Well, it’s up, and I’m exhausted!
There are still some kinks to work out, but our new website is up, featuring a cleaner look and an easier navigation system. There are a few more pages I need to add, but I can see the finish line.
Let me know what you think!
This good column by Nicholas Kristof in the NYTimes rightly questions how seriously police and prosecutors take rape cases. Rape kits often go untested or wait many months before testing.
Another aspect that is important to note here regards the cold hits on DNA testing from rape kits. Cold hits on DNA test make use of government DNA databases; these databases were originally filled with the DNA only of felons, but have now in some places been expanded to include the DNA from people arrested (not convicted) of minor crimes.
DNA is useful and powerful as a tool, but in cases of rape the vast majority of survivors know the attacker. A cold hit DNA match is not needed for basic identification. A DNA test from the believed attacker could be very useful, but what is more critical is police and prosecutors taking seriously survivors reports of rape and making investigation and prosecution a priority.
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM), and many colleges and organizations are honoring it in creative and thought-provoking ways. Here are just a few:
The very thought of walking in high heels makes me feel nauseous, so I salute the 161 men who decided to Walk a Mile in Her Shoes. It’s not particularly common to see men rallying for women’s rights, so seeing them doing just that while decked out in heels is always uplifting.
Another article spoke about students at the College of William and Mary honored SAAM with their “Consent is Sexy” week, hanging a large banner with anonymous messages from students. Called the Hope Wall, messages included “Change can happen,” and “Move from surviving to thriving.”
Ithaca College held a discussion panel to publicize changes made to their sexual assault policy. It’s great to read about some of the reforms that are being made just in time for this month, including minimum sanctions for specific offenses and the creation of more specific sexual assault terms; both necessary in helping to lessen the chance of a case being thrown out for lack of consensus.
Street harassment is probably THE thing that led me to feminism and sexual violence issues/activism. While no where near as traumatic or violating as an actual assault, street harassment—which I first experienced as a middle-schooler walking to school—and its acceptance is a constant reminder to women and girls that they live in a culture which views their bodies as entertainment and robs them of the simple dignity of walking down the street undisturbed and without fear (this is the same culture that blames women for their rape and doesn’t prosecute assaults). I have often been accused of overreacting to catcalls and explicit comments I hear on the street—people tell me that the men yelling out to me “don’t mean anything by it” and that I need to develop a tougher skin. It’s all in harmless fun. I suppose this was what someone behind the Tribeca Film Festival’s ad campaign was thinking when they came up with this video.
This ad for the festival, which I saw for the first time yesterday when it ran before the festival screening I was attending, plays to the tagline: “Think You’ve Seen It All In New York? Think Again.” Two women are walking through a park when a naked man in a trenchcoat suddenly exposes himself to them. While one woman is disgusted, the other is enticed by his naked body, asking him to lift up his coat and turn around, and even asks the flasher for a date. Now, I understand that this is supposed to be funny precisely because it’s not funny. The conceit is that flashing is disgusting and the audience is supposed to laugh at the absurdity of a woman actually getting her flasher’s number for a date, especially considering that he’s not exactly a “hunk.” OK, I get it. But still, still I am really angered by this ad. I am angry that an arts festival run by people who probably consider themselves to be quite progressive are capitalizing on sexual harassment for laughs. I am angry that I paid 15 dollars to see a documentary that takes a truly progressive, anti-homophobic stance and spent the whole film stewing about this commercial. I am angry that whoever made the ad doesn’t really understand that in order for the ad to be ironic, people have to understand how completely disgusting street harassment is, and I’m sorry but I dont think that people, in general, do.
I’m angry because the night before I saw this ad, this happened to me: walking from the subway to a friend’s house on an empty, but what I would consider to be a safe street, an older teenager on a bike was riding ahead of me. As I learned long ago to do when walking alone, I kept my eyes pointed straight ahead, glancing at the kid from the corner of my eye now and then just to keep tabs on his movements and proximity. At some point I could swear that I saw him take his penis out of his pants and start touching himself while operating his bike with one hand, but I thought I must be crazy and ignored it. Then he pulled up his bike a few feet in front of me, off to the side of the sidewalk so he wasn’t exactly blocking my path, and just stayed there silently as I passed. Trying to move fast and not make eye contact I again was pretty positive that this guy was sitting on his bike masturbating but I didn’t really want to look hard enough to confirm this. At this point I was almost at my friend’s house and he slowly followed me down the street on his bike, keeping his distance but definitely following. Finally he stopped across the street from my destination and waited there, definitely jerking off, still silent, until I got into the house.
I don’t think I need to explain how scary and disgusting this situation was. I was still somewhat upset by it by the time I arrived at the movie the next day only to see that festival ad. Just writing this makes me flush with anxiety again. What happened to me wasn’t funny, and even less funny is the fact that this stuff happens a lot more than people think. Perhaps men in trenchcoats aren’t walking around flashing all the time, but what about the guy on the subway who openly masturbates while a young woman sits across from him? What about this guy on the bike? These aren’t isolated events. Forgive me if I can’t find the humor there.
UPDATE: Fixed the link, apologies, it works now!
Finally, as promised, is my interview with Alisa Bierria, one of the founders of Communities Against Rape and Abuse (CARA) and now a graduate student in philosophy.
You can listen to it/download it here.
In the interview, I mention CARA’s article in Color of Violence: the incite! anthology, which is a great resource for more information on CARA’s strategies and vision. The rest of the anthology is also fantastic, and I highly recommend it.
We talk briefly in the interview about the Northwest Network’s F.A.R. Out program, take a look for more.
Alisa also recommends two other organizations that have done substantial and insightful work on community accountability:
INCITE! - see especially their writings & organizing tools that focus on community accountability.
Creative Interventions
As you’ll hear at briefly at the end of the interview, I think there are some parallels between a community accountability process and the intention of some college disciplinary processes, although they currently fall far short of such a vision. I’ll be thinking more about ways that colleges might better use a community accountability process, and I’d love to hear any thoughts you have!
Thanks again to Alisa, and make sure to check out CARA!
Our NY premiere will be on April 30th, 2009 at 8:00 PM at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center which is located at 208 West 13th Street. After the screening, there will be a Q & A with SAFER and guests including Karen Singleton of Columbia University’s sexual assault prevention program. Feel free to RSVP on our facebook event page.
University Silence is a short documentary film created by Sarah Richardson. It’s a candid narrative by a survivor of a campus assault, describing her struggles with her college administration, and shows how a lack of effective policy and honesty can further compound trauma. If you have any questions about why policy reform is so crucial, this is necessary viewing. In the words of the narrator, “It’s better to be known as an honest university than a perfect one. Perfect doesn’t happen.”
Boston and LA will also have their own screenings– please email organizers@safercampus.org for more information.
Please come out and join us!
A couple of weeks ago I posted a link to Kristen Stewart’s PSA on college sexual assault for Security on Campus. Stewart is an actress mostly known for her role in Twilight, but in 2004 Stewart (who was 13 or 14 at the time) starred in a little movie called Speak, produced for Showtime and Lifetime TV. Based on a young adult novel by Laurie Halse Anderson, the film (and the book) is told from the perspective of Melinda, a high school freshman who was raped by an older boy from her high school at a party the previous summer. After the assault, Melinda calls 911, but can’t get herself to say anything into the phone, so the police come, break up the party, and everyone blames Melinda for “squealing” and getting them in trouble. As school starts up, Melinda (who had been fairly popular) is shunned by her friends and, still dealing with the trauma of her rape, does not often speak…at all. The story chronicles how she processes the trauma, deals with what happened to her on her own terms, and learns to find words again.
I know that I read this book when it first came out in 1999 (I would have been 8th grade then), but at the time I don’t think I recognized it as being particularly unique. At 13 or 14, I was hungry for books that weren’t “shallow” and that had female narrators who were “different,” which led me to a lot of young adult novels featuring girls who were terminally ill, mentally ill, came from abusive homes, or who had experienced some kind of trauma. I consumed so much of this stuff that now it all runs together in my head as one blurry, depressing narrative of sad young women who were somehow getting by in a world that fought against them. Now in my mid-twenties, long after-forgetting the book and much more aware of how sexual violence is portrayed in the media, I saw Speak last night and was surprisingly touched and impressed. Instead of simply casting Melinda as a victim who is rendered speechless and helpless forever, or as a girl who is left to wonder if she was “asking for it,” Melinda’s experience as a survivor is truly portrayed–she struggles internally, and slowly finds different ways to fight back externally (both in the literal sense, having to face her rapist, and in a more personal sense, regaining a sense of her own agency through art, friendships, etc). Unlike “rape revenge” films—which have their own interesting place in a discussion of sexual assault and media but aren’t meant for young people and often trade in violence and horror camp —Speak is a fairly realistic and empowering version of one way in which a girl can deal with the trauma of an assault. I now see this as being incredibly unique—it is rare to see a film that deals with an issue like this responsibly (a little less rare in YA fiction, I think, but still not very common). It strikes me as being a pretty valuable tool for anti-sexual violence education for young people.
It also got me thinking a lot about what a college-age version of this movie/book would look like. I wonder if the college version would paint Melinda as such a “pure” victim–for example, there would likely be a lot more drinking involved (Melinda has a beer in her hand at the party, but in the film there is no sense that she is “drunk”) which always gets the “whose fault is it really?” conversation going. It’s easy to see a 14-year-old girl as a victim—once she is over 18, and especially if she is already sexually active, people’s perceptions tend to change a little bit. I would love to see a film that deals responsibly with that. Am I missing out? Has this film been made already? Does someone have suggestions for other fictional books or films (young adult or otherwise) that handle sexual assault well? Do you think I’m totally wrong about Speak? Let me know.
Today I recorded a new podcast interview with Alisa Bierria, former Program Coordinator for Communities Against Rape and Abuse (CARA) in Seattle and current grad student in Philosophy. We talked mostly about community accountability processes, and it was absolutely fascinating. I’ll let you hear all about it direct from Alisa as soon as I can get the interview up, but in the meantime I want to whet your appetite with a fascinating video
about a different version of a community accountability program in Baltimore, The Community Conferencing Center. The goal is to keep thinking outside the criminal justice system box…
300 women marched through the streets of Kabul today to demand a repeal of a recently passed law that, among other things, legalizes marital rape. Their courage is breathtaking.
A new documentary about the porn industry is being offered for free screenings on college campuses in the wake of the controversy at the University of Maryland over the free screening of a hardcore porn film. I haven’t seen the documentary, but from the trailer (which is not safe for work and may be triggering – they’re not pulling any punches in their selection of clips) and associated press release, it looks like the filmmakers have tried hard to paint a complex portrait of the multi-faceted effect porn is having on our culture – interviewing lots of ordinary people who have watched porn as well as porn makers and academics. Favorite quote from the trailer? “People say to me, well if you’re against pornography then you’re against sex. That’s like saying to me, if I’m critical of McDonald’s, I’m against eating.”
H/T to Feminist Law Professors for the announcement
