It's not a posting week or time at all, but I thought everybody should see this

A friend of mine shared this link on her facebook page, it is 21 photos of men holding up signs that quote what their rapists said to them or what was said when they tried to seek help.
It is sad and sort of triggering so please read with caution and self-care if needed, but I thought it was important to show this because we are all aware of how many men suffer in silence because of rape myths and heteronormative stereotypes.

21 Men Holding Signs Quoting Their Rapist

The World I Want to Live In

When dealing with those who are “a threat to our safety and security”, I feel as though incarceration and the prison (as an institution) does not provide a solution to address these social issues – if anything, it would only re-individualize a potentially political problem. Perhaps this is why Angela Davis’ suggestion for a prison abolition movement intrigues me so much. Especially as she goes on to explain that the prison, as a means to contain and control violence, is itself a space of violence that functions as a racist repression of gender and sexuality. Looking at the prison as a “gendering apparatus,” it takes into account the violence that is inflicted on people who are different and refuse to subscribe to the gender binary or to compulsory heterosexuality such as trans*, lesbians, gay men, and so on... “so that you might say that the prison is this institution that is grounded, in so many ways, in violence.” It is ultimately still about (gendered) power, and therefore nothing has been solved, and nothing has been changed – except of course, that violence has been perpetuated and reinforced through such a “solution.”

Again, I find that having to use violence against violence can be problematic – nobody should have to perpetuate such a destructive cycle that never ends. As an intervention into this cycle, Davis highlights the importance of engaging in a national conversation on true alternatives, which can help de-individualize and politicize these social problems. As pointed out by Davis, I truly believe that education can be a powerful tool for change and as a form of intervention within this cycle of violence. And I see this within my CSL placement with the GBVPP’s gender inclusive bathroom initiative, where we educate others (especially those who are unsupportive or unaware) about the gendered violence that can potentially happen within these gender segregated spaces and how we can then interrupt this “script” by creating a space that does not tolerate or perpetuate the cycle of violence. So far, education as a tool has been a very empowering experience for myself (so much so that we were able to make an impact, no matter the size, on people's responsiveness to the initiative).  

I know that we must also be skeptical of a complete abolition of prisons, but there is value in what this movement stands for. And the question that we must consider is "what does this mean for those who do in fact perpetrate violence?" Part of my answer is that I hope that by providing alternatives such as education can help serve as an early intervention before people become perpetrators of violence. 

But I do not have an answer – and though I cannot wish away the violence that does happen day to day nor can I entirely change world we live in, what I do believe in is “a movement for a better world, for a different society, for a world that does not need to depend on prisons, because the kind of institutes that provide – that serve people’s needs will be available.”

 

Thank you!

 Reference:

Goodman, A., & Gonzalez, J. (2012, October 19). Angela Davis on the Prison Abolishment Movement, Frederick Douglass, the 40th Anniversary of Her Arrest and President Obama’s First Two Years. Democracynow.com. Retrieved November 16, 2013, from http://www. democracynow.org/2010/10/19/angela_davis _on_the_prison_abolishment.

Response Alternatives: Community-Based Radical Violence

As many of you have addressed in your blog entries already, Angela Davis unsettles the way feminists have approached sexual assault. Despite the major feminist contribution to sexual assault activism being  law reform Davis questions the state’s involvement when it comes to  intervening in violence against women. According to Davis, the prison industrial complex only reiterates the structural and  hegemonic violence.   This leads us to the question asked in class: what would it mean to take prison abolition seriously when thinking about sexual assault?

 

Following Davis’ Democracy Now interview, we’ve discussed education and re-education as a potential alternative (or preventative) to incarceration. This is a valuable intervention, but it doesn’t immediately abolish the prison system. Following Emily’s blog post I was wondering about other feminist ‘alternatives to police’ we might advocate for. Inspired by the film Born in Flames, I thought the best alternative into sexual assault might actually be a vigilante collective response--literally bashing back.

What if communities held individuals accountable through violence? If the survivor felt it was appropriate a collective, violent response to their perpetrator was enacted.

Davis argues that the prison industrial complex is a product of violent structures, and should be abolished because of its perpetuation of violence. But what if there was a violence outside of this structure? What if violence against perps was radically not sexist, racist, transphobic, and heterosexist? I’d like to believe that bashing-back violence could be removed from an inherently oppressive structural violence, and instead is a revolutionary violence--retribution of the oppressed.

Our CSL project aims to prevent perpetrators by advocating for consent. While I am excited about our project, it is limited by advocating for consent at the level of the individual. What if our CSL project advocated for bashing back, collective accountability and responsive violence  instead of consent between two individuals? It would be radical and would paint feminists as aggressive. But maybe it would also breathe life into the powerful victim figure that Mardorossian suggested we return to--a power that comes from collective response.

These are my twisted desires for community response. I leave you now with this 10 second tune from every Albertan feminist's fav radical band, Rape Revenge.

CSL Group Activism Project Update!

This week has been very successful for all of us working with the Gender-Based Violence Prevention Project! Just as a bit of a recap, our group activism project is a series of consent-based light projections on campus. Danielle was able to capture some really cool photos of the project so far, and I updated our tumblr site with the contents.

The first posters we projected are from a really amazing group of students at the New College of Florida. What is really cool about this, is that these students have found our project online and connected with us, supporting what we are doing.

In just a few posts, talking about the Gender Based Violence Prevention Project, the posters we used, and our project specifically, we were able to create some really cool online discourse in the Edmonton community, as well as abroad! Our documentation post has 93 notes so far, in just less than a week. It might not seem like a ton of feedback (especially when a lot of online feminist projects get close to thousands of shares, but the reblogs and likes are coming from all around the world and I think that's really cool.

Our projections are coming along well and I am really happy with the results we are starting to see, and the discourse we are creating. I'm starting to realize just how important media can be to activist projects, and how critical it can be to the success and awareness of a project, and I am hoping to develop more strategies to become more effective using media. 

Finally, please check out our site and signal boost it to the people you know. Our URL is consentsquadron.tumblr.com

Restitution

Restitution

I wanted to answer the question "Is restitution the solution??" that was asked in class however I had too much to say so I will type it on here instead. In my visits to the court house I never saw restitution given as punishment for crimes committed. However the one major trial I witnessed multiple sexual assaults occurred and the decision for that trial has not yet been made. Also this woman had experienced these assaults twenty years ago, so even if she did receive restitution, what would make up for the horrendous crimes committed and who would make that decision. If I had something so terrible done to me so long ago I am not sure that restitution would cure the years of depression that I would have experienced.

Also as Lise pointed out in class it says to women that we cannot prevent the crime, it is inevitable, we can only try and make up for it after the fact. I think we need to start by educating our youth at a very young age, I have met some eleven year olds that are more vulgar then anyone I know. If they can talk about such intimate topics so young, then that is the time we need to be educating them about consent, it should be a mandatory class over the course of their entire schooling.

Also we need to have police officers that take sexual assault claims seriously, which means doing an undercover investigation to find the views that current officers hold, and holding training sessions for properly dealing with victims of sexual violence. Mistreatment by police officers is a huge phenomenon in the law enforcement industry where patriarchy is still a key player as noted by Angela Davis.
With much more difficulty we should also try to address rape culture in the media. This involves cutting out women being taken advantage of, beautifying of women corpses, using women as inanimate objects or booty shaking eye candies in music videos, and anything else you can think of that shows women as objects deserving of abuse.

If and only if all of these methods have been put in place can we begin to think about the importance of restitution for making up for sexual assaults against black women, white women, transgendered individuals, children, and yes men also. I think this crime is definitely enforced through our patriarchal misogynist heteronormative culture, but we need to fight that when people are young, not after 30 years of being brainwashed into believing their actions to be justified. It might take a few decades but I do not know what else to do?

Miscommunication and Sexual Assault

As part of my CSL placement at the Sexual Assault Centre on campus I am a member of the education committee. Last week I did my first presentation to a group of Graduate Education Psychology students. As a part of the workshop we unpack some of the myths and stereotypes the media presents to us about the issue of sexual assault. As my co-facilitator and I were debunking the myth that acquaintance sexual assault happens because of a miscommunication, one member of the audience challenged us on that point. Their argument was that there are many studies that note the fallibility of communication and how sometimes signals can be crossed. In our workshop we assert that “survivors always communicate some form of ‘no’ in a sexual assault situation and all of us are aware when the person we are with does not want to engage in sexual activity, or wants to stop, regardless of whether the person verbally says the word ‘no’ or not.” (ctd. in Working for Change, 2013)

 First this obviously shows us is that when we cite studies on an issue as fraught as sexual assault there’s going to be research that fall on both sides of the fence. Beyond that though it also demonstrates why sexual assault is such a difficult subject to grapple with on a social level because of hegemonic understandings of heteronormative interaction.

Indicators of non-consent, be they verbal or behavioral, are quite attributed to playing coy, particularly in a heterosexual interaction. There’s this idea that women are “playing hard to get” when they flirt with a man, and are warned not to “give it up” too easily. These messages of what constitutes good feminine sexuality reinforce ideas that we have discussed in class. In her article Hakvag quotes Hird and Jackson saying “young women’s sexuality is defined by is absence and [their] sexual desire is framed by the accommodation of male desire.” Hakvag also discusses the notion of sex as property and takes issue with this understanding of sex as gift, which plays into one of the discourses of heterosexuality that Gavey mentions, the have-hold discourse. These normative discourses form, as Gavey terms it, the “scaffolding of rape” and create a culture in which a women’s signs of non-consent are simply dismissed as playing coy. But I do not think such dismissals can be equated with a miscommunication. It demonstrates an understanding of, “I know this person is refusing this sexual attention, but they’re just playing hard to get -- I know what they really want.”

I can see the appeal of attributing a sexual assault to a miscommunication; no one is at fault, it was just an accident. But such an understanding has the potential to minimize a survivor’s experience. Therefore while I can see the value of challenging absolutist statements (like that from the SAC presentation, “survivors always communicate no”)  in an academic setting. After all, as this class has shown us, sexual assault is not as cut and dry as the SAC represents it; however, for the context of the work we do at the centre supporting survivors I think it is incredibly important that we take a position that leaves no doubt that we are there for the survivor one hundred percent.

Works Cited

Gavey, Nicole. “Unsexy Sex: Unwanted Sex, Sexual Coercion and Rape,” Just Sex?: The Cultural Scaffolding of   Rape (New York: Routledge, 2004), pp. 136-165.

Hakvåg, Hedda H. “Does Yes Mean Yes?: Exploring Sexual Coercion in Normative Heterosexuality”. Canadian Woman Studies(2009), 28(1), 121-126.

McCaw, J. & Senn, C. (1998). “Perception of Cues in Conflictual Dating Situations: A Test of The Miscommunication Hypothesis.” Violence Against Women, 4(5): 609-624.

The Construction of Male Masculinity on Campuses

I have chosen to do my blog post this week on the construction of male masculinity solely based on the fact that it is the foundation for my paper. I have done some research on this topic and would like some insight on the topic from my fellow classmates. With much of my research there has been ample indication that the construction of the dominant hegemonic form of male masculinity is largely due to to the  large amount of fear many men have about being judged and not accepted by their male peers. Where these fears “often lead to a certain homosocial element within any heterosexual encounter: men often will use their sexual conquests as a form of currency to gain status among other men” (Kimmel, pg 147). 

With the majority of these ‘conquests’ taking place around university campuses and during the time when male bonding is at its peak (involvement in clubs, sports, fraternities and the like) we can see why there is an increased pressure to acknowledge the importance of sexual assault on campuses and university communities. Based on the “deeply rooted fear of other men” (Kimmel, 145), many males engage in homosocial bonding such as binge drinking and high risk taking behaviours that “enable them [men]  to establish their reputations with other men and to mark off the distinctions between themselves and women” (Razack, pg 108).This is where the sexualization of female bodies comes into play.  By targeting women and coercing sexual interests that lead to sexual assault, they are confirming their hegemonic masculinity to their male peers, at the same time rejecting any notion of homosexuality.

It has been suggested that sexual safety policies should be put in place on campuses  to reduce the the incidences of sexual assault that is brought on by these instances. Such polices include education and responsibility of safe sex practices. Is this a considerable solution?   If any, what other types of policies should also be put in place by the University communities to decrease the social implications generated by the construction of male masculinity? Why or why not? 

References

Buchwald, E., Fletcher, P. R., & Roth, M. (2005). Transforming a rape culture / edited by Emilie Buchwald, Pamela Fletcher, and Martha Roth. Minneapolis, Minn. : Milkweed Editions, 2005. 

Razack. S. (2000). Gendered racial violence and spatialized justice: The murder of Pamela George. Canadian Journal of Law and Society. Vol 15(2); pp 91-130.

Amanda Todd, Victim Blaming is Alive and Well

I came across an article today about Amanda Todd, the 15 year old girl who committed suicide in 2012 after nearly two years of extreme cyber-bullying and blackmail. In the article, they release new information about the case and they question whether Amanda's death could have been prevented if the police had investigated the FIVE police reports made throughout the duration of Amanda's harassment.
Carol Todd, the mother of Amanda, reported every incidence of blackmail to the RCMP and in most cases it appears that they did very little to help. After the first report, the police rushed to Amanda's Fathers house to ensure her safety but Amanda reportedly brushed the incidence off, acting as though it was just a joke. Perhaps this is part of the reason why the authorities did not react to the following three reports, thinking that Amanda still considered these jokes? Maybe because she played it off as a joke, the RCMP thought that Carol was over reaction? I wonder if Amanda really thought that the first message was no big deal and that it would not happen again, not thinking of the larger implications. But even if those were the reasons, Amanda thought it was a joke or the police thought Carol was overreacting, Amanda was not 18, isn't the image of a 15 year old flashing the camera considered child porn? Shouldn't the exploitation of a minor garner a bit more of a response from the authorities?

What really caught me off guard as I was reading this was an RCMP's response to Carol's fourth report of blackmail. Not only was it sent a month after the report (which seems incredibly slow to me) but it places the blame and responsibility solely on Amanda.
The RCMP constable's response to Carol's fourth report of blackmail was :

“I would highly recommend that Amanda close all her Facebook and email accounts at this time,” the constable wrote to the then 14-year-old’s mother. “If Amanda does not stay off the internet and/or take steps to protect herself online … there is only so much we as the police can do.”

I think I can understand how somebody would consider this a reasonable response in the same way they see telling women to carry mace and wear anti-rape clothes (discussed by some of my fellow bloggers) is reasonable. It feeds into the beliefs of society at large; don't want to get assaulted? Do things to prevent it/don't do things that will make people harass you, etc etc. It tells women that if they do not practice rape prevention strategies like following the "safety rules" discussed in Campbell's writing "From Thinking to Feeling" they are putting themselves at risk and are therefore to blame.
There are a number of concerns that I have with this, but one of the biggest problems I have is the implication that the responsibility is ultimately Amanda's and that unless she gets off the internet, the police are unable to offer any help. I think they missed the point, the point was not that Amanda was on the internet because she was never actively seeking the blackmailer out, she was trying to lead a normal teenage life after making a mistake and was being essentially stalked via the internet. The point was that a young girl was being exploited and blackmailed and the problem was not being addressed by police.
The RCMP did so little that at one point Carol offers advice on how to apprehend the person blackmailing her daughter, requesting that they take over Amanda's social media accounts and attempt to track or trap the blackmailer as is done routinely in Ontario.
In the article the Ontario Provincial Police's integrated child exploitation unit's provincial strategy co-ordinator, Detective Sergeant Goldschmidt says that the recommendation from the police was an ineffective solution, saying that the blackmailer would have found a way to get back in contact with Amanda. Even if Amanda did delete all of her social media accounts and stayed away from the internet, I imagine the blackmailer would have continued the harassment by sending more photos to people she knew, finding a way to track her just like how she was found after moving schools.

I don't know if Amanda could have been saved, but it is disappointing to see the problematic behaviour of the RCMP as they engaged in Victim Blaming and did not give the reports as much weight as they should have considering her age and the level of torment. The blackmailer was not asking for money, the black mailer was essentially asking for child porn by demanding another show, why was this not addressed more effectively?
I wonder if it is possible that Amanda could have been saved if the police were better trained to effectively handle these situations and somehow prevented from prescribing to the rape myths that perpetuate victim blaming.


Article On Amanda Todd:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/amanda-todd-suicide-rcmp-repeatedly-told-of-blackmailer-s-attempts-1.2427097

The Problem of Reliance on Government in Regards to Violence Against Women

Throughout this course, I have found that each article we read does not neatly link with the others in a chronological or causal chain, but instead, each new article serves to complicate and enhance the complexity of the feminist analyses of sexual assault. Before reading Angela Davis' keynote address, "The Color of Violence Against Women," I was in agreement with her statement that “we should applaud the courageous efforts of the many activists who are responsible for a new popular consciousness of violence against women, for a range of legal remedies, and for a network of shelters, crisis centers, and other sites where survivors are able to find support”—and, satisfied, I left it at that. However, Angela Davis makes it clear that we cannot simply pat ourselves on the back for these developments, because there remains a framework which continues to bolster the interplay of racism and sexism and disadvantages those caught in the cross-hairs, namely black women. Davis highlights this contradiction: “Can a state that is thoroughly infused with racism, male dominance, class-bias, and homophobia and that constructs itself in and through violence act to minimize violence in the lives of women? Should we rely on the state as the answer to the problem of violence against women?” Along the same line of advice that my mother would give—that we “cannot fight fire with fire”—Davis’ query has left me feeling that any government involvement is inherently problematic, contradictory, and perhaps entirely harmful. So what do we do right now, in this moment, when the legal system and police forces are so terribly flawed? Davis suggests that “we need to come together to work toward a far more nuanced framework and strategy than the anti-violence movement has ever yet been able to elaborate,” but what does this entail? What does this look like? Davis links the abolition of the prison system as a possible factor, but is complete abolition possible? I’m once again brought back to the notion of proactive tactics such as education and training reform, which seem to be the best possible strategies for nearly every issue posed by the articles we’ve read, but will these be enough? While I’m now left feeling unsatisfied, perplexed, and maybe even a little frustrated, Davis has provided me with a lot to think about over the weekend.

Unfounded Sexual Assault and Cultural Interpretation

In my transcription work with the Indo Women’s association I am consistently hearing the representatives of support centers explain the difficulties new immigrates to Canada have in understanding the laws. New immigrates experience a multitude of changes; the language and Canadian laws are just a few areas they must immediately and directly face. Much of what I am transcribing speaks of the confusion/language barrier or straight out wrong interpretation of Canadian sexual assault law. Armed with a new empowerment of women’s rights, new immigrant women may interpret our police force as individuals who come to your home in support of your opinions.

These ideas brought me back to the article by Teresa DuBois on “unfounded” and “false allegations,” where police still believe that “women have a natural inclination to make false allegations of rape.” (2012, p. 201)

If police are including the allegations made by anyone who has misinterpreted the law due to any of the multitude of cultural explanations, the rate of “unfounded” and “false allegations” could very likely be elevated on a misunderstanding. (DuBois, 2012)

1.     Should there not be a third category of allegations, something that speaks to a misinterpretation of the culture/language/law?

2.     Should we have cultural liaisons’ in place to work with individual families through the adjustment period? Are these out there?

3.     If it is recognized that this is a misunderstanding, should it not be removed from the statistics of “unfounded” or “false allegations”? Or is this aspect already considered and removed from the current data?

Teresa Dubois, “Police Investigation of Sexual Assault Complaints: How far have we come since Jane Doe?,” Elizabeth Sheehy, ed., Sexual Assault in Canada: Law, Legal Practice and Women’s Activism (Ottawa, University of Ottawa, 2012) http://login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat00362a&AN=neos.5592592&site=eds-live&scope=site

Sexual Assault Centre Awareness Initiative

            I thought it was interesting how Rapp brought forward the idea of Internet as a means of activism. It can be appreciated in the article that using the Internet as a means to gather support was a new phenomenon. Today, the Internet today is a medium used to promote any cause. It made me reflect on my CSL project.

            Along with providing clients with counseling support, I am also the co-chair of the awareness committee. The awareness committee’s role is to spread the word about the issue of sexual assault, and also to spread awareness of what the centre provides and how people can access these resources. The main way we spread awareness is through posters, whiteboard messages, merchandising efforts (such as buttons) and mini-events such as our cookie booths for Awareness Week. One area that we are lacking is using the internet and social media. We have taken more of a focus on how to engage the students through cyber-means this year.

            One of the great things about social media is that it is a free way to engage a large amount of people. It can also be a source for people who want to inquire about services or information about the centre without having to leave their own home. The centre has a facebook page, and one of our volunteers is in charge of posting and updating the page. However, social media can have its drawbacks. For Facebook, for example, although it is an awesome way to reach out to many it is also easily ignored. In addition, in order to gain traction on the internet, it seems that as the more and more blogs are created, the more ‘shocking’ or ‘out there’ initiatives have to be. Also, publicity often depends on who the backers of the blogs or websites are. This reminds of one of the first articles we read this year, with the rise of neo-liberalism and funding. In order to get funding or support for a blog or website, certain values/standards may need to be adjusted to fit what the funding company values.

            Overall, I think using social media to raise support and spread issues is beneficial. Awareness is key, and the cheapest way to reach the maximum amount of people seems to be via the internet. 

Rape Culture Makes Its Mark

AR Wear, a New York based company, is in the process of releasing a line of "anti-rape" clothing (http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/11/04/robyn-urback-anti-rape-underwear-is-actually-a-thing-and-not-necessarily-a-bad-one/). The specially designed underwear, shorts and running pants are made to frustrate perpetrators of sexual assault from the cut-tear-resistant fabric that cannot be pulled down. Other than this clearly problematic manifestation of rape culture, this products aims are skewed. The wearer also risks the potential of further repercussions of escalated violence because of the perpetrator's irritation. Additionally, the laborious routine of the padlock-like combination makes this a conscious, obvious step of victim blaming with the expectation of encountering sexual assault. Unlike measures of safety like self defense (although I recognize the similarities in victim blaming), this is a daily ritual of safety, keeping women's vulnerability at the forefront of their everyday interactions; whereas self defense is meant to ideally become second nature. A "symbol of victim blaming", AR Wear reinforces today's rape culture that responsibilizes women for violence enacted against them as a means of control. The "few legitimate gripes with the product" this article discusses, such as difficulty in medical emergency or washroom breaks, trivializes victim blame as outside of these "legitimate gripes". The discourse of safety for travelling women also racializes and Other's the typical perpetrator. This forces rape into a problem of the developing world's barbaric and uncontrollable desires. These "modern-day chastity belts" literally restrains women's sexual choices by making it difficult to engage in ANY sexual encounter, an extreme corseting of women's sexuality. In characterizing all men as potential rapists, this invention justifies, rationalizes and excuses sexual assault as a normal male behavior and minimizes men's experiences with sexual assault. While attempting "not to be naive", Urback operates under the assumption date rape is not inherently violent, forgetting the use of pressure and coercion fraught in these instances.

                "An assaulter can also demand a woman remove the garment by threatening

                bodily harm, or else, increase the level of brutality when frustrated by the clothing.

                But this type of product may prove invaluable in preventing date rape, for example."

Urback mentions several times the "peace of mind" these articles can provide, failing to recognize them as a constant reminder of women's vulnerability and of the looming gendered power difference. In comparing this invention to safety precautions taken in New York City, she fails to recognize several interlocking factors that distinguish sexual assault from other crimes. First of all, the gendered nature of sexual assault and the target demographic for AR Wear leaves the effort of prevention to women. This depoliticization characterizes sexual assault as individual incidents instead of recognizing it as a systemic problem. And while some may walk around New York with a should strapped bag, most don't don a bullet proof vest for just in case.

Works Cited:

Urback, Robyn. "Anti-rape underwear is actually a thing — and not necessarily a bad one." National Post. N.p., 4 Nov. 2013. Web. 15 Nov. 2013. <http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/11/04/robyn-urback-anti-rape-underwear-isactually-a-thing-and-not-necessarily-a-bad-one/>. 

Police Abolition and Sexual Assault: Accountability and Community

Watching Angela’s Davis’ interview on Democracy Now in class, left me wondering what addressing sexual assault without a reliance on police and institutional forms of punishment (courts and prisons) might look like. Would this be possible? Are there avenues for assisting survivors of sexual assault, and confronting perpetrators independent of institutional involvement? While I acknowledge that Angela Davis was more generally critiquing the prison industrial complex, and was perhaps not calling for the complete elimination of all police and prison-related procedures surrounding violence, I believe it is a helpful idea to consider. 

Poking around on the internet, I came across a report called “Alternative to Police” put out Rose City Copwatch, an organization from Portland. This document echoed Davis’ argument that the prison complex is grounded on (raced, gendered and sexuality-oriented) violence. The document notes that “the police rarely meet our needs. They don’t help us to heal. And they don’t prevent future harm (...) they use their incredible power to reinforce the oppressive status quote. They threaten us with violence and incarceration and target the most oppressed and vulnerable people in our society” (3). The Rose City Copwatch’s is a group of police abolitionists, whose long-term vision is a world without police, where “communities function and thrive without the intervention of the heavy and often deadly hand of the State” (Rose City Copwatch 24). The Rose City Copwatch is an example of a group committed to radically challenging “police violence, and disrupting the ability of police to enforce race and class lines” by shifting public consciousness to create social change. The document that I came across curated resources for addressing sexual assault that were independent of the police. 

This large list of suggestions included... 

• rape crisis centers 
• sista’s liberated ground (SLG) a coalition of women reclaiming space and fighting back against sexual violence 
• gang truces 
• sex offenders anonymous (for perpetrators) 
• restorative justice programs (which work to heal communities rather than punish individuals) 
• Bad Date Lines 

This Weekend I was in Vancouver at the Social Space Summit, a knowledge-share space for activists. One of the participants spoke of emailing their queer community to out an individual from their community as a perpetrator. This served as a form of accountability without State intervention.  I have heard many similar stories to this. While ‘outing’ folks within our own communities works as a means of accountability within our own circles, I wonder how this same accountability could be held, for instance, if a queer woman was sexually assault by a white, hetero, cis-man who was not a part of her communities? How do we keep folks accountable who are not in our circles? And, does this example of addressing perpetrators (along with the the list of suggestions from Rose City Copwatch) depend on the assumption that folks have community? What about those who are alienated from community - how can we support survivors and address perpetrators who are seemingly isolated from community? 

Works Cited 

Rose City Copwatch. Alternative to Police. Portland, Oregon. 2008. Web. 

CSL in the Women's and Gender Studies Classroom

I’m glad that so may of you have taken the opportunity to write about your CSL work this week.  I know that it may often seem disconnected from the class.  I need to confess that I was once reluctant to make this class a CSL course.  My initial reluctance relates to rationales for service learning in WST that construct CSL as an unproblematized a mechanism repairing the separation between academic feminism and feminist political activism.

The neophyte Women’s and Gender Studies CSL instructor looking to connect academic knowledge with activism confronts a serious problem in the context of contemporary Alberta.  Those of you doing activism have had to create it for yourselves.  (How sad it is that the space of activism created by the Gender Based Violence Prevention Project is about to disappear when funding for the project runs out next year!).  A few years ago, I chaired a meeting of Canadian feminist run rape crisis centres and was the only person from Alberta sitting in the room.  If Canadian feminism was pushed to the margins of political influence as an effect of the elaboration of neoliberalism, this silencing took a particularly spectacular form in Alberta.  The radical cuts to social programs enacted by the Klein government in the mid-1990s was the model for neoliberalization in other jurisdictions.  The privatization of social responsibility occurred at a dramatic pace in Alberta with the non-profit, voluntary sector left to shoulder the burden of social problems and inequality. Feminist organizations found themselves not only delegitimized, but also under violent attack.  There is shrinking space for feminist activism within anti-violence agencies and a restrictive emphasis standardized programming, preventative education and the provision of services to individualized victims.  I worried that making volunteering a course requirement might in fact reinforce or even endorse the offloading of social problem of sexual violence to the voluntary sector – a sector that runs the unpaid or underpaid work of women.  I also worried that volunteering at professionalized rape crisis centres, women’s shelters and anti-sexual exploitation agencies would teach students more about the management of social problems than about feminist politics or resistance.

These worries prevented me from taking on CSL for quite some time. As soon as I took the plunge, however, my thinking about the purposes of CSL quickly shifted away from the simplistic notion that it forges a connection between theory and activism.   What students taking this class have taught me over the years is how, through concrete experiences, observations and sometimes difficulties, they learn about the ways sexual violence is constructed, managed, contained and addressed in the in the context of the present.   In the context of this class, CSL becomes a tool for developing a concrete understanding of the constraints on activism in a context of neoliberalism and, most optimistically a mechanism for rethinking resistance.

Sometimes I wish that I could spend time with you in your placements.  The problem with this model of CSL is that the exchanges between community and classroom are experienced only by students, but not by instructors or community mentors.  In order to deepen the exchange, CSL would need to be a lot more resource intensive, buying instructors and community mentors out of other obligations so that we too could experience how knowledge is built, disrupted and challenged in the space between the classroom and community.

Video

 Hey everyone,
Here's a video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyDu9lQARNM

The Norms of Everyday Conversation and Femininity: Why Saying “No!” Isn’t Always Feasible

In my CSL placement with the Elizabeth Fry Society, I spend most of my time in court watching cases. Most of the time, it’s lawyers, crown prosecutors and judges dealing with scheduling issues, with victims and perpetrators left invisible in the process. However, every once in a while, there is someone who wants to represent themselves or speak to an issue that their lawyer is addressing. Most of the time, this results in the clients metaphorically shooting themselves in the foot by accidentally admitting to breaching conditions or committing other crimes. For instance, last week, there was a young man who had been charged with assaulting is partner, whose lawyer was speaking to the court to discuss the elimination of the “no-contact” conditions. After being unsuccessful and having the matter pushed over two weeks’ time to come up with a new negotiation, the young man decided to speak for himself, under which time he admitted to having been living with his partner for the past three weeks, breaching his “no-contact” condition. The court reprimanded him for breaching his condition, but let him go shortly after with a warning. His partner, who was in the court at the time with him, exclaimed “I told him so!” and they both left the courtroom seeming quite unhappy.

Not only did this event make me wonder how effective law is to keep victims safe if conditions are set and can so easily be ignored, but it also made me think about this week’s reading of unwanted sex and how gendered norms affect women’s ability to refuse their partner sex—or in this case—a place to stay. In a society where we live under conditions of male dominance, women’s agency and women’s sense of identity are constrained. In Gavey’s article, she uses the example of Pat conceding to unwanted sexual and the partner’s experience to explain how gendered and conversational norms affected her choices. Pat found “it very difficult to say no to a guy who wants to go to bed with [you]…practically impossible…[that] if you’ve been to bed with them once, then there’s no reason why…you shouldn’t go to bed with them again” (Gavey 144). Gavey demystifies why Pat probably finds it difficult to refuse sexual activity through her exploration of “the norms of femininity” (Gavey 144) and the “norms of everyday communication.” (Gavey 144) Conversational analysis of conversations shows that in the norms of everyday communication, “refusals are, in fact, typically not accomplished through the bare linguistic act of saying “no.”… “dispreferred” responses to requests…are more complex, hesitant, and indirect.” (Gavey 145) This indirect language of refusals in everyday conversations greatly influences people’s ability to refuse a request, particularly if their complex, hesitant response is proven by the asker to be insufficient. Gavey’s examination of the norms of femininity states that femininity typically “include[s] nurturance and a certain gentleness that are not embodied by actions which are too bold and forthright” (Gavey 145) which can make an explicit “no” contradict norms that define how the feminine subject should act.

A comparison could be drawn between Pat’s experiences with unwanted sex and the partner’s feelings about allowing her assaulter to stay with her. First of all, it is very difficult to say no forthright, and from the “I told you so” remark, it seems as if the partner really did want to say no, but had difficulties saying a direct no, so brought up the condition breach that could possibly occur. However, with that overturned by her partner, who did not recognize that as part of the conditions, the norms of everyday conversation would have made it very difficult then to provide an appropriate reason to say no, once the hesitant “dispreferred” response was disproved. Secondly, the idea that in relationships, it is women who are gentle, and nurture men when they are having difficult time, creates a specific feminine gender role that maybe the partner felt tied to making this internalized feminine role difficult to overturn. Gavey’s reading was very helpful in understanding how difficult it is, even in situations of violence, to refuse interactions with assaulters. I was also curious if a relationship could be created between the event I witnessed and some of the other discourses (particularly the permissive and sexual imperative discourses) Gavey noted in her unwanted sex article. On the other hand, maybe I am way off the bat, and a comparison does not make sense in this situation. Thoughts?

Works Cited

Gavey, Nicola. “Unsexy Sex: Unwanted Sex, Sexual Coercion and Rape.” Just Sex?: The Cultural Scaffolding of Rape (New York: Routledge, 2004), pp. 136-165.

Silence is not consent.

For our CSL project this week Brett and I interrupted public space by projecting the message that “silence is not consent” out of a window in CAB that faced quad. Although it was only a trial run, working on projecting this one message for over an hour made me ponder the role of silence in relation to this week’s readings on heterosexuality and unwanted sex. It also made me reflect on standards of consent. In particular, in “Unsexy Sex: Unwanted Sex, Sexual Coercion, and Rape”, Nicola Gavey importantly brings up the influence that gendered norms of monogamous heterosexual couples have on fostering unwanted sex and rape. As we have learned this week, Gavey’s article shows how insidious forms of sexual coercion exist within the structural foundations of the heterosexual couple. Within this institution, accordingly, unwanted sex and rape are fostered through invisible networks of power. 

        It is here, by focusing on the invisible networks of power that exist within the normalizing practices of the heterosexual couple, that I came to reflect on the role of silence in these social scripts.  Silence, then, is a subtle form of these invisible networks of power and functions through the omission of communication. Silence is also intwined with the institution of the heterosexual couple and functions as a normalized practice, where by not ‘saying’ or ‘doing’ anything those who partake in these practices are insidiously reinforcing the patriarchal structures of oppression: where women are passive and men are active. These networks appear explicitly in Gavey’s article when she recalls Chloe and Pat’s stories of obligatory sex, stating that “Both Chloe and Pat describe patterns of sex in these relationships in which their bodies / their selves became objectified as they acted - under a sense of obligation - to be the body / the woman that they understood their partner wanted and expected. Within these rational dynamics, and the sexual moments more particularly, are clear indicators of the lack of necessity of women’s desire and pleasure, because its absence was able to go unquestioned and unnoticed” (my italics, 141).

       In regard to my CSL placement, as Brett and I were working on formatting the message that “silence is not consent,” I began to question how consent factors into these rather gendered (and essentialist) social scripts. If the dominant narrative of heterosexuality compels us not to question instances of silence, then we are inherently conditioned to think that silence in relationships is consent. As obvious and problematic as that is, it made me reflect on how the very act of projecting the message that silence is not consent in a public space interrupts the social script that silence is consent. This interruption clearly projects a message that gets us to question what have come to be habituated routines of everyday life and re-embody our social scripts in a way that resists the dominant narrative of the heterosexual couple.

Media Representations of Gray Rape: The Mindy Project

Looking for inspiration for this week’s blog, I typed ‘gray rape’ into Google.  One of the first links compiled by the search engine was an insightful blog post (link below) about the episode of The Mindy Project that Dr. Gotell mentioned in class when we were discussing men’s experiences of sexual violence and victimization.  In this episode, Christina, a character on the show, has sex with Dr. Leotard who is nearly unconsciously intoxicated and unable to consent.  As the blog post points out, “The incident took place between a clearly sober female and a clearly intoxicated male. Did he regret it in the morning? Yes. Did he appear to feel violated by it? No. Does that change the fact that he was raped? No.”  There should be no question then as to whether or not this was an instance of rape, yet the culturally sanctioned idea of gray rape, described as “sex that falls somewhere in between consent and denial” creates confusion around what constitutes sexual assault, especially when alcohol is involved (Hakvag 2009: 122). 

Another factor at play here is the relationship between normative masculinity and male sexuality.  Dr. Leotard recognizes that alcohol was the reason he was not able to prevent the sexual activity, one of the only socially acceptable reasons for men to lack control, as Karen Weiss points out in her article on male sexual victimization.  Also, both of the articles for this week highlight the “male sexual drive discourse” as a concept linked to normative heterosexuality that reinforces the dominant cultural belief in which “men feel they cannot say no to sex because they are supposed to always want it” leading to feelings of shame as male victims themselves believe they should have wanted the sexual relations in question (Hakvag 2009: 123).  Dr. Leotard states in this episode that he had sex with Christina, serving to reinforce this dominant understanding of male sexuality.  This episode also serves to perpetuate the myth that rape can only happen to women, not acknowledging men’s vulnerability in regards to sexual assault; arguably the reason why this episode was cleared to air. 

This episode is deeply problematic firstly because gray rape questions the consent standard.  It also signals a devaluation of men’s experiences of sexual assault and due to the show’s association with feminism could be misread as feminist’s dismissal of male victimization.  Perhaps, The Mindy Project could have used this episode as a platform to raise awareness of the underrepresented, complicated issue of men as victims of sexual assault instead of perpetrating the engrained discourses of hegemonic masculinity and the serious misconceptions surrounding consent that serve to validate gray rape.  Then maybe it would accurately reflect feminist activism that works to dismantle and deconstruct rape culture.   

Link to The Mindy Project blog post:

http://www.policymic.com/articles/66091/the-mindy-project-and-the-trouble-with-gray-area-rape