Everyone loves to bingewatch a good drama or sitcom after a long day, but if you're looking for something that will truly change you, watch "The Hunting Ground." This documentary film released in late February of 2015, winning both the Producers Guild of America's Stanley Kramer Award and the Utah Film Critics' Best Documentary Award, is a brilliant work. "The Hunting Ground" highlights the issue of sexual assault rates on college campuses and the way universities handle these tragedies. Although this film is educational and eye-opening, it does warrant a trigger warning concerning sexual assault.
The film follows Annie Clark and Andrea Pino, two survivors and students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. They, along with survivors that reach out to them along the way, fight for the end of college campus rape culture by endlessly researching Title IX.
"The Hunting Ground" does an amazing job at highlighting one of the most prominent aspects of rape culture: victim blaming. "Rape is like a football game, Annie," Clark recalls an administrator telling her, "and if you look back on the game, what would you do differently in that situation?" After months and months of keeping her sexual assault to herself, Annie Clark receives this response. Unfortunately, victim blaming is nowhere near rare.
"They kept asking me, like, 'What were you wearing? What were you drinking? How much did you drink?'" Crystal Giokas of Florida State University tells of her reporting experience.
Perhaps the most demeaning incident is that of Iman Stenson. "Did you say no? How many times did you say no? How did you say it?" she says, practically rolling her eyes while explaining what an administrator at the University of California, Berkeley said to her.
Discouraged by authority figures failing to blame the assailant, survivors shy away from reporting their sexual assaults. 88 percent of women sexually assaulted on campus do not report.
This film also highlights arguably one of the most infuriating things about university administration: apathy toward survivors and the safety of all students. Claire Bond Potter, a former associate professor at Wesleyan University, gives us insight to this, stating "their [the administration's] first job is to protect the institution from harm, not the student from harm. It is in the interest of the college to suppress all knowledge that that rape has happened."
"After I was sexually assaulted, they [the administration] said I should just drop out until everything blows over," Ryan Clifford of University of California, Davis says.
During the latter part of the film, we are given the story of Erica Kinsman, a student at Florida State University. She tells the story of how she was being followed by a man at a local bar one night, until another man witnessed the scene and told the man that Kinsman was his girlfriend. After this, the follower went away and the man invited Kinsman to take a shot. She did so.
"I'm fairly certain there was something in that drink," Kinsman says. She recalls getting in a cab and going to an apartment where her nightmare began. When she got home, Kinsman and her friend called the police and they took her to the emergency room. "They were watching bruises appear as I was laying in the hospital bed," Kinsman recalls.
When Kinsman recognizes her assailant in a class, she watches as the professor calls roll. Jameis Winston, the quarterback of the Florida State University football team, is his name. This should be great news, right? With the name of the man, progress should be underway. Not so much.
When Kinsman reported his name to the Tallahassee Police Department, she was told "This is a huge football town. You really should think long and hard about whether or not you want to press charges or not."
Although Kinsman's rape kit demonstrated the necessary DNA to show Jameis Winston did engage in intercourse with her, nothing happened. Tallahassee PD did nothing. And most importantly, FSU did nothing. No charges were filed. And when FSU finally decided to interview Winston, he refused to answer questions and the university decided it was time to stop any further investigation. He was not suspended, expelled or kicked off the football team.
Rape culture has become an increasingly hot topic, but it is more than just that. This is an issue that all college students, regardless of gender, have to face. The injustice that colleges and universities serve their students must be stopped.
Check out RAINN: Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network if you or a friend are looking for a place to research how to deal with sexual assault. Watch "The Hunting Ground" now.
More than 16 percent of college women are sexually assaulted while in college. Let our generation put an end to rape culture, and learn the importance of consent.
