I thank God my brain is a private place.
I fear some of my thoughts will escape, infecting the overly edited conversations I have with people.
I fear the fraternities in my section will find out what I really think about them at 2 am—and at 2 pm.
I fear that I’ll drop a thought that challenges the status quo of our society.
Writing has given me an outlet to control these thoughts. No, they don’t go away, but they do allow me to contextualize and understand my discomfort, my uncontrollable happiness, my outpour of love, my anger—my thoughts. I use my columns as an opportunity to let my brain have some fun, to let go of the structured thinking I’m trained into. While most of my uncensored, unedited thoughts don’t make it into my column, the process itself is my own source of comfort. I am my best listener. This process of writing-rewriting proved to be effective as I watched the “It’s On Us” campaign video starring Kerry Washington, Randy Jackson, Joel McHale, Mayim Bialik, Connie Britton, Vice-President Joe Biden and, of course, President Obama. The eerie music coupled with the “It’s On Us” shirts jolted me into a state of confusion (and laughter), but before I let my brain off on its own course, let me provide some information about the President’s initiative.
In September, President Obama announced his “It’s On Us” campaign to stop sexual assault on college campuses. In a powerful and convincing speech with Vice President Joe Biden and Lily, a sexual assault victim, President Obama warns Americans that we won’t progress until we treat men and women equally.
"As far as we’ve come, the fact is that from sports leagues to pop culture to politics, our society still does not sufficiently value women," he said. "We still don’t condemn sexual assault as loudly as we should. We make excuses. We look the other way. The message that sends can have a chilling effect on young men and women.”
The national initiative began its “Week of Action” on Monday, November 17 and will end Friday, November 21. 233 college campuses, the NCAA, Pi Kappa Alpha and Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternities, Niners Nation and SB Nation have all endorsed and supported the initiative. The week’s events include getting more people to sign the pledge, promoting roundtable discussions, and hosting bystander intervention training.
Whitehouse.gov lists steps that have taken to end sexual assault on campus. This includes sending guidance to every campus, creating the White House Task Force to protect students from sexual assault, and reviewing existing laws to make sure they adequately protect victims of sexual assault.
The website then provides 12 “tips” to help people become part of the solution. These include intervening when you see something, get help, recognize danger, keep an eye on friends, and talk to your friends about sexual assault. Now that I’ve given the context, allow me to share my (slightly edited) thoughts.
To the Obama administration, you’ve gotten it wrong.
You, indeed, have your heart in the right place, your foot in the right direction. But you, and whatever committee you hired to actualize your vision, has some serious rewiring before sexual assault is ever addressed (and if you’re hiring, I’m looking). First off, offenders do not proudly wear “I’m a rapist!” shirts. Like you said, victims usually know their offenders. People can’t intervene if they don’t see anything out of place. Two, if you’re going to enlist support from the NFL, you should probably address their own problems with sexual violence. Three, your tips highlight ways we can avoid sexual violence—not prevent it. If we intervene in a friend’s interaction with a “questionable” individual, who is to say that he/she won’t turn to another victim down the street, bar, or club?
Sexual violence does not exist a priori. It is embedded in a culture that celebrates the commodification and fetishization of bodies, especially female bodies, black and brown bodies, trans bodies, and homosexual bodies. It’s this culture that encourages, normalizes, and trivializes sexual violence. Don’t believe me?
Music tells us “you know you want it” and consent is just a set of “blurred lines.”
Jokes about “raping” that test (or game or meal) is a thing.
Magazine covers celebrate sexual innuendos only with women.
Magazines show us that women can only be sexual beings, while men should attain to be professional, successful and stylish.
There are open sexual violence investigations on 55 campuses nationwide, but only 3 percent of rapists will ever get convicted.
Similar to droplets that precipitate from a cloud, if you catch the rapist, you’re not stopping other offenders in the future. You’re just catching one person who has precipitated from a large mass hovering over us all. The steps and tips produced by the initiative address moves that we can partake in on a microscale. But these are systemic, macro problems, that need systemic, macro reform.
To address these problems, we need to take a step back and hold institutions and corporations to standards. As the women’s website Feministing states, "it’s on us to go beyond 'It’s On Us.'" Here are a few suggestions, from feminsting and from myself, we can employ to encourage change.
It’s On You to recognize and dismantle institutions that tolerate and perpetuate violence. College campuses need to be held accountable for sexual assault cases. If you know an offender is still enjoying the liberaties on campuses, speak up. Stand up. It’s on you to condemn violence, and to make sure your college does, too.
It’s On You to hold ethical standards for magazines. We’re all guilty of enjoying magazines, music and movies that celebrate the denigration of bodies. Boycott these corporations, start a movement, publicize their wrongdoings. Through twitter, Facebook, and other media platforms, your voice will be heard.
It’s On You to encourage the national athletic leagues to set standards for their athletes. Because if you won’t, who will? They make millions off our admiration. So we cannot not send conflicting messages of what it is that we admire. Millions of kids and men and women who unconditionally support their men look up to these athletes. If one man can influence a country, imagine how many a league can impact.
So to President Obama, Vice-President Biden, the entire Obama administration and the celebrities engaged in this initiative, I sincerely thank you for your efforts. I really hope your initiative provides the results you want to see on your end. But from where I’m standing, with boots on the ground, you still have some work to do.
Leena El-Sadek is a Trinity senior. Her column runs every other Wednesday.
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