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Opinion: Sexual Assault: The Culture of Protection

By Ana Catalano '06, Guest Columnist

The Dartmouth, Inc

Published on Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Recently a series of events and debates at Dartmouth -- the Sex Fest,
The Vagina Monologues, The Dartmouth's three-part series on sexual abuse
in February and Frat Free Friday -- have brought questions of women's
sexuality, sexual assault and rape to the forefront of campus
discussion. While it's good that these dialogues are occurring, the
one-sided discourse in which they are couched is problematic. This
discourse encourages what I and others have come to call a "culture of
protection." 

The culture of protection is based on the idea that women need to be
taught how to protect themselves and other women from sexual assault
rather than the idea that men, who commit the vast majority of sexual
violence, need to be taught not to perpetrate or normalize these crimes.


Dean of the College James Larimore, in a recent interview with The
Dartmouth ("First-years lack sexual assault resources," Feb. 7),
expressed concerns when a group of sorority sisters he asked about
sexual assault in 1999 replied that they look out for their sisters. His
response was then to ask who is looking out for freshmen women? Larimore
states, "I got back a set of wonderful, bright young women, seeming to
suggest, 'It's not our problem.'" 

If, as Larimore says in the same interview, sexual assault is "the
problem of every man and woman, every faculty, staff and student on
campus," why is it acceptable to imply that women are the ones
responsible for preventing it? Larimore's statement essentially paints
sorority sisters as negligent for not thinking of ways to protect the
freshmen women who cannot be members of their organizations. He says
that college women need to look out for each other more. Why not college
students? 

The notion that women should always be on guard is pervasive in the
discourse on sexual assault and rape at Dartmouth. 

Women constantly receive e-mails about how to protect themselves, or
what to do in case they are sexually assaulted or raped. Over the course
of Winter Carnival weekend, an automated reply entitled "What to do in
case you are sexually assaulted or raped" was broadly circulated.
Another e-mail recently detailed safety steps for women caught in
"emergency situations," attempted kidnapping and rape. These e-mails,
which are targeted at women, tell students to look out for drunk friends
and to protect them, but no one is told to look out for men pressuring,
groping or harassing women. 

Why don't men ever get e-mails about how to respect women and not
sexually assault them? 

The most disturbing and insidious implication in this culture of
protection is that a woman can prevent sexual assault and rape, and thus
is somehow an active participant in the matter. In a recent
conversation, one of us was told that "it takes two for sexual assault
to happen." Yes. One is called the perpetrator and one is called the
victim. 

When a woman is sexually assaulted or raped, it is not her fault. Let me
repeat that, because I've had many conversations recently that suggest
this is not common knowledge at Dartmouth. When a woman is sexually
assaulted or raped, it is not her fault. 

There are many things that women can do to avoid being raped or sexually
assaulted, but that should not in any way suggest that women are
responsible for the crime when it does happen. How women can protect
themselves needs to be part of the discourse, but it should not be all
of it. 

This discourse of protection doubly burdens women. Women are responsible
for protecting themselves and each other, and women must walk on
eggshells lest they be vilified as falsely accusing men. We dance around
sexual assault by talking about protection, but we never discuss the
crime itself or what enables, promotes and supports it. 

Maybe we talk about protection because it doesn't threaten anyone. To
look at the problem from the other side raises too many difficult
questions. Why do men perpetrate sexual assault? What is it about our
society that allows this to happen? Are there aspects of Dartmouth
culture that normalize disrespecting and assaulting women? How do the
fraternities, as an institution and community, cultivate problematic and
criminal behaviors? 

Let's not avoid talking about fraternities and their connection with
sexual assault and rape at Dartmouth. Fraternities are not
value-neutral; they are communities that can create and maintain a
culture that involves the objectification of women and sex. 

Not being a fraternity member, I don't know exactly what conversations,
traditions and interactions take place within frats to create this
culture, but things like the Zete papers and the Alpha Chi tapes that
have leaked to the outside give an idea. 

This is a systemic problem, and maybe the solution should be a systemic
one as well. Why don't we talk about making the Greek system coed, or
abolishing it altogether? 

Avoiding the subject of the frats and the problematic (and at times
insidious) gender relations they reinforce is no different from talking
about women needing to protect themselves and avoiding the real issue,
which is that masculine behavior needs to change. Instead of confining
ourselves to the discourse of protection, we should be thinking of ways
to stop men from committing crimes of sexual violence and ways to
dismantle the culture that normalizes it -- which are, admittedly, far
more difficult tasks.