The Hunting Ground Aidan and Elise

The Hunting Ground

If someone discloses to you that they have been sexually assaulted, you believe them. There is no question as to whether they are lying and there is no question as to what they were wearing, how much they drunk, or if they led the accused on. There should be nothing but unconditional love and support. That is the only way to give victims a voice that can actually be heard. Until we stop picking apart every single sexual assault case until the victim becomes the bad guy and the accused gets off scot-free, there will be no justice for the victims. Although you may not have experienced the trauma yourself, you do not need to experience trauma to support a loved one. Your can simply promise to be there for the victim and help educate others. This love and support, coupled with raised awareness about sexual assault and prevention will help others to believe, support, and empathize with the victims. The best way to bring awareness to this issue is to refuse to be silent. If you see someone being harassed, hear someone objectifying someone else, or see examples of toxic masculinity, it is your duty to speak up. Tell an adult, console the victim, stand up to the abuser, and do your part to create an equal society. Educate yourself on the effects of toxic masculinity on abusers and the effects of sexual assault on victims- especially if the victim is scrutinized at every turn- and do everything in your power to change the way society operates. This includes, but is not limited to, posting about on social media, speaking at your school or local events, putting up posters, organizing benefits, and volunteering at different nonprofits aimed at stopping sexual assault and rape. Schools can also help this cause by requiring that middle school and high school sexual education courses outline consent rules/laws.

No one deserves to be subjected to unwarranted examinations from police or school administrators about the unrelated details of the incident. Instead of asking what the victim was wearing, ask what the accused was wearing so you can look for witnesses or locate them. Instead of establishing that the victim might have been drunk when assaulted, make it clear to the entire student body that consent is not consent unless both people involved are sober. And instead of asking what the victim did to warrant the advance or how they could have prevented the assault better, actively try to prevent this from ever happening again by putting the perpetrator in jail and provide support for the victim. In the film, none of these things ever happened and justice was never served. No one was ever believed, or, if they were believed, no one did anything about it. The victims were questioned relentlessly by administrators and were effectively rendered silent because they had absolutely no one advocating for them or fighting for justice. Annie Clark and Andrea Pino had to figure out by themselves how to force their University to take action against the rapists who had assaulted them, and much to the dismay of other Universities, they spread that message around the country. Sexual assault happens at virtually every college campus and the majority of cases go unnoticed, with the universities continuing to educate rapists and silencing the victims. The music video for “Til it Happens to You” also showcased the problems that victims have. The victims were hauled up in their rooms, too traumatized to function normally, and one even dropped out of school. But unlike the reality for most victims, the victims in the video found the much-needed support in friends in family and did not have to begin the recovery process alone. As the song points out, the friends and family will never know what it like to be assaulted, all they can provide is resources and be an outlet for the victim, no questions asked.

Unless the advocacy of the accused is that they have never touched, flirt with, made advances toward, talked to, or even so much as looked at the victim, then the accused should have little to no say in the case. The accuser needs to be able defend the fact that there was no advancement made at all, or else they need to let the jury decide the punishment. This is not to say that all reports of sexual assault are true, but only about 5% of reports are false. That means that an overwhelming majority of the time, the accused did sexually assault the victim and they should have nothing to say except for a sincere apology. Two examples to further my point are the Brock Turner case and the Duke lacrosse case. Brock Turner is a rapist and despicable human who did not receive adequate punishment for his crime because he managed to convince the judge to pity him. Instead of having empathy for the victim and putting a rapist in jail, the judge thought that prison would ruin Brock’s character, as if raping someone was not evidence enough that Brock probably didn’t actually have stellar character. Turner had no evidence to prove that he had not sexually assaulted the victim because that evidence did not exist, so he should have apologized for his actions, let the victim share her story, and faced the consequences. But he did not, and he got out of jail in three months. A counter example is the Duke Lacrosse case. Three players from the Duke lacrosse team were falsely accused of raping an African-American young woman. They stood up for themselves because they had not actually raped the victim, so their self-advocacy was in no way silencing the victim because the woman, although the lacrosse players were likely rude, insensitive and drunk, was not the victim of any crime. She was proven to have made up the entire story about ever being assaulted or abused by the lacrosse players, and had done it in the past before as well. The accused should only have a platform to speak if it does not diminish the victim’s experience. A rapist is a rapist, regardless of whether they “made a mistake,” get good grades, or play sports, and they have no right to speak about the victim’s experience and try to take away from the fact that they committed a crime. Ever.

One organization that has been very active in stopping campus sexual assault is Students Active For Ending Rape or SAFER. SAFER is a nonprofit that was founded in 2000 by students from the University of Columbia after they successfully fought to change the university’s sexual assault policy. The policy change at Colombia University was very well received by students from around the country, and students volunteering for SAFER were encouraged to spread their message across the US and help reform policies at other campuses. SAFER is one of the only organizations that fights sexual violence and rape culture by strengthening student-led campaigns in hopes of reforming college sexual assault policies. Aside from its board of directors, all workers at SAFER are volunteers, who operate based on the will of college students. SAFER receives its funding from donations from outsiders and supporters of the organization. They are firm believers that sexual violence occurs due to homophobia, trans-phobia, sexism, and racism, and actively try to combat these prejudices. In the past, SAFER talked to former Vice President Joe Biden about how to better combat sexual assault and rape and how to make the sexual assault policies on college campuses more equitable and strict. SAFER has been praised in the past and positively portrayed in the media for their ability to empower students and share the personal narratives of those who are victims of sexual assault and rape. Many organizations have cited SAFER in the past for research and examples of proper reform and many other organizations and projects have stemmed from SAFER, such as the Campus Accountability Project.

Aidan McMahon and Elise Johnson