The story almost writes itself, revealing both the nightmares of college freshmen and the absolute worst side of college bureaucracy. The media has worked hard to make sure we know the infamous statistic, that 1 in 5 women will be sexually assaulted in college, to try to send the message that it can happen to anyone. But of course, there will always remain the people that have total faith in their practices, that falsely believe that a simple regimen of no drugs and no skimpy clothes can protect them from becoming a number in a statistic. I think this article completely blows those misconceptions out of the water, and brings some new insights to light.
Jackie was a straight-A student at the University of Virginia and was not a drinker. She met Drew through a lifeguard job at the university pool, and agreed to go with him to dinner and a "date function" at the Phi Psi fraternity house afterward. At the party, Drew asked her if she wanted to go upstairs, where it was quieter. She agreed, and before she could fully comprehend the situation, she entered a dark room already filled with other fraternity brothers who have no good intentions. Very little of what happened can be attributed to Jackie. Yes, Jackie is guilty of being naive and ignorant, but does innocence really warrant this outcome?
What happened next might be just as horrifying, if not more. When Jackie tried to confide in her "friends" for consolation, she met a surreal detachment from the issue at hand. Her "friends" could only think about their misfortune that this could jeopardize their admission to fraternity parties in the future. One said, " She's gonna be the girl who cried rape, and we'll never be allowed into any frat party again." If this is a real quote, humanity is amazing.
That was two years ago, and it is only now that Jackie's story is finally made public. And yet the people responsible still have not been brought to justice and they probably never will. According to the article, many people, including UVA's dean, have discouraged Jackie from going public with the story, giving reasons like "Do you want to be the reason UVA gets painted in a bad light?" and when Jackie asked the UVA Dean why the rape statistics at the school were so hard to find, the reply was "Because no one wants to send their daughter to a rape school."
Well, now that fear may very well become a reality for UVA. And there is no doubt that Jackie will feel responsible for "putting UVA in a bad light" and that students of UVA will doubt Jackie's loyalty to the wonderful school they attend. I've noticed that this sense of responsibility is a recurring impediment to the reporting of sexual assaults. In Jackie's case, she did not want to report the sexual assault because many "friends" had advised her not to as it would ruin the reputation of the school and of course, her own. According to the article, "Decades of awareness programming haven't budged the prevalence of campus rape," and "only about 12% (of sexual assault victims) report it to police." Could the problem stem from this constructed sense of responsibility? If so, maybe this is the actual problem that needs to be tackled rather than just general awareness of sexual assault. Sure, the "It's On Us" PSA promoted awareness of sexual assault, but messages like those can be contrived.
Even from the Joyce and Harwood study, we learned that the PSA was less effective than the viral video in advising against sexting (2014). Joyce and Harwood explain this by saying how "PSA's are expected to be pushier, with outsiders trying to enforce their opinion," and for this reason, "the PSA frame would lead to lower expectations of entertainment and those expectations would lead to reduced subjective message quality." The "It's On Us" PSA reflects these downsides perfectly. In an attempt to seem authoritative or mainstream, the campaign uses famous celebrities and even President Obama and Vice President Biden to promote awareness but this move only creates confusion and detachment. Personally, I couldn't feel any sympathy because I did not associate those celebrities as true advocates of stopping sexual assault. It seemed like they were just talking heads. And the addition of the Obama and Biden only furthered my detachment from the message because I could not help but think about the political ramifications of their appearance. And most importantly, I know the video is brief for viralness's sake, but it fails to tell anyone exactly what to do for victims of sexual assault. In the beginning, it tells viewers to "step in" and cursory preventative measures but those don't really suffice. Even on the website, it doesn't tell me much more, but it does ask me to make a neat profile photo as a pledge to put on my social media platforms. Honestly, if one of my friends were suddenly in a situation like Jackie's, while I promise that I would not react like Jackie's friends, I would struggle with the next move because I really would not know what is best. This is a problem.
Delgado and Austin's study is titled "Can media promote responsible sexual behaviors among adolescents and young adults?" Yes, of course it can. I've seen so many times that media can play a role in shaping thoughts and behaviors. And there needs to be more media that teaches correct course of action. How much grief and emotional torture could have been saved if Jackie's friends had been more aware of how to help Jackie? How much unhappiness could be suppressed by encouraging the reporting of these unreported sexual assaults because of this possible constructed sense of responsibility that burdens these victims? Prevention may be the best medicine, but when it is too late and past that point, the only thing that can help is actual medicine. And the media needs to provide it.
Delgado, H. M.,& Austin, S. B. (2007). Can media promote responsible sexual
behaviors among adolescents and young adults? Current Opinion in Pediatrics, 19(4),
405-410. doi: 10.1097/MOP.0b013e32823ed008
Joyce, N., & Harwood, J. (2014). Context and identification in persuasive mass communication. Journal of Media Psychology: Theories, Methods, and Applications,
26(1), 50-57. doi: 10.1027/1864-1105/a000110
Even from the Joyce and Harwood study, we learned that the PSA was less effective than the viral video in advising against sexting (2014). Joyce and Harwood explain this by saying how "PSA's are expected to be pushier, with outsiders trying to enforce their opinion," and for this reason, "the PSA frame would lead to lower expectations of entertainment and those expectations would lead to reduced subjective message quality." The "It's On Us" PSA reflects these downsides perfectly. In an attempt to seem authoritative or mainstream, the campaign uses famous celebrities and even President Obama and Vice President Biden to promote awareness but this move only creates confusion and detachment. Personally, I couldn't feel any sympathy because I did not associate those celebrities as true advocates of stopping sexual assault. It seemed like they were just talking heads. And the addition of the Obama and Biden only furthered my detachment from the message because I could not help but think about the political ramifications of their appearance. And most importantly, I know the video is brief for viralness's sake, but it fails to tell anyone exactly what to do for victims of sexual assault. In the beginning, it tells viewers to "step in" and cursory preventative measures but those don't really suffice. Even on the website, it doesn't tell me much more, but it does ask me to make a neat profile photo as a pledge to put on my social media platforms. Honestly, if one of my friends were suddenly in a situation like Jackie's, while I promise that I would not react like Jackie's friends, I would struggle with the next move because I really would not know what is best. This is a problem.
Delgado and Austin's study is titled "Can media promote responsible sexual behaviors among adolescents and young adults?" Yes, of course it can. I've seen so many times that media can play a role in shaping thoughts and behaviors. And there needs to be more media that teaches correct course of action. How much grief and emotional torture could have been saved if Jackie's friends had been more aware of how to help Jackie? How much unhappiness could be suppressed by encouraging the reporting of these unreported sexual assaults because of this possible constructed sense of responsibility that burdens these victims? Prevention may be the best medicine, but when it is too late and past that point, the only thing that can help is actual medicine. And the media needs to provide it.
Delgado, H. M.,& Austin, S. B. (2007). Can media promote responsible sexual
behaviors among adolescents and young adults? Current Opinion in Pediatrics, 19(4),
405-410. doi: 10.1097/MOP.0b013e32823ed008
Joyce, N., & Harwood, J. (2014). Context and identification in persuasive mass communication. Journal of Media Psychology: Theories, Methods, and Applications,
26(1), 50-57. doi: 10.1027/1864-1105/a000110
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