Author: Cordelia Kenney
“Ninety-five percent of male students are not perpetrating sexual assault crimes, while five percent are doing it a lot,” Survivor Advocate and Project S.A.F.E. Coordinator Naddia Palacios said. “The focus needs to be on how to empower the 95 percent and how we are going to change the culture.”
After the events of last spring, the seizure of faculty laptops this summer and the settlement reached this semester, many among the may be wondering where the Occidental community stands in the dialogue about sexual assault on campus. Individuals and organizations, however, may be hesitant to comment unless within specific settings, such as locker rooms or fraternity houses. Although the Oxy Sexual Assault Coalition (OSAC) was asked to comment on
the involvement of men in the conversation about sexual assault, no
response was received. Looking forward, though, Palacios advocates for helping students feel more comfortable asking questions and preventing assaults from happening.
Project S.A.F.E.’s aim is to tap into that 95 percent of men and focus on advocacy and education. According to Palacios, Project S.A.F.E.’s Program Assistants (PAs) have already led 45 presentations to different Greek organizations, clubs and athletic teams on campus to effectively reach as many students as possible. The model of Project S.A.F.E., while sexual assault is still such a new topic, capitalizes on the benefits of gender-specific spaces.
“The number one problem [with male involvement in the discussion] is that people don’t know how to talk about it,” economics and politics double major and Project S.A.F.E. PA Kevin Siebs (senior) said. “It’s a new topic, and people don’t necessarily feel comfortable with it yet, so we have to keep practicing talking about it.”
Siebs is one of four PAs at Occidental who give presentations and organize Project S.A.F.E. events, including RAINN Day and Love Your Body Day that occurred earlier this semester. For Siebs, who joined Project S.A.F.E. in August, the events of last spring were a call to action. Siebs recounted an experience reminiscent of the celebrated “click” moment that countless people felt in the 60s and 70s. In the words of Ms Magazine, the click moment crystallized feminist consciousness for thousands who had “suddenly and shockingly perceived the basic disorder in what [had] been believed to be the natural order of things.”
“I had no idea [so much sexual assault] was going on, and it was shocking to hear everything come out,” Siebs said. “I wanted to get involved because clearly there is a problem. We weren’t educated enough on how prevalent sexual assault is on campus. One in four women experiences sexual assault while in college. I wish I was told that. I wish it was a known statistic before entering college. People need to realize it’s an issue before coming here.”
Palacios stated that creating safe spaces on campus will allow for conversations to blossom and for more students to feel comfortable asking questions and getting involved.
“It’s important for male students to see their peers being articulate and excited about this issue,” Palacios said. “Having more male students involved will help them feel empowered by the information. There might be that missing connection if I’m giving the presentation; the dynamic shifts when I walk in because I am an administrator. Kevin and Kris can pull a group of men aside and facilitate a different dynamic. The charge of the PAs is to start creating that discourse within their communities.”
Many male students at Occidental concur that education is essential and is the most effective way to change the culture that condones sexually aggressive behavior toward others.
“We don’t have a culture yet where someone can say something and not feel judged by it,” Palacios said. “Male students are sometimes afraid that their conversations might be taken out of context. The more open that we are, the more spaces that we create where we can honestly answer questions without shaming, the more voices will be heard and the more people will be reached.”
Project S.A.F.E.’s presentations seem to be an effective route of bringing more Occidental students, particularly male voices, into the dialogue. Siebs explains the outline of each presentation:
“It’s a media-driven approach. We begin by talking about how media perpetuates rape myths and social norms that shouldn’t be social norms. We move into talking about where people first had discussions about sexual violence and how society perpetuates these norms. Then we move into bystander intervention training and talking about what consent looks like. We talk about what resources are available on campus and how to help survivors.”
Economics major and fellow Project S.A.F.E. PA Kris Montoya (senior) added that the presentations incorporate time to practice giving and receiving consent and bystander intervention in groups of three to four students.
The receptiveness of students who receive Project S.A.F.E.’s presentations is a positive indication that more male students are willing to involve themselves in combating rape culture, in part because of the opportunity to explore how consent and bystander intervention might actually play out between Occidental students.
“It’s easy to sit through presentations during orientation and think, I get it, it’s bad,” Montoya said. “But students are really interactive in our presentations. Everyone knows that [sexual assault] is wrong, but no one knows what to say beyond that. By helping them to start thinking about it, [our presentations] will help students to start feeling comfortable with this topic. The most important thing is to have everyone involved. It can’t be just a select group. ”
Economics major Ty Cobb (senior), who sat in on a presentation delivered by Siebs and Montoya to his fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, had a positive impression of his peers’ work.
“Now we’re being proactive instead of reactive,” Cobb said. “It’s good to be educated ahead of time instead of reacting to something that [already] happened.”
Already, more students on campus seem willing to speak up. Montoya recounted an experience early in the semester at one of the first-year dances in which a Residential Advisor intervened in a situation where one Occidental student was not respecting the boundaries of another. In Montoya’s experience, that type of active bystander intervention would not have been as likely a year or two ago. By practicing these skills beforehand amongst only other males through Project S.A.F.E. and other educational programs, the hope is that more and more students, especially men, will feel comfortable speaking up when something seems wrong.
“Academic research shows that more productive conversations happen when it’s males with males, but I hope someday that it can be an integrated conversation with the same level of productivity,” Siebs said. “Men sometimes feel uncomfortable talking about this issue because they don’t want to say the wrong thing. It can be easier to talk about it with someone they know and are familiar with.”
In a similar vein, sociology professor Richard Mora, along with English and Comparative Literature Studies (ECLS) professor James Ford III, reached out to male students last spring to form Occidental Men Against Rape (OMAR). Both professors have been working with male students this semester to reinstate weekly OMAR meetings next semester.
“Young men must help end sexual violence and the cultures that promote it,” Mora said via email. “From our many interactions with students, we were aware of many young men on campus who care.”
Sociology major David Pino (senior), who was an active member of OMAR last spring, expressed his concern for the status of male involvement in this dialogue.
“There has always been a conversation among certain Oxy men, but it has ended the same way—not much gets done,” Pino said. “For one reason or another, it always seemed to collapse, whether it’s seniors graduating or something else. OMAR was the first widely available forum for all men to participate in.”
According to Mora, attendance at OMAR meetings last April ranged from under 20 to over 45 male students. There were around five meetings total but logistical hangups, questions of leadership and concerns about the screening process for membership halted the group’s transition into the fall.
“There were a handful of very productive meetings,” Mora said. “The young men and faculty in the room agreed that we all needed to educate ourselves and the community about the issue.”
Politics major Alex Stein (senior), who was involved in OMAR last semester, is working with professors Mora and Ford to relaunch the organization in the spring. Despite organizational hangups last year, Stein hopes to work with other male students and faculty to make OMAR a meaningful contribution to campus next semester.
“I hope that in the spring OMAR brings together more young men interested in collaborating with both OSAC members and likeminded young men on other campuses, and, as OMAR’s mission states, ‘educate, empower and mobilize men to create cultures free of all forms of sexual violence,’” Mora said.
Although OMAR has not met this semester, the professors and students still working on the organization hope to facilitate an open space for male students to discuss issues surrounding sexual violence next semester.
“Right now, we’re determining the role of OMAR, who can be in OMAR and what OMAR should be,” Stein said. “OMAR is contingent on being a safe space and a group of men who can talk comfortably. Progress hinges on men correcting and calling out other men.”
For Pino as well, a greater emphasis must be placed on male students feeling empowered to speak out against sexual violence and gender discrimination. But male students, according to Pino, must reflect on their assumptions and values about race as well as gender.
“I’d like to see more men step up to the plate and take [the] onus and be willing to be part of this conversation,” Pino said. “We need to check our privilege. This has gone on too long.”
Palacios stated that student development happens when students are able to approach her and other allies to clear up confusion. More than seeking answers, though, students must have the courage to attach their names to their beliefs and empower their voices, according to Palacios. As a Project S.A.F.E. PA, Siebs intends to be a conduit to that end.
“We are trying to create a substantive cultural shift,” Siebs said. “It will take time, but we hope to build off this momentum and keep it growing. We’re always trying to create new and innovative ways to advertise what we’re doing. We’re experimenting with new things, but the biggest advertisement is going to be word of mouth. Students will listen to their peers more than anything. We’ve had great turnouts and have had a handful of guys coming up asking about becoming PAs. As the conversation continues growing, more and more people will want to be involved.”
Although male Occidental students recognize the need for greater clarity and understanding of the issues pertaining to sexual assault, all male students quoted in this article detailed the difficulty in finding the right approach for entering into that kind of dialogue. Most people intuitively understand that taking advantage of someone sexually is wrong, but the greater challenge is articulating why sexual abuse is wrong. As Pino posits, identifying the social structures that enforce the acceptability of sexual abuse requires interrogating one’s own privileges and values.
“We have to be more willing to challenge ourselves and our peers to reject rape culture,” Pino said. “We must be willing to step outside our comfort zone, research and know the scope of the problem and listen to narratives of survivors. We need to make it personal and allow men to be emotionally open. We’re taught to hide that aspect about ourselves [as men].”
The disproportionately high number of female victims of sexual assault is linked to the way sexuality and gender is portrayed in the media. Dr. Robert Jensen, who was on campus to present a talk about pornography in relation to the ecological crisis last Thursday, explains the deeply ingrained and imbalanced relationship between men and women in our society in a recent article for the Dallas Morning News:
“I use the term sexual intrusion to describe the range of unwanted sexual acts that women and girls experience — obscene phone calls, sexual taunting on the streets, sexual harassment in schools and workplaces, coercive sexual pressure in dating, sexual assault and violence with a sexual theme. In public lectures on these issues, I tell audiences that I have completed an extensive scientific study on the subject and found that the percentage of women in the United States who have experienced sexual intrusion is exactly 100 percent. Women understand the dark humor; no study is necessary to describe something so routine.”
Jensen contextualizes this kind of intrusion by linking it to the prevailing assumption in media and virtually all facets of our daily lives:
“For decades, feminists have used the term rape culture to describe the ideas and practices that make sexual intrusion commonplace. Feminists have explained that this rape ideology has not been a feature of all human communities throughout history but is a product of patriarchy, a social system based on male dominance.”
For Palacios and her PAs, the intention is to ultimately upend this constructed social system with time and persistence. Palacios draws from the widespread advertising of graphic images depicting sexual interactions and women as sexual objects in Project S.A.F.E. presentations to highlight the ways media is detrimental to our understanding of sexuality.
“We’re so desensitized to sex,” Palacios said. “The majority of rape myths come from the media. Our biggest enemy is the whole machine of media telling us constantly how men and women should be, how sexual interactions should be and how we need to feel about our sexual interactions. That’s a lot to carry for an 18 year old.”
Siebs similarly described the necessity of holistically and comprehensively challenging the underlying elements in society that promote violence against women, including images found in the media and messages transmitted through song lyrics.
“By taking a step back, we can see that [the media is] promoting a culture that’s not conducive to what we’re trying to do,” Siebs said. “When I’m in the car with my friends and a song like ‘Blurred Lines’ comes on the radio, we look at each other and we get it. This isn’t right.”
For students just entering college, Occidental has implemented mandatory trainings to help first years immediately start thinking about these issues described by Siebs. All incoming and returning students had to complete the approximately two-hour online training course “Think About It” over the summer, which dealt with issues of sexual assault and substance abuse. During first-year orientation, Project S.A.F.E. gave presentations at first-year hall-spreads and Jackson Katz, creator of the Mentors in Violence Prevention program, addressed the entire incoming class on the intersection of gender and violence.
“We need to meet people where they’re at when they’re coming into college,” Palacios said. “For everything, not just in the rape crisis movement, we’re in a state of paranoia because we are such a politically correct institution. It doesn’t allow for a very open discourse. As the semester or year progresses, there needs to be a shift from understanding that [sexual assault] is wrong and that it’s happening to how do we move as a community to heal ourselves?”
Palacios points out that one presentation from Project S.A.F.E. should not suffice in matters of sexual violence and gender inequality generally. The course of understanding does not end with one presentation or one conversation. In her words, integrating compassion for survivors and understanding of the issues surrounding sexual assault is a lifelong process. To continue building upon the outreach work Project S.A.F.E. has done this fall, Palacios is in the process of creating a program more inclusive of male voices.
“We’re working on bringing Jackson Katz’s Mentors in Violence Prevention [to campus] in the spring,” Palacios said. “We’re in the process of building a male-focused program to roll out in the spring semester, one for healing and one for prevention.”
Looking ahead to next semester, Project S.A.F.E. already has multiple events, speakers and programs lined up to further the goal of educating students at Occidental about sexual assault. According to Montoya, male sports teams will receive Project S.A.F.E. presentations in the spring from male PAs as well.
“For men to turn the cheek to [the statistics on sexual assault] is blatantly irresponsible,” Siebs said. “Men need to be a part of the solution of fixing it. As active bystanders, we can create an environment to make sure that rapists don’t see their actions as being socially acceptable.”
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Male Survivors:
One in six boys from ages one to 16 years old are victims of sexual assault, according to Palacios. Male victims compose a significant percentage of survivors yet may feel inhibited from speaking about their experiences because of societal expectations of how men should behave and interpret sexual contact. From a very early age, men are socialized to be guarded both physically and emotionally. California’s penal code only recently made sexual assault an un-gendered crime by removing its assumption that all rapes involve penetration or are perpetrated by a male individual.
“When we look at the four years in college, the majority of survivors will be women, but we need to create the space where if we do have male survivors, they feel empowered to speak up,” Palacios said. “People need to feel more compassionate toward survivors.”
Drawing from a recent training conducted by Male Survivor, Palacios stated that the average age of a male child who experiences sexual assault is 10. Eighty percent of the male prison population has been sexually abused. Chris Brown’s recent revealing interview with the Guardian similarly suggests a connection between childhood experiences of sexual abuse and violence later in life.
When examining the dynamics of rape and sexual assault, the centrality of power and control are clear. Young men are victimized because they are vulnerable; once boys become young men, the power dynamic shifts in their favor. By the time that boys are 16, they are bombarded with contrived notions of what it means to be a man and what true masculinity looks like.
According to Palacios, with this shift in expectations, young women become the vulnerable population perpetrators covet. “The statistics completely change by the age of 16 because the target changes,” Palacios said.
As Male Survivors’ online site explains, perpetrators look for vulnerable individuals. Abused male children appear easy to exploit and abuse to perpetrators of assault. Young women similarly appear vulnerable to coercion, manipulation and forced sexual interaction because they are perceived by the perpetrator to be vulnerable and unable to protect themselves. Deeper, gendered issues of power and control motivate the decision to sexually assault someone. To combat rape culture, these systems of power must be challenged as well.
“For students interested in including men in the conversation or for challenging issues of social justice, the key is to not be afraid of challenging larger power structures,” sociology major and former Occidental Men Against Rape (OMAR) member David Pino (senior) said. “We’re a little too reticent about challenging [those kinds of structures]. You first must admit there’s a problem and then you have to be willing to challenge those who perpetuate the problem and don’t be satisfied by some small measure.”
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