College campuses are a breeding ground for rape and sexual harassment. The collegiate culture is meshed around people experimenting with drugs, their sexuality and consuming copious amounts of alcohol.
Around this age (late teens to mid 20s typically), our hormones are skyrocketing and the college hookup culture is no foreign concept. When you are under the influence, the chances of being sexually assaulted heighten when you surround yourself with a bunch of horny inebriated college students.
This issue is a recurring one that only seems to escalade as the years go by. Sexual assault, harassment and rape happen on college campuses every day, unfortunately. No amount of training and informative segments on sexual harassment seems to solve the issue. The problem lies within the mindset of people who simply cannot respect another persons’ body and sexual desires.
When people think about these unsettling occurrences, the first thing that comes to mind is a male inflicting these actions upon a female.
Although many instances do involve a woman as the victim, it happens to men just as well.
With that said, it is important for people to watch out for their friends. Being drunk and under the influence of party drugs is something no one can deny is happening everyday. In these cases, it is important to be as safe as possible. Take care of the people you are going to parties with. A true friend will take these precautions. I can’t even imagine going to a party, losing track of where my friend is then finding out the next day he or she was raped. That would be such a heavy burden on my shoulders that would make me feel partly responsible knowing I could have helped him or her or prevented it from happening.
But the truth of the matter is it was the fault of whoever thought it was okay to take advantage of someone else.
I hear so many excuses as to why the situation may have happened.
“Do you see how she dresses? She was asking for it.”
“Maybe she shouldn’t show so much skin.”
There is no excuse for raping or sexually harassing someone.
If women who are attracted to other women can control themselves around a girl who is dressed scantily clad, then maybe the clothes aren’t the problem.
The same goes for women who sexually assault a man. I know a lot of girls who will flaunt themselves and make their flirtation obvious to everyone around them. The same thing goes for guys and girls: No means no.
Another excuse I hear a lot is: “Well I was just really drunk.”
Still inexcusable. Perhaps you should reconsider your intake of alcohol if the amount you are drinking is going to affect your morals and amount of respect you have for another person’s body.
Neither women nor men are braille… you don’t need to touch them to know them.
The age-old principle we all learned as kids should be engrained in our minds: Keep your hands to yourself.
Unless the consent is absolutely clear, don’t take the risk.
It is not hard to not touch someone, no matter how much alcohol you’ve had. Learn to control your intake of intoxicating substances so you can have a good time without causing trouble. Otherwise, stay sober.
The haunting part of this is that even sober people will cross the line. There are so many instances of a sober male or female trying to get someone drunk and place their person of interest under the influence just to take advantage of them because they might “loosen up” and be more willing to do things they wouldn’t normally agree to.
If you really need to get someone intoxicated to get them to like you or agree to sleep with you, then some serious reevaluation needs to be done.
Humans are sexual creatures so engaging in any type of sexual behavior should be fun and enjoyable, not forced.
This is a universal practice that needs to be executed on all genders. No exceptions.
