Addressing The Issue of Sexual Assault to College Women

The current issue I chose was based on an article called “Sex Signals Turns Campus Laughter on Rape Culture.” The article shines light on rape in a different aspect. A program called ‘Sex Signals’ demonstrates a sketch about being a bystander of rape situations in college. The program is designed to address the issue of sexual assault/rape happening to college women. The main concept for this current event is many factors such as social norms, power, and the complexing to consent contribute to rape/sexual assault. Social norms are generally behavior that is accepted by society. In the article it shows how bystanders tend to not intervene when witnessing an actual sexual assault or rape happening.

In class we talked about peer group influence being a factor regarding rape. The ‘Sex Signals’ program showed an acted out sketches of two college students (a man and a women), and the college guy was coming on very strong. Students in the audience being the bystanders were given stop signs and were told to raise them when they sensed danger. As the scenario went on and the guy got more creepy, some (but not everyone) in the audience raised their stop signs. The question in this scenario was why is it not that easy to intervene in real life situations when a bystander witnesses a rape/sexual assault? Some students responded by saying “It’s not socially acceptable” and “you don’t want to be a cock block”.(Zwerling, 2015) Being the hero doesn’t always have a positive outlook. In other words, Intervening in something that is consider none of your business can cause people to dislike you. Choosing to be different in college makes you stand out more like peer pressure. As a result more rapes are being seen but not stopped.

As the article continues it explains that power between individuals (whoever is dominant) contributes to rape as the concept states. Things such as flexing biceps and batting eyelashes are classified as stereotypical behaviors for hook up situations. It all goes back to the 50’s when women and children were considered property to the man. The original idea of the consent theory branched off of the phrase “no means no” women didn’t want sex forced on them. Shortly after, “yes means yes” programs were created based off of the idea that sexual assault is a result of miscommunication between two people. However, the article actually disagrees with that theory. “All theories of rape are one person exerting power and control over another,” said Schewe, who helps schools and organizations evaluate their sexual assault prevention programs and has worked with Catharsis Productions. (Zwerling, 2015) In contrast, females try to make themselves available but not too available to at least let the guy know their interested. Guys take this as a signal that it’s okay to try something. Before you know it, he’s already initiating it and girls may be too embarrassed to stop it. However, this article refused to acknowledge miscommunication as a factor when the issue is educational programs informing people of the causes of rape.

Even though miscommunication isn’t emphasized as a factor in the article it can still happen depending on the individuals motives. In class we talked about something called sexual scripts. Sexual scripts mean the male is considered the initiator of sex which generally causes miscommunication between male and female. Very rarely we hear women being the aggressor of rape, but it does happen. However, men being the dominant, assume that the woman is supposed to be submissive which leads to rape/sexual assault.

The complexity of being able to consent while under the influence has always been a controversy. The article further explains a scenario of a guy coming back from a party stating he “didn’t rape that girl.” The girl he was referring to was someone he had previously met in class. The girl got drunk and told the guy she wanted to go somewhere quieter to talk. The guy took her to his room and Amy made the first move by kissing him. Eventually he took her to his bed and began to take her clothes off but she told him to stop. She asked him to stop twice, but he continued saying that if she wanted him to stop she would have slapped him or pushed him off. In class we discussed that of course no means no, but also sending mixed signals can cause confusion if you’re giving consent to the other person. The guy in this scenario should have stopped the first time she said so.

When you analyze the complicated aspects of consent people tend to look at the situation and the characteristics of the victim. In the scenario demonstrated in the article people may blame both victim and aggressor. “She shouldn’t have gotten drunk” and “he shouldn’t have kept going on when she said stop”. Other people might say she was asking for it by kissing him, but maybe she didn’t want it to go that far. The characteristic of the female was vulnerable because of the amount of alcohol she had consumed. However, she had sense enough to say stop twice which means she didn’t give him consent to continue.

The ‘Sex Signals’ program is one of the many programs that get the attention of the young people. However, sexual assaults/rapes don’t start in college. Sexual assault/rape happens as early as middle school and maybe even sooner than that. More programs should be added to middle schools and high schools to keep students informed. This could result to a decrease in sexual assault/rape in college. Serious, scare-straight programs that inform teens about sexual assault/rape can hopefully give them discipline to know what’s wrong or right.

Dominance/control, acceptance by society of certain behaviors, and controversy over consent are some of the components that result to rape/sexual assault. The concept fits perfectly with this issue, and would be a bit difficult to explain without the concept. Certain things such as miscommunication were poorly acknowledged while describing the issue. Overall, the ‘Sex Signals’ program is effective to get the attention of college students. It’s a great way to show that if certain behaviors aren’t accepted in a directed sketch they shouldn’t be accepted in real life.