Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

["Juliette Grimmett" <>]

Sex Signals came to campus when I worked at the University of South
Carolina.  Our office (sexual health and violence prevention) did not
bring them in, Student Government did without our knowledge.  We had
been working for many years with our students on the importance of rape
not being about miscommunication, or an accident, but rather a very
intentional and violent crime.  The Sex Signals program very much
focused on miscommunication being the cause of rape and if we could just
get everyone to understand each other, rape wouldn't happen - very much
justifying and minimizing the seriousness of rape.  I also found it very
heterosexist.  Our students literally walked out in the middle of the
program because they found it ridiculous to be honest, and that it was
not in line with the information they had been taught for many years -
that rape is always the perps fault, that it is a learned and
intentional behavior and that rape is not only found in heterosexual
relationships.  While I can see it working with a group of athletes, my
fear is that they are learning the wrong thing.  Just because they like
it and find it fun does not mean it is achieving the behavior change
that we would like (again just my thoughts here Chad, please share your
experience).  There is something very different about someone not
picking up on whether or not someone is into them and making a fool out
of themselves (hence, wrong sex signals) and someone raping someone, and
I really did not feel this difference was ever laid out.  I believe it
is much more effective to have programs teaching students bystander
intervention skills as this, I believe is truly the way to make a
culture change to stop rape.
 
Thanks for the conversation, and I look forward to other
thoughts/perspectives here.
 
Juliette
 

Are you an NCSU student that is interested in being a Sexual &
Relationship Violence Peer Educator?  Then come join The
Movement.Application can be found online at
http://www.ncsu.edu/womens_center/. Please contact Juliette for more
information.. 

 
Juliette Grimmett, MPH
Rape Prevention Education Coordinator
NC State University
Women's Center
3120 Talley Student Center
Campus BOX 7306
Raleigh, NC 27695-7306
Office: (919) 513-3232
24 Hour Sexual Violence Hotline: (919)618-RAPE (7273)
Fax: (919) 515-1066
email: 

 ( http://www.ncsu.edu/womens_center ;) 
 


>>> "Chad Sniffen" 
>>> <>
>>>  7/21/2008 2:45 PM >>>
Tom, could you say a little bit more about what you found to be
manipulative about it?

Thanks,
Chad

-----Original Message-----
From: 

 
[mailto:]
 On Behalf Of Tom Schiff
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2008 11:42 AM
To: 

 
Subject: Re: Looking for speaker team

I saw this production a few years ago, and unless it has changed, I
would agree with Juliette. I found it to be manipulative. Isn't that
something we are working against?

Perhaps Jackson, etc. have women with whom they work and with whom you
could con-contract. MVP out of Northeastern typically has female /
male
teams working together.

Tom Schiff, Ed.D.
Health Education
University Health Services
150 Infirmary Way
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003
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