Recently, I watched "The Hunting Ground" on CNN, highlighting the epidemic nature of sexual assault on college campuses, opening my eyes to just how widespread rape culture is in America. It's frankly disgusting and unacceptable that we as a society (as we men in particular) contribute to this diseased mentality. Now Ms. Jessica "Stoya" Stoyadinovich, an adult film star and acclaimed artist, has accused "feminist" porn star James Deen of raping her, disregarding her lack of consent, and shaming her into silence. Obviously this brings into question the idea of whether men can truly be feminists or not, and whether we have an equal place in the fight for women's liberation across the world.
Let me be clear: that is not for me or any other male-identifying person to debate. I personally identify as an ally or an accomplice to the cause, just to put some distance between my privilege that might unintentionally inject undue pressure into women's spaces. This isn't about male ego; this is about people's lives being altered forever because we just can't seem to hold rapists accountable for their actions.
But that's not what we need to focus on in this case, or really any case where a person has been sexually assaulted. This is about solidarity for victims of rape, and especially sex workers who are stigmatized for their economic contributions. It has been said by too many people in the industry that their agency is imperative to their work. We cannot shame them and justify sexual assault against them. At all. They already face almost no legal help in prosecuting and imprisoning their rapists and are often blamed for "putting themselves in harm's way".
This is not OK. This is far from OK.
This is slut-shaming, whorephobia, sexist, and all of those "isms" that factor into the beast known as rape culture. It's in our judicial system, it's in the very composition of our language (where prostitute is still considered an acceptable academic term to refer to sex work), and as "The Hunting Ground" showed recently, it's in our institutions of higher learning. Sexism is everywhere, and rape culture is one of the primary vehicles by which it accomplishes its mission of reinforcing patriarchy.
So do you want to help #stoprapeculture2K15?
Start with believing Stoya, and all of Deen's victims. Recognize the reality that rape is rarely falsely reported and encourage survivors and validate their agency. To my fellow men, another important first step is to acknowledge that we have unearned privileges in our society that we will never have to face (a whole backpack of issues to be expanded upon at a later date). None of this is to say that there has never been a false rape allegation or discount non-female persons who are sexually assaulted. And everyone needs to take the time to educate themselves properly about what constitutes consent; God knows sex education in America is laughable and hardly tries to teach this.
Education is the first step in dismantling oppression. Join me in standing in solidarity with Stoya and James Deen's victims. They need all the help they can get.
