With the increasing rate of widely publicized sexual assault
cases and increasing awareness of sexual violence, we must examine how to start
breaking this cycle. While writing my current dissertation on sexual assault on
college campuses, I noticed that the literature mostly focuses on survivors.
This focus is not only problematic, but reiterates and plays into the culture
of victim blaming (as indirect and positive the literature intends to be). By
constantly researching the survivors around reporting, why they did and did not
use certain services, who they talked to first, and so on, and so forth, the
spotlight remains on them.
There is research that has “flipped” the focus and discusses
interviewing and surveying the perpetrators and the police on subjects such as
rape myths and the boundaries of physical contact. Consequently, this is where
I’ve found my interest to be. By moving the conversation to authority and the
perpetrators (and quite frankly, the oppressors) the subject becomes them and
not what the survivor could have and should have done.
When I reflect about what creates the culture of victim
blaming, I think of the myths, sexist stereotypes, objectification of women,
and communication around sex. I could focus on any one of these for pages on
end, so I’ll focus on communication, and more importantly, consent within
communication. Affirmative consent, also phrased as “yes means yes”, is a shift
in communication about sexual contact that would provide a positive reframe. If
we bring this into our sexual education systems the basis for what is okay and
what isn’t okay becomes more natural in our conversations about sex.
Implementing affirmative consent can and should go back to middle school, where
our society “formally” begins to address sex and sexuality.
When thinking about where affirmative consent has been
widely used and respected, I can’t help but think of the communication within the
subculture of BDSM (bondage and discipline/dominance and submission/ sadism and
masochism). Researcher Kathryn Klement, a co-author of a newly published study,
focuses on how the subculture of BDSM can contribute to affirmative consent.
(Klement, Sagarin, & Lee, 2016) They examined college students, BDSM
practitioners, and participants from Amazon on various measures including
victim blaming, sexual aggression, rape myth acceptance, and hostile sexism.
(2016) It was found that BDSM practitioners reported significantly lower levels
of benevolent sexism, victim blaming, and acceptance of rape myths than the
other populations. (2016)
Since many BDSM practitioners follow a “yes means yes” guide
with their partners, the mainstream community may benefit from using this
mentality. Communication is key when engaging in BDSM practices and it is a
hard belief that consent can also be withdrawn at any time. These are important
roots to establish around sex so that people can gain a better understanding of
handling sexual situations. When people stop assuming and ask a person if sexual contact is okay it creates a positive line
of communication that allows each party to express their needs.
Ultimately, I realize that the issue of sexual assault and
sexual violence is a complex and multi-faceted area that should be dealt within
sexual education programs, police forces, college and university systems, and
our criminal justice system. However, beginning with teaching and providing
workshops around sexual communication and affirmative consent as early as
middle school can help lay the foundation of transforming rape culture into a
culture of consent.
Photo from: http://studentaffairs.lmu.edu/lmucares/whatisconsent/
Written by: Anna Bartko
References & Resources:
Klement, K.R., Sagarin, B.J., & Lee, E.M. (2016)
Participating in a Culture of Consent May Be Associated with Lower
Rape-Supportive Beliefs. The Journal of
Sex Research (1-5).
https://mic.com/articles/151964/should-we-teach-teens-about-bdsm-in-sex-ed#.zCLtKHosz
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