Blog Post3：Statistics and laws article and discussions

In today’s class we discussed about some statistics and legal definitions about rape and sexual harassment. I think it’s interesting that, according to the statistics, so little rape cases are reported, especially by women. We discussed about why this phenomenon occurs. And one myth about it is media had permeated women’s subconscious. One classmate said media portray rape as romance; raped women always fall in love with the raper, thus will not blame him for what he did. I wonder how media had shaped women’s perception about rape. I guess that their perceptions are not only shaped by media, but also by sexual orientated culture itself. Culture about sexuality is long rooted in American history. I know that there are movies that portray sexually attractive women since 1960s, such as The Head Mistress (1968), which portrays young blond women as naked, beautiful, and stupid. I know that blond and stupidity are stereotypes of female characters in media, but these stereotypical characteristics do have an effect on modern day girls, even when they are not always true. Today’s class makes me realize that rape is interconnected with multiple social, economic and political issues; it doesn’t just stand alone. And if we want to eliminate rape, we should also eliminate the distorted portrayal of women and men in media. We should not only be media educated but also demand the media itself to change its character to a healthier and more realistic subject. Media should give up its attempt to make more money by portraying young women or young men as sexual objects. So that people in the society will not believe that media portrayed characters are true and thus imitate those characters.

I have looked up the links that connect to statistics about WSU policies regarding the issue of sexual harassment. And I do think that the WSU policies are too general. For example, on the page of policies against sexual harassment, it doesn’t indicate the penalty for staffs, faculties and students. It just says sexual harassment is not allowed on campus and they will investigate it, but didn’t say what happens to students and faculty members if they are found having sexual assault. And this makes me realize that rape happened on campus maybe due to lack of school regulation. If the college could strictly and clearly list every rules and punishment (such as expelling students or firing staffs), college staffs may not dare to commit sexual harassment, because they know there’s a price to pay. Somebody mentioned that Indian tribes have a lot of women being raped. I’m not sure if this is true but if it is true. Then I would connect this example to the consequences brought by lack of regulation. Indian tribes or middle east countries are underdeveloped; and they do not set up rules for each consequences brought by their people’s action. This is why their men are not afraid to sexually harass their women. It is the lack of clear restriction and regulation that lead to bad consequences (students being raped).

The statistic I found shows that rape and sexual assault for nonstudents are actually 1.2 times higher than those for students. This statistic shows that the numbers of victimization of nonstudents and students are kind of similar. It further reflects the lack of regulation on school institution. Some nonstudents live off campus, without any protection, thus should be easier to get into danger than students who live on campus. Yet the rate of victimization for students is almost the same as the rate for nonstudents. I feel like it’s not a coincidence those who are campus students or campus residents are raped. It is because school institution never provides specific education about rape to these students. As we discussed in class, young school kids have lack of maturity; they have never think of the consequences of their action before doing it. If people want to prevent young kids from being raped, they should teach their guardians to pay more attention to their kids’ well-being and activities. Parents and school administrators always believe that their kids are going to be fine in this society because it seems that their community is fine, and everybody looks like a good person. But the guardians should also be responsible when informing kids about the danger in their community because they would never know if their kids are truly mature enough to handle their own lives or even their own bodies.