Writer Biography

Mariah Taylor was born on a small Air Force base in Germany. She comes from a military family and grew up all over the world. Along with traveling, Taylor is a passionate advocate for spending time outdoors and enjoys all Logan Canyon has to offer and also enjoys attempting to keep her plants alive, reading Harry Potter, and eating ice cream.

This essay was first published in the 2018 edition of Voices and uses MLA format.

IT’S LATE. TRAINED TO THE SOUND of my text notification, I look at my phone to see not one but two worrying messages. The first was a “USU CODE BLUE ALERT” telling me yet another sexual assault had occurred on campus. The second was from my mother, who also received the alert and wanted to make sure I had my pepper spray with me at all times. In just three months, Utah State University saw two reported sexual assaults on campus. The number of assaults on college campuses is not a problem to be lightly discussed and tossed aside for seemingly more important issues, especially if USU is not the only school facing this disturbing trend.

The problem of sexual assault is one so ingrained in the culture of our college campuses that it has become a culture in and of itself. “Rape culture” is the result of a society with the tendency to normalize social attitudes that promote predatory behavior, within which sexual assault and rape can be common and pervasive. To fully understand why this problem is so difficult to address, we must face the fact that sexual assault is part of a culture. The word “culture” originates from the Latin term “colere,” meaning “to cultivate.” Furthermore, “to cultivate” is to shape, mold, or characterize. As a society, we have shaped, molded, and characterized our behavior, speech, and other aspects of our lives to create an environment where sexual assault is prevalent. Ingrained in our attitudes, rape culture is a problem every individual, including myself, contributes to.

I understand that many individuals may feel defensive about this claim. I understand that the majority of people are very against all forms of violence wherever or however they come about. Our society is in no way intentionally supporting this culture. Where it permeates is in sexually explicit jokes, in stereotyping of male sexual dominance, in pressure towards men to “score” with women. Even worse is our tendency to treat men who do “score” as though they have championed some sort of conquest. We slip up when we choose to ignore the news of rape because it is too uncomfortable to talk about openly. We slip up when we teach people how to avoid getting raped, instead of teaching rapists not to rape.

Rape culture is a culture in which girls feel unsafe walking home at night, especially alone. It is a culture that encourages parents, mine included, to provide their children with self-defense classes, pepper spray, and constant reminders to always be on guard, to not become too trusting. This culture does not affect just women. It is one wherein a man might feel the need to take the long way home at night so he doesn’t scare the woman he walks behind. It is one where boys feel they need to be on the defense when talking about sexual assault even though they are part of the majority of men who have never assaulted another person.

According to the Department of Justice, violent sex crimes in the general United States have gone down in the past five years. A study from the Department of Education, however, shows that these crimes are rising on college campuses (“Crime in Schools and Colleges”). Rape culture is not engrossing the entirety of our nation, but is prevalent on our college campuses, prompting us to ask why.

Perhaps I’m in the minority, but from my experience, and the experiences of many I associate with, I have yet to meet a person who truly believes that rape culture has any benefits for a community. If everyone agrees that this is a no-good aspect of our society, then why is it still a problem? For one, a majority of students on campuses do not realize how prevalent rape culture is. This lack of knowledge could be a result of a variety of issues. One that I have heavily researched and personally feel impassioned to advocate against is the lack of responsibility some university administrators feel regarding the issue. According to an article published in The Washington Post in June 2016, over 500 colleges across the United States reported zero cases of rape on campus in 2015 (Anderson). Something is wrong with this picture. Taking accountability for a sexual assault on campus can potentially hurt a university’s prospects for enrolling future students and securing future funding.

The sad fact is that the decision to deny accusations of rape happening on campus denies the victim their rights for justice and continues to promote the unrealistic ideologies of campus safety for incoming students. The lack of reporting means many incoming students are genuinely unaware of the culture of rape on their campus because universities often do not accept the fact themselves. Ignorance of the problem only increases the likelihood of the infectious “cycle of fear which is the legacy of rape culture” (“Rape Culture”). This cycle has just recently been brought to light in major media as more and more victims of sexual assault feel comfortable sharing their stories.

Erica Kinsman, a student at Florida State University, challenged this legacy of fear and was met with obstacles orchestrated by her own university to prevent her story from reaching the public. Kinsman was an average freshman at Florida State University when, in 2012, she was raped after her drink was spiked. She was then taken in a cab to the perpetrator’s apartment. Following the incident, Kinsman reported the assault to the Tallahassee Police Department (TPD), expecting to acquire help and closure. She received the proper examinations to provide evidence against her attacker. Although she was able to identify the bar and apartment of the events that night, the TPD did not seek out her attacker. Two months later, spring classes began, and Erica Kinsman identified her attacker after seeing him answer to his name being called for attendance. His name, Jarneis Winston, was one nearly every student at FSU knew and celebrated. As the football team’s star quarterback, Winston fought against every allegation that Kinsman put forth, trying to prove the crime false. A total of ten months passed before Florida State University agreed to hold a trial against Winston. In the fall of 2013, despite telling evidence collected by the rape kit provided by the hospital (Winston’s DNA matched DNA) and witness testimonies by both individuals at the bar and the cab driver who confirmed Winston’s identity, the jury declared that the evidence did not prove that whatever happened that night was “not consensual.” The same year as the trial, Winston was set to lead FSU football to the National Championships. Three months after the trial, Winston led FSU to victory. Erica Kinsman dropped out of school because of the overwhelming hate she received from other students. (Tracy)

Years later, a Google search of “Jarneis Winston” first reports not on the events that occurred while he attended FSU. Instead, they are NFL stats for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers where he is the starting quarterback. If you scroll down far enough, you will notice articles indicating that he is currently under investigation by the NFL following allegations that he groped a female Uber driver. One cannot help but wonder, if Florida State University would have followed through with the evidence, put the safety of their students above the stability of their football title and potential funds, would the violent behavior have stopped after what we can only hope was Jameis Winston’s first offense?

Unfortunately, Erica Kinsman’s story is not uncommon. In 2016, Stanford student-athlete Brock Turner was convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman, a crime worthy of six years in federal prison. He was sentenced to six months and three years of probation. In September of 2016, he was released three months early, the judge claiming “any other sentence would have had too severe an impact” on Turner’s swimming career, as though Turner didn’t severely impact the life of the woman he raped (Persky). These devastating examples are evidence of a society that has treated the issue of sexual assault light-heartedly and of universities more concerned with the traditional funding of their programs and institutions than the safety and security of their students. (Meixler)

At USU, Code Blue Alert is a student- and faculty-wide notification via text, email, or phone call sent directly to a recipient’s cell phone, informing them of any important incidents on campus. Usually, these are weather warnings or school cancellations. The university also has used it as a tool to notify their students of sexual assaults, providing a great example to hundreds of colleges across America. When universities report honestly, it allows for victims to feel the support they need to report their own experiences. In this scenario, students are aware of the sexual assault on their campus, curing them of the false idea that “this doesn’t happen on my campus.” There is always the chance that as universities begin to report the extent of sexual assaults on campus, parents will be less trusting and, yes, possibly less likely to send their students to the school. In this case, we must decide if we are more concerned for current students living in our campus community today, or the tuition money future students will be paying into the system without full disclosure of the dangers of rape culture.

Even in the event that a university reports sexual assault cases, as a society, we have a tendency to normalize these events. It is the same as when we watch the news and see a shooting; we sympathize and truly feel sorrow for the victims, and then we move on. When we do so, we send a message that we care, but that it is not our responsibility to act against the violence. In reality, we can act. In December of 2017, Time magazine named “The Silence Breakers” person of the year, year, encouraging all who have experienced sexual harassment or assault of any kind to speak up. When asked how the movement began, Time‘s Editor-in-Chief stated, “It began, as great social change nearly always does, with individual acts of courage” (Felsenthal). This campaign literally broke the silence for those individuals who have felt alone in their experiences of sexual assault. In the case of breaking the silence on our campuses, we must choose to become friends, colleagues, and peers that are willing to listen to the stories of those affected by assault and encourage the victims to report their assault. At some point, university administrations will be held accountable for what happens on their campuses. That day will not come until those who have been affected report and the reports become so overwhelming they can no longer be ignored.

As students, it is our responsibility to be aware of what is happening on our campus. We need to support the victim by supporting organizations that directly deal with the issue, such as SAAVI on the USU’s campus. We need to make the conscious decision to discontinue our approach to sexual dominance in our conversations and actions. We need to watch how we react to stories that give you the “this doesn’t seem quite right” feeling. Those times we feel our friends, or we, may have crossed a line in a joke are the pivotal moments to create change. Though they may seem insignificant or that no one is going to take it seriously, these moments are incredibly impactful. If everyone uses the same excuse, nothing changes, and that is exactly what is happening with our students. When this behavior is passed off as acceptable and leads to a culture that celebrates sexual violence, we are apprehensive to admit that we contributed to its creation. To break down this culture, we must realize that it is our individual responsibility to stop the behavior we are inadvertently encouraging.

Our university campuses are melting pots for individuals to come together and create a safe environment rich with diversity and individuality. My proposal to solve the problem of sexual assault on college campuses is to break down the established atmosphere of rape culture. To eradicate any culture is a feat only plausible if individuals decide to do something. A culture is a part of who we are. It is something that ties each of us together. In this case, rape culture binds us together in ropes that chain our individuality and silence our freedom of choice. Only through the decisions of individuals can we break down this toxic culture and rid ourselves of the social tendencies that destroy our chances of an environment with equal opportunity for all to succeed. We can face this with boldness. We can recognize in our own lives the aspects of who we are and how we act that contradict our primary goal of acceptance, independence, and most importantly, confidence in the knowledge that we as individuals can implement change for good.

Works Cited

Anderson, Nick. “These Colleges Have the Most Reports of Rapes.” The Washington Post, 7 June 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/news/ grade-point/wp/2016/06/07/these-colleges-have- the-most- reports-of-rape/?utm_term=.d92ea07aba2c.

“Crime in Schools and Colleges.” FBI:UCR, FBI, 17 Mar. 2010, ucr.fbi. gov/nibrs/crime-in-schools-and-colleges.

Felsenthal, Edward. “The Choice.” Time Magazine, 18 Dec. 2017, doi:10.1075/ps.5.3.02chi.audio.2f.

Meixler, Eli. “Brock Turner Is Trying to Get His Sexual Assault Convictions Overturned.” Time Magazine, 4 Dec. 2017, time. com/5047213/brock-turner-rape-trial-appeal-conviction/.

“Rape Culture.” Women’s Center, Marshall University, 2017, www.marshall. edu/wcenter/sexual-assault/rape-culture/.

“Sexual Assault and Anti-Violence Information Office.” SAAVI | USU, 2017, www.usu.edu/saavi/.

Tracy, Marc. “Jameis Winston and Woman Who Accused Him of Rape Settle Lawsuits.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 15 Dec. 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/12/15/ sports/football/ jameis-winston-erica-kinsman-lawsuit.html.

Works Consulted

Gillibrand, Kirsten, et al. “The Debate: How Should College Campuses Handle Sexual Assault?” Time, vol. 183, no. 20, 26 May 2014, pp. 28-29. EBSCOhost, dist.lib.usu.edu/login?url=http://search. ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=96020311& site=ehost-live.

Gray, Eliza. “The College Town of Missoula, Mont, Saw at Least 80 Reported Rapes over Three Years, Earning It the Name America’s Rape Capital. But the Nickname Has It Wrong. Missoula Isn’t Special; It Is Fairly Average. The Truth Is, for Young Women, America’s Campuses Are Dangerous Places (Cover Story).” Time, vol. 183, no. 20, 26 May 2014, pp. 20-27. EBSCOhost, dist.lib.usu. edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx ?direct=tr ue&db=aph&AN=96020310&site=ehost-live.

Jozkowski, Kristen N. “‘Yes Means Yes?’ Sexual Consent Policy and College Students.” Change, vol. 47, no. 2, Mar/Apr 2015, pp. 1623. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/00091383.2015.10049 90.

Newsom, Jennifer Siebel, director. The Mask We Live In. Netflix, 2015.