As part of the information first-years receive about sexual assault, the John Paul Jones arena jumbotron depicted a harrowing sequence of events, demonstrating the possible roles bystanders can play in preventing a sexual assault. Sitting in the crowd, I had to stop myself from screaming at the bystanders, who simply sat back as a potential sexual assault was plainly occurring right in front of their eyes. Therein lies the fundamental failure of the program put on by the University — the reliance on overworn tropes of sexual assault and an accompanying failure to address the ambiguity which all too often surrounds sexual assault. When sexual assault prevention programs rely on the overworn cliche of the predatory strange man taking advantage of the intoxicated woman, they fail to prepare students for the murky reality of sexual assault on Grounds.
According to the National Institute of Justice, 85-90 percent of college sexual assault survivors know their attacker prior to the assault, a huge divergence from the predatory stranger model that seems to be the primary vehicle for educating University students about the dangers of sexual assault and the role they can play in preventing it. Students need to be better prepared for the real world, where distinctions aren’t so clear cut, and making the decision to intervene isn’t necessarily so obvious.
Future programs need to acknowledge it’s often not a straightforward decision to intervene, but rather that it’s always best to err on the safe side. Supplemental programs such as Not On Our Grounds, the online education modules and individual floor meetings with resident advisors do a better job of addressing this ambiguity.
If every student only looks out for a single archetype of sexual assault, a tragic majority of preventable violations could slip through the cracks. In fact, according to RAINN, 27 percent of reported assaults were committed by an former partner, and 43 percent were committed by a friend or acquaintance. Not to mention the sexual assault that can occur within a relationship, which is all too often overlooked.
By publicly expanding the definition of sexual assault and admitting that sexual assault can assume many guises, the University would make great strides in preparing the student body to be active bystanders on Grounds, while helping male survivors assaulted not in the archetypal way feel more comfortable coming forward to seek the assistance they need. Although the University has done an acceptable job so far of improving student education about this issue, further emphasis on the ambiguity of the majority of real life cases would go better prepare our students to hold each other to the highest of standards and create a welcoming, safe community for all.
Brendan Novak is a Viewpoint writer.
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