The posters around campus are pointing out the fact that as a society we are not holding the right people responsible for sexual assault.
Preventing sexual assault should not be the responsibility of one gender, but rather be put equally on both genders. Unfortunately, the majority of the responsibility has been put on the women. The poster campaign, including the “Helpful Tips for Men” posters, is working to point out this lack of equal representation.
As a female college student I have been told not to walk home alone at night, not to flirt with men, not to wear revealing clothing, not to flaunt my sexuality—meanwhile men are able to do all these things without risk. Can you imagine what a night out at Union would be like if all female students protected themselves against sexual assault, following all of this advice that has been given to them? Women in long skirts or pants, turtle neck sweaters, no make-up and messy hair. It is an hilarious image and clearly impractical.
What if I manage to avoid doing all of these things and am still assaulted? What have I done to ask to be assaulted? Nothing, no one—male nor female—asks to be raped.
In the academic year of 2011-2012, four of my closest friends have been sexually assaulted—three have been raped. All four of these assaults were by males. These assaults were not because of mixed signals or intoxication. All four women said “no” in a number of ways (body language and verbally) and the men who were assaulting them did not listen. These women were following the advice of the Sexual Assault Awareness campaigns that have been presented to them, campaigns geared towards women. Clearly, targeting women for sexual assault prevention campaigns is ineffective.
Has anyone noticed the other posters with statistics and pictures that were geared towards both genders? Apparently Nick D’Angelo has not, because none of these posters were acknowledged in his article even though they comprised over half of the posters put up. Instead, D’Angelo insisted upon defending himself and all of the other men who have fallen victim to these “blatantly and unequivocally sexist” posters.
These posters were not meant to “attack” the male population, but rather to target the population that does the majority of assaulting, which happens to be the male population. One in eight men admit to rape in anonymous surveys and 42 percent of men surveyed said they would commit sexual assault if they thought they could get away with it.
D’Angelo points out that 4 percent of male college students have reported being sexually assaulted. It fails to mention the gender of the assailants, who very well could be men. With these statistics, targeting men or at least equally targeting men and women for sexual assault prevention is essential to effective change.
The “Helpful Tips for Men” posters are serious and should be taken seriously. They have the potential to foster important, real, constructive and serious conversation. Everyone has the power to choose what they talk about and how they go about doing so.
These posters should not have caused the issue of sexual assault to “not be taken seriously” nor is it a “distraction from the real problem” as D’Angelo seems to think. Rather, D’Angelo and the others he says have talked about the signs with “harsh criticism” are the ones responsible for creating the negative and unproductive dialogue about these posters.
Instead of getting defensive, I encourage everyone to think deeply about the complex issues that these posters intend to illuminate. I encourage everyone to engage in productive, intellectual and constructive conversation about everything they do in their lives, especially about sexual assault and the manner in which our society addresses it.
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Well-said, Marissa. I was actually on the other side at the beginning but you made me switch side.
However, just to make my point clear, I don’t think “Helpful tips for men” would do the trick to the male population. Most men’s initial reactions to it would be rather defensive, so it would completely defeat it purpose. If anything, the poster can only serve as “Helpful tips for men” that “women should know”. Most men are too egoistic to actually take it seriously (should I add that those are probably more susceptible of becoming raper). And men who know that they should take it seriously don’t need it to remind them.
In sum, if the main intention is to raise awareness, it shouldn’t be phrased in such a way that generalizes the whole male population.
But in the end, if anything, those posters certainly make people stop to think!
I agree with you – “helpful tips for men” definitely DIDN’T do it for the male population. But what will? I agree with you that men are too egotistical to take this seriously. If men can’t accept that they also need to be seriously dedicated to ending sexual assault, nothing is going to change. And I don’t mean that all men are rapists who need to stop raping – instead, I mean that men who DO get it need to help other men get it too. Those men who don’t need to be reminded should be the ones trying to start positive dialogues with other men, and change their opinions about sexual assault.
The “helpful tips for men” that are on campus will not do it because they are not helpful, just offensive. Most men do not rape as stated in the article. They are not all egotistical, most do care, but I agree with you that there should be more dialogue.
Replace “helpful tips for men” with “helpful tips for black people.” Imagine the outrage that would cause. Blatantly racist. No one would be defending those signs. As I understood it, D’Angelo wrote the article addressing the signs that offended men on campus with hopes they would be removed or changed.
You point out that one in 8 men admit to rape (the sign outside Humanities says one in 12, but ok- maybe you don’t know your signs as well as you say) and 42% would commit rape if they thought they could get away with it. Why offend the other 58% of men who would never commit rape? You are offending the majority of men by calling them rapists. And this isn’t to take away from the seriousness of sexual assault, just the fact that the signs are trying to stop mistreatment by using mistreatment. It’s like fighting fire with fire.
I personally thought the campus would see the politically incorrectness in the signs after D’Angelo’s article. In my opinion, you are the one getting defensive about the signs by trying to justify them further. You are the one creating a negative and unproductive dialogue, instead of apologizing for your signs for being offensive. It’s not ok to be sexist.
I don’t see anything defensive in Marissa’s article. She points out that the signs HAVE started a discussion – and the way the campus chooses to pursue that discussion is up to us. If you want to have a productive dialogue – have a productive dialogue!
You also seem to have missed one of Marissa’s key points: the posters were meant to point out how flawed sexual assault awareness campaigns geared towards women are. I did a quick Google search of “helpful tips for women sexual assault prevention” and some of the tips that come up include: don’t go in stairwells or elevators alone, cross the street if you see anything that makes you nervous, stay in lighted areas after dark, don’t wear “sexy” clothing, don’t flirt with men, etc. The majority of rapes are committed by an acquaintance, so while staying in well lit areas probably is good general safety advice – it won’t do much to stop a rape, if your boyfriend or uncle or neighbor is the one raping you. This advice is impractical, as Marissa said, and there are better ways to prevent assaults from occurring.
The point is that we live in a culture that teaches women “don’t get raped” instead of teaching “don’t rape people.” Women have no control over who rapes them – that’s a big part of sexual assault. Rape is a crime of control and power, and to insist that women can stop rape by not wearing a short skirt is absolutely ridiculous. My wearing a short skirt does not “make” someone rape me. So instead of telling women what they can and can’t wear as supposed sexual assault prevention, we need to teach rapists that a woman’s clothing, or flirting, or alcohol consumption cannot be presumed to be consent.
I understand the point she tried to make that women and men both need to be involved in preventing sexual assault to make change (and I agree), but she does this by defending the sexist signs on campus. The signs don’t say “Helpful tips for men: look out for your women friends” or “Helpful tips for men: walk a girl home at night,” they say, “Helpful tips for men: Stop raping people!” They DO attack men, not “target the population…” as she tried to nicely put it. That’s the wrong way to run an awareness campaign. D’Angelo was right in his article, and I don’t think she should have gone after it and defended the signs. She should have admitted they were wrong and then made the point that men and women need to be involved in preventing sexual assault. I said she was being defensive because she was defending the signs (not in reference to her tone).
That being said I can understand how it can be frustrating that helpful tips are only being focused on women, but to turn around and blame all of men for it is not OK. The signs should have been like the ones mentioned above. I think you would agree that it is good we do have advice for women on how to avoid being assaulted because they do help, just not only for women. We should have PRODUCTIVE tips for men, not offensive. I also think it’s wrong to say all men are too egotistical. That is again being offensive and sexist. Most men do care and do take sexual assault seriously. I’m just afraid they will care less if they are being attacked on campus, and people defend and think that is a good strategy to prevent sexual assault.
paragraph 8: “These posters were not meant to “attack” the male population, but rather to target the population that does the majority of assaulting, which happens to be the male population.” That’s the problem! We think the “male population” is responsible for rape. No population of sex is responsible for rape- It’s a small percentage of people who happen to be mostly male, but you can’t generalize and say the “male population.”
It’s not men’s fault that there are assault prevention tips for women. Women could be making those tips for other women, maybe they should be blamed for the sexual assault campaigns that victimize themselves.
“As a female college student I have been told not to walk home alone at night, not to flirt with men, not to wear revealing clothing, not to flaunt my sexuality—meanwhile men are able to do all these things without risk.”
Um not really. Men are also told not to walk home alone at night. Not so they wont get raped, but so they wont get robbed and murdered.