Too often, we receive campus alert emails about the preceding weekend and their activities. Sadly, these emails often contain alerts about sexual harassment of some form against women on campus. It's great that these incidents are starting to be reported more now then ever before, but the mere existence of such behavior is absolutely revolting and disgraceful. It's essential that we, as a student body and a collective community of individuals, stand up to sexual assault and not only report it if it happens, but prevent it before it does.
According to a Spring 2015 report by the Association of American Universities, 23.1% of women on college campuses reported sexual assault and sexual misconduct due to physical force, threats of physical force, or incapacitation. The survey also reported that sexual assault due to physical threat or incapacitation tend to decline from freshman to senior year. As a new student on campus, you're supposed to be experiencing some of the best years of your life; making new friends, preparing for your future after graduation, and so on. Your entire college experience, and life, could be altered for the worst after an incident of sexual assault. This could be anything from going out to a party and a guy is continually making unwanted sexual advances, to a rape occurring outside of a dorm. Unfortunately, sexual assaults against students have been increasing and have become a regular thing to see on a campus alert. It's absolutely horrible that people would act in such a behavior to think that they can have control over another's body and actions. These people are sick, twisted individuals who should never be defended for what they've done or allowed to do it again.
There have been 10 Madison Alert emails containing information about a sexual assault since September 2015; five of those 10 were in the month of October alone. Most of the incidents that were reported, happened at an off-campus party or fraternity house. Sadly, there is often a ton of backlash and arguing after these emails are sent about who might have done it and a lot of victim blaming.
Let's take a moment to get this in everyone's head: IT'S NOT THE VICTIM'S FAULT.
Good, that should be simple enough to understand, but unfortunately many want to still continue to blame victims for the actions committed against them. Psychologists have discovered that a primary reason for victim blaming is because we want a just society and a just world. By having bad things happen to good people, our sense of a "just society" has been broken, thus we derogate victims and find the smallest characteristic of fault to exploit. Victim blaming is detrimental to society and needs to be stopped at once. It's a huge reason why less than 28 percent of sexual assaults on campus were reported. Victims are embarrassed and scared that they will be blamed for the incident in which they did no harm so they decide to not report it, which just leads to a never-ending cycle and allows the assaulter to act again. We, as a student body, need to stop saying that, "she was asking for it" or "she probably just blacked out and can't handle her alcohol." There's no space for victim blaming here at JMU.
Men need to be more involved with the issue of sexual assault as well. Most of the sexual assaults that occur are performed by a man acting against a woman. As a fraternity man myself, I see it way too often when a guy thinks that he's entitled to a girl at a party or trying to make multiple unwanted sexual advances. It's part of our responsibility as a gentleman and as a human being to stop any sexual assault or harassment that we see or hear of. The problem of fraternities and sexual assault has been increasing throughout the years and there needs to be a reform of character in these fraternities that allow for such behavior.
As a member of Delta Upsilon, we teamed up with the Global Fund for Women, which is a champion for gender equality, and standing up for women and girls to be strong, safe, powerful, and heard. We want to start spreading the word about how women's rights aren't just important to women, they're important to men as well. We think it's incredibly important that fraternity men, and other men on campus, realize the problems that have been resulting in sexual assaults and work towards ending the behaviors altogether. Women shouldn't be alone in the fight against sexual assault and men on campus need to start standing up to assaulters and their behaviors.
It's time to act together, males and females, and stop these sexual assaults before they even happen. This means if you see your friend at a party trying to get away from a guy, help her out; If you see someone blacked out on the curb of the street, waiting for a cab, help them out; if you hear talk between others about committing any acts against someone else, report it immediately and help lead the person away from the situation. It takes a collaborative effort to end this gruesome behavior.
Already, there are various clubs, organizations, and events on campus, such as JMU's Take Back the Night event and Help Save the Next Girl chapter, that seek to end the threat of sexual assault on campus and have it be a true "safe place" for individuals, especially women. Help these organizations spread the word about what to do in situations, how to prevent it from happening, and ending the culture of victim blaming around campus. Let's make JMU a place that is considered safe for everyone and free from any threat of sexual assault or harassment.
If you have been a victim of sexual assault/harassment, or have seen/heard about a sexual assault against another person, please come forward to the authorities, on-campus support, and family and friends who can help throughout the process. Sexual assault/harassment is nothing to go unnoticed. Stay safe JMU.
