Image credit: M. James Skitt Matthews, public domain
This week I saw a video that was released on Lady Gaga’s VEVO channel by a group she is working in partnership with called The Hunting Ground. The video is in a larger sense connected to another group called It’s On Us. Lady Gaga performs a song, “Til It Happens to You”, over an emotionally charged video about campus rape. It really is a moving representation of honest facts. Campus sexual assault is a real thing and, at some schools, it is an epidemic.
We see a girl overtaken by a much larger man in her dorm room. Two girls go to a party where they are drugged and one wakes up during her rape; she takes her friend and flees. Another victim is assaulted in her bathroom; her breasts are bound suggesting that she is transgender. They represent a snapshot of the multitude of different kinds of rapes committed each year on college campuses. Yet with each vignette my hopes were dashed about something much larger than the lens the video took.
Each attacker was male. Each victim was a gorgeous girl or gorgeous transgender. When awareness campaigns choose to participate in stereotypes that already exist, it can do more harm than good.
First, it worsens preexisting stigmas:
“Men can’t get raped”
“Women can’t be rapists”
“Pretty people are at a higher risk”
“Most rapes happen to women”
This can make it harder for people to believe those whose attack did not fit into a particular “category”. It introduces a prejudice that someone may not have if they are given a wider representation of the problem.
For instance, a lot of awareness campaigns about human trafficking focus on the sex trade and women in the sex trade. They show statistics that are relevant, but create a skewed perception. They say things like, “over half” of those trafficked are women. That’s true. But it’s only a few percentage points over half. That means there are millions of men being trafficked as well. Not to mention millions of other people in forced labor situations from farming to factory work to domestic servitude, etc. They have rescued entire family groups from slavery in factories in India; that’s multiple generations being used as slaves.
There are plenty of awareness campaigns talking about young girls getting trafficked. But did you know that the average age for a boy to be sold into the sex trade is 3? Boys are also considered more disposable after they reach adulthood. The reason there are so many more women in the sex industry after age 18 is because boys are not considered valuable and have “outgrown” the market so they are sold into something else or just kicked out into the street, or worse. Keep in mind that there are currently only two beds in the United States set aside for male victims of trafficking. When Anchor House is opened by Restore One it will exponentially increase that amount. But one of the biggest obstacles to awareness of these other issues is the misinformation that can be spread by singularly focused campaigns. They can easily drown out the other, very real, side of the story. It makes it necessary to run counter-awareness campaigns that can convolute the discussion even more. They end up having to compete for attention and usually fail. Lady Gaga’s video has over 7 million views already.
The video focuses on women. It says that “1 in 5 college women will be sexually assaulted this year unless something changes”. Because of videos like this that make it all about women, and the tenacity of other stigmas, most male rapes go unreported. There is no way to know how many college men will be sexually assaulted this year unless something changes. What needs to change is how we talk about rape.
I went to the website for It’s On Us and was met with vague videos and a frustrating layout that told me to take a pledge. There wasn’t much else. All I learned is that rape is sex without consent and that you can get a lot of celebrities and politicians in your videos if you give them a free tee shirt. I was hoping there would be more about how to get involved or some kind of awareness about gay, transgender, or male rape. Just sign the pledge and watch a bunch of famous people tell you that you need to get consent. Are rapists watching these videos? Do they care?
We do need to talk about sexual assault. We need to talk about rape. We need to talk about what we can do together. According to the Bureau of Justice, most students go without assistance from a victim services agency. Also according to them, the average number of male victims doesn’t come close to female victims, but there are still over 6,000 reported cases each year. How many would it be if we empowered everyone to speak up?
It feels like each time an awareness campaign starts it eclipses another one.
People who aren’t veterans have PTSD.
There is more to modern day slavery than sex.
All kinds of rapes are happening on campuses.
There’s more than one way to be homeless.
Even women who have had abortions can suffer from post-partum depression
Not just teenagers are engaging in self-injury
There are many sides to the same issue.
How can you help? Spread actual awareness. Remind people about the big picture. Inform yourself. Volunteer for a cause that is near to your heart. Just do more than wear a tee shirt or “sign” a pledge. Be loving and gentle. You may be telling someone something for the first time. They may be so misinformed they don’t know where to start. Help them by starting yourself.
Photo Credit: http://seniorsstories.vcn.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/albert-mckewan-story-shipwreck-1947-2-public-domain-no-mod-1024×823.jpg
advice, Awareness, Boundaries, C-PTSD, campus rape, comfort, complex trauma, courage, depression, healing, hope, invisible illness, lady gaga, mental illness, PTSD, rape, recovery, rethink trauma, social, suffering, suicide prevention month, Trauma