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

["Langford, Linda" <>]

Dear Genevieve,

I really appreciate the commentary on my specific suggestions....I knew 
they'd be adequate to illustrate the general change in "directionality" I was 
suggesting, but I had the same feeling that you did that some of them still 
weren't putting the emphasis in the right place. And great reminder that we 
need to break out of our "insider view" to think about how these messages 
read to a naïve viewer. And of course, I think it's always worthwhile to step 
back and ask what our goal is for these messages? If we're really going to 
make change, at some point we need people to act differently. So what is the 
immediate result we'd want to see in the viewer (e.g., decrease in 
victim-blaming attitudes?), and how could we construct the message to 
increase the likelihood that it would (at some point) translate into a 
specific positive behavior change?

I'd be happy to work with you, but only if everyone promises to stop calling 
me doctor. :-)  

Linda


Linda Langford, Sc.D.
Associate Center Director, Higher Education Center for Alcohol, Drug Abuse, 
and Violence Prevention
www.HigherEdCenter.org
Evaluation Scientist, Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC)
www.sprc.org/
55 Chapel Street, Newton, MA  02458-1060
voice (800) 676-1730 x2719 OR (617) 618-2719 (direct line)
fax (617) 928-1537

-----Original Message-----
From: Genevieve Brackins 
[mailto:]
 
Sent: Thursday, November 11, 2010 10:38 PM
To: Langford, Linda
Cc: Ben Atherton Zeman; 
;
 
;
 
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;
 
;
 'Women's Resource and Action Centers'
Subject: Re: RE: "Stop Blaming the Victim" sticker for April

Hello Dr. Langford, Ben, et al,

Dr. Langford's proposal to directly challenge rather than unintentionally 
reinforce victim blaming language and rape myths is apt.

I strongly agree with Dr. Langford's comment that restating rape-blaming 
blurbs would reinforce rather than challenge the phenomenon of victim blaming.

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola recognized this in his 1486 "Oration on the 
Dignity of Man".  There he states that doing so "confirms, rather than 
weakens" the 'truth' of the victim blamers, "which, like embers, is fanned to 
life, rather than extinguished by stirring".  

I know that Ben wishes to extinguish the rape culture and all the phenomena 
that support it.  
 
What if instead of "stop blaming the victim" (where the perpetrator is still 
invisibly defaulted) the slogan was something like "start holding rapists 
accountable and (we'll) start stopping rape"?

If you haven't yet read Phyllis B. Frank and Barry Goldstein's brief essay 
"The Importance of Using Accountable Language" (available here: 
http://www.nomas.org/node/251) you may find it to be of use.  Christopher 
Kilmartin and Julie Allison's' "About Language" in the introduction to their 
book Men's Violence Against Women: Theory, Research, and Activism is also 
useful.  There they conclude "Saying that rape is an act of sexuality is like 
saying that hitting someone over the head with a frying pan is cooking..." 
(xx).  They advocate fore using "nonsexual language in order to illustrate 
the horrors and consequences of" rape (because "during a rape, a victim is 
definitely not 'having sex'"(xx)).

As you've said Dr. Langford, people will likely take away the myth as truth 
and not as false.  Accountable language is a must in designing effective 
slogans to end the rape culture.

"Here's what happened: HE CHOSE to rape her" is accurate accountable language 
and, in my belief, effective.

"It wasn't her wardrobe choices" foregrounds a victim of rape 
(hypervisablizing her as is common with Othering) and renders the active 
agent, the responsible party, the rapists invisibly defaulted and beyond the 
parameters of the structure of the sentence.  Rapists all to often get off 
the hook and get away with rape, let's not let them escape representation in 
anti-rape slogans as well.  Even when we seek to confront othering, it is so 
deeply embedded in culture and the symbolic realm that we can unknowingly 
collude with what we seek to contest.

"Kissing him didn't give him permission to rape her" could potentially (in 
some people's minds) imply that there could be bodily language that could be 
interpreted as consent when consent is not actually given.

"What 'situation' does a person 'put themselves in' that signals their 
agreement to be raped?"  While people who are informed on the problem of rape 
would answer "none" and be clear that there is never a time that a person 
asks to or deserves to be raped...there are people who would not see this 
question as rhetorical, but who would answer it with what they believed to be 
legitimate answers...answers that I've heard students and others purport over 
the years, "she went to his dorm room with him," "she followed him to his 
car," "she dressed like she wanted to be raped," "she went to the 
frat house," "she didn't leave the frat house when her friends did," and so 
on.  

"They said go out with a friend - and she did" is likely a reference to the 
frequency with which acquaintance rape occurs, however, people who do not 
study the rape culture may miss the point entirely.

I'd like to keep thinking and working on this.  Anyone else who's interested 
- let's for a task force to come up with slogans that are collusion-free.

Thoughts?

Sincerely,

Genevieve Brackins


Genevieve M Brackins
Doctoral Candidate in Gender and Social Justice Department of 
Interdisciplinary Humanities Graduate Teaching Instructor Program in Women's 
Studies Florida State University



What we do for ourselves dies with us. 
What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal. -Albert Pine

"The only ones among you who will really be happy are those who have sought 
and found how to serve." --Albert Schweitzer

Let love and justice flow like a mighty stream.
Let peace fill the earth as the waters fill the sea. -Jewish prayer

"The truth is just like time, it catches up and it just keeps going." Dar 
Williams

"They must find it difficult...Those who have taken authority as the truth, 
rather than truth as the authority." -Gerald Massey

Que viva la 'vieve!




----- Original Message -----
From: "Langford, Linda" 

Date: Thursday, November 11, 2010 21:17
Subject: RE: "Stop Blaming the Victim" sticker for April
To: Ben 
Atherton Zeman ,
 
""
 
,
 
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Cc: 
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,
 'Women's Resource and Action Centers' 


> So many people really believe the "blame the victim" statements, 
> I'm afraid that restating them would serve to reinforce rather than 
> challenge them. (I'm thinking of some research I read about "myths 
> and facts" suggesting that people misremember myths as facts, 
> partly because they see them written out. That's really gotten me 
> thinking about how we present messages in the field.)
> 
> So -- just brainstorming, here -- I wonder about an approach that 
> rewords the victim-blaming statements in a way that challenges them 
> directly. People will still recognize the underlying belief/myth, 
> but this way they are explicitly presented as false.
> 
> For example (behind the slogan "Stop Blaming the Victim"):
> It wasn't her wardrobe choices.
> Kissing him didn't give him permission to rape her.
> What "situation" does a person "put themselves in" that signals 
> their agreement to be raped?
> Her self-esteem is irrelevant.
> They said to go out with a friend - and she did.
> Here's what happened: HE CHOSE to rape her.
> 
> Maybe those aren't the right statements (and they're mostly hetero, 
> and one is too long), but from a communications standpoint it seems 
> like these *types* of statements might have less likely to be 
> misunderstood as support for victim-blaming.
> 
> Linda Langford
> 
> 
> Linda Langford, Sc.D.
> Associate Center Director, Higher Education Center for Alcohol, 
> Drug Abuse, and Violence Prevention
> www.HigherEdCenter.org
> Evaluation Scientist, Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC)
> www.sprc.org/
> 55 Chapel Street, Newton, MA  02458-1060
> voice (800) 676-1730 x2719 OR (617) 618-2719 (direct line)
> fax (617) 928-1537
> 
> From: Ben Atherton Zeman 
> [mailto:]
> Sent: Thursday, November 11, 2010 11:39 AM
> To: 
> ;
>  
> ;
>  
> :
>  
> ;
>  
> ;
>  'Women's Resource and Action 
> Centers'Subject: "Stop Blaming the Victim" sticker for April
> 
> Good morning, friends!
> 
> I'm designing another bumper sticker that says "Stop Blaming the 
> Victim."  Behind those words are a background of victim-blaming 
> statements.  This sticker will be teal, for Sexual Assault 
> Awareness Month - the statements blame the victims of sexual 
> assault for what happened to them.
> 
> Some of the statements are direct quotes I've heard from survivors, 
> or those who blame them.  I've tried to make the statements "other-
> blame" as well as "self-blame," from both a male and female 
> perspective, from hetero and GLBTQ.  This is what I have so far:
> 
> 
> 1.  I'd never put myself in that situation.
> 2.  She shouldn't have been drinking.
> 3.  He shouldn't have been taking drugs.
> 4.  Why did I agree to go up to his room?
> 5.  I shouldn't have agreed to let him in.
> 6.  I should have said "no" more forcefully.
> 7.  You shouldn't have led him on like that!
> 8.  She has low self-esteem - that's why she gets herself in these 
> situations. 9.  It's not that big of a deal.
> 10. Why was she wearing that outfit?
> 11. She had sex with him before.
> 12. He made out with the guy - what did he expect would happen?
> 13. She flirted with her all night - what did she expect would 
> happen?
> What other (short) victim-blaming statements should I put on the 
> sticker?  What else have YOU heard that blames victims of sexual 
> violence?
> If I use your suggestion, you get four free stickers once they get 
> printed.  I'll also be reprinting the purple "Stop Blaming the 
> Victim" sticker with statements that blame victims of 
> domestic/dating violence.
> 
> Many thanks - let's keep raising our voices until the violence stops!
> 
> Ben Atherton-Zeman: Feminist, actor, husband
> Presenting a one-man anti-violence play "Voices of Men."  Clips 
> available at 
> http://www.voicesofmen.org, booking ;
> info at 978-897-3619.
> 
> Quote of the month, November 2010: "If y ou rape a child who is a 
> stranger and get caught, you will probably go to jail.  If you rape 
> your own child and get caught, you will probably get custody."  - 
> Garland Waller, http://www.smalljustice.com.  See Garland, myself ;
> and many others at the Battered Mother's Custody Conference in 
> Albany this January 7-9, 
> http://www.batteredmotherscustodyconference.org/
>