DU’s 2017 Sexual Assault Awareness Summit occurred on Thursday, March 30 and Friday, March 31. During these two days, the discussions focused on the challenges victims confront when being vocal regarding their rape and how bystanders can help abolish the current rape culture on college campus’ and in other areas.
Former prosecutor for victims of sexual assault and advocate, Anne Munch, began the summit with a keynote lecture on March 30. Hosted in the Davis Auditorium, the event had a small, intimate audience intrigued with what Munch had to share.
In her lecture, Munch explains that sexual assault cases are not just about the victim and the offender. “The unnamed conspirator,” she describes, “is the author of the kind of blame that keeps survivors struggling and, quite frankly, adds so much more to their plate.”
The conspirator’s actions, Munch argues, de-legitimizes the victim’s accusations and creates more trauma for the victim. These actions include: questioning the victim about what they were wearing, focusing on the hypothetical situations where the woman can defend herself, objectifying women, etc.
Throughout the lecture Munch lets the audience hear real confessions from sexual assault victims in the form of either 911 calls or video of women recalling the event.
Munch’s call to action: be aware that “the unnamed conspirator is subtle in our culture,” which makes the objectification of women seem acceptable.
As evidence, she displays to the audience multiple examples of advertisements mixing violence with sex while also discussing how pornography that is intended for straight men is demeaning to young women. Munch also makes the argument that there is a societal pressure for men to be tough and insensitive which may also account for this rape culture.
The summit continued the following day at a panel luncheon at Anderson Academic Commons with Munch, 25-year-long Department of Education in the Office for Civil Rights member Debbie Osgood, and national best-selling author Jon Krakauer who is most notable for his books “Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town”, “Into the Wild” and “Into Thin Air”.
The three panelists discussed how sexual assaults are not just criminal issues, but should be a university issue as well. Krakauer mentioned the need for renovation on the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) in how schools handle students’ private educational information. It, “is a terrible terrible law,” he said, “it should probably be called the federal rapists protection act because, as a journalist, I run into it constantly at schools.”
The panelists also discussed intersectionality as they explained how offenders may prey on those who are “other-ed” and may therefore be less likely to be believed or acknowledged.
To help survivors, the panelists concluded, they suggest that bystanders let the victim know that they are believed. Osgood said to the audience that to stay involved would be a gift to their university.“I have faith that the ship is starting to turn,” said Krakauer as he encourages that survivors, on their own pace, continue to share their stories because, “that’s what’s gonna keep moving this forward.” And Munch reminds students, faculty and members of the community to, “continue to work on an environment where survivors are safe to come forward and get help and put their lives back together.”
To learn about other upcoming events in honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, students can visit DU’s Center for Advocacy, Prevention and Empowerment (CAPE) website.
