Sexual assault has always been a popular topic of discussion. It lulls in the media, then rears its ugly head when there is a high-profile case. With the recent Brock Turner sentencing, sexual assault is once again at the forefront. And one of the most commonly asked questions among people is, “how is something as serious as sexual assault belittled so much?”
It seems as if almost everyone can acknowledge the fact that sexual assault is wrong, but we are not all in agreement as to what actually constitutes sexual assault. And this is where the problem lies.
Consent. This is something that has been stressed and taught forever; what represents consent, and what doesn’t? In every case, it still seems that the question of consent and whether or not the victim wanted it is argued.
As for Brock Turner, a woman lying unconscious behind a dumpster is unable to consent. Obviously.
But Brock Turner is not the only one guilty of this, nor are men the only ones to blame; people can play into sexual assault without actually doing the deed themselves. Being a bystander and allowing this sort of behavior to occur is almost as big an issue as the one carrying out the assault.
How can we expect anything to change by standing idly by?
Just recently, I was at a nightclub with a bunch of my girlfriends, and an older gentleman was harassing us. It wasn’t something as simple as a couple of inappropriate comments; throughout the night, this man put a handful of ice cubes down my bra, aggressively grabbed the back of my head and attempted to pull me in for a kiss, and stuck his hand up my skirt, not once, but twice. He acted similarly towards my friends as well. And when I approached a female employee about how his behavior was making us extremely uncomfortable, her response was, “if you don’t like the way he’s acting, walk away.”
Walk. Away. What?
Sure, I’ll walk away; we all will. And as soon as we do, the next girl he sets his sights on becomes a victim to his harassment. Regardless of the fact that we couldn’t just “walk away” being that our tables were next to each other, why should WE have had to be the ones to walk away? The proper response would have been to kick this guy out of the club. Send a message that it is not okay to continually harass someone after being repeatedly told to stop. This is why people think they can get away with sexual assault. In their opinion they are “not doing anything wrong”, “it’s all in good fun”, “the girls/women want it”, “they’re saying no, when they really mean yes”, and a thousand other clichés.
There are two kinds of people: the assailants (those who actually commit the sexual assault), and those who are against it. And for those of us who are against sexual assault, we need to stick together and fight against the assailants. There cannot be an in-between; someone who knows sexual assault is wrong but does nothing to change it. People like that serve no purpose in changing the way our society views this serious matter. If you see someone being harassed, say something. If someone tells you they are being harassed, do something. Kudos to the two students who just happened to be riding their bikes by that dumpster when Brock Turner was assaulting that poor girl. We need to be a society filled of people like them, not of those who turn the other cheek.
Join a support group on your college campus, even if you haven’t been harassed or assaulted yourself, I’m sure there are volunteer opportunities. Visit the Catharsis Productions Website, and bring one of these programs to your campus. Search the internet; there are lots of programs available. Talk to your friends, your siblings, your cousins, moms, dads, everyone and anyone you can. Get them involved. Share your views and feelings on social media. We need this to go viral if we ever want to make a change.
If you continue to stand by and do nothing, you are part of the problem.
