Sexual assault is not something to take lightly in my mind but according to article after article and report after report it is something that many colleges and universities take lightly. Below is a post that I had to do for one of my classes and it is shocking how colleges just ignore what is happening to the males and females of sexual assault. It is the victims fault for being assaulted and not the perpetrators. The post is based on a very well done movie called The Hunting Ground (2015).

This movie is very shocking and it is sad that Sexual Assault happens to so many people and it goes unknown or untold the majority of the time in The Hunting Ground (2015) it states “88 percent of women sexually assaulted on campus do not report.” These men and women in the video who are assaulted are scared to death to tell someone because of what may happen after the fact, or how the faculty members they tell may act. I think that there needs to be more support at colleges and universities for victims of sexual assault so that the victims know that it is okay to tell someone, and that they are not alone out there especially on larger campuses where assault occurs most often. The whole fact of sexual assault on college campuses and the stories told from the movie bring me back to last week’s discussion on how men are institutionalized to be violent because of magazines, movies, tv and video games. Now to bring in to the light of the main point of this week’s discussion the institutions that enable campus rape. Some of the institutions that were notable in the movie include: Faculty, Law Enforcement, The College Itself, Athletics.For example, with faculty in the movie, when we look at Annie’s story and see how the faculty member looked at rape as if it were a football game. Asking her what she would do differently. In other situations, victims were asked what happened, how were you dressed, were you drunk or drinking, did you say no, why didn’t you fight him? Drop out until everything blows over. Discourage students going to the police because they do not want a record of these things happening on their campus. Law enforcement does a similar thing because they blame the victim because it is there fault for turning the male on to them. The most shocking part about the institutions of law enforcement, the college itself and athletics is the story of Jameis Winston a football player at Florida State and how he was not charged and all other trials against him were dropped because of his name and where he could go professionally with his career. I did further research and the school actually paid Erica Kinsman $950,000 to drop her Title IX lawsuit against Winston (NPR 2016), this is disgusting and I think no matter your name or where you are going in life with whatever you do you deserve to pay for what you did to someone who did not want any part of what was happening. The college itself is another institution that enables campus rape because the school does not want that bad reputation with sexual assault because they are trying to present a good brand and why students should go there, and having the negative reputation of having sexual assaults on campus will ruin the chances of having students attend. I could go on for days with the amount of institutions that enable campus rape and why it is wrong, for a matter of fact I had to write a paper on this movie and I strongly think that there needs to be reform on college campuses to stop all of the sexual assault cases that are occurring year to year. More movements like the mattress being carried around need to be help to let these perpetrators know that what they are doing is immoral and wrong, they need to be charged and punished for what they have done. Yes, some were in the movie but after a few months they were allowed back on campus without even considering the women who were assaulted by these men. This is a huge issue on college campuses today including our own campus we need to be proactive about these things as students and friends of the victims here on our campus and of victims on other campuses.

As a college student, athlete, and moral human being, from the tad bit of information I give to you on this movie and from one article it is disturbing to see that most of the larger more popular institutions in America “support” rape and sexual assault because they do not want the bad reputation.

I think that colleges and universities need to realize that by not punishing the perpetrators of sexual assault and rape are just making this institution of sexual assault and rape stronger and stronger each and every day. If these schools do not start trying to make a change to the way they go about victims of sexual assault it will keep occurring. If parents and students see reality of college campuses yes, they may be scared or nervous to go there but if they see that these colleges are taking action for sexual assaults or another crimes that may be occurring maybe that will make their interest even higher because they are trying to keep their students safe. It is better to make these facts known colleges and universities cannot keep hiding from the reality, with this day and age of social media it is almost impossible for prospective students and parents to not know that these things are happening on college campuses. If colleges think that sexual assault is going to drop their incoming rate of freshman, why do we show that there are murders, mass shootings and other acts of violence on campuses but not sexual assault?

Colleges need to take action sooner rather than later because it will only help lower the rates of sexual assault and rape on campus. In the movie you can see that there is a group of victims that get together to support those who have been assaulted and they started meeting with the other victims and had started giving speeches about their experiences and eventually we see that one victim carries Mattress for her senior thesis to show the perpetrator the weight that she has to carry on their backs each and every day for the rest of their lives because what he did to her. Along with this mattress protest that one student had there were walks and other civil non-violent protests that were started to make head figures at the school realize that it isn’t a joke. More protests like this and even going to the boards of the schools and showing them statistics and telling them what is happening to try and change society’s view of the victim being the person who is in the wrong when 2%-8% of sexual assaults that are reported are false which means that 92-98% of these assaults are not. Along with going to the board like the two students who started tracking where these assaults were happening more should report to their senators and state representatives so they know what schools are violating the laws of reporting assaults and other crimes so they can be investigated and put to a stop. More school athletic programs also need to start taking part in the Its On Us campaign to help raise awareness for sexual assaults on campus.

These are all things that everyone needs to think about, let them sink in, research and take action toward because that is the only way society’s view of sexual assault and as a result masculinity will change. I strongly recommend that you watch The Hunting Ground to witness what the victims of sexual assault experience when reporting on college campuses, and to see what actions some have taken to stop these experiences for future victims.

The Hunting Ground (2015). Retrieved November 28, 2016, from https://www.netflix.com/title/80036655

FSU Pays $950,000 To Woman Who Accused Jameis Winston Of Sexual Assault.(2016,January 25). Retrieved November 29, 2016, from http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/01/25/...