Some people argue that collectively demanding action on sexual assault is pointless. Some people say that calling out sexism and sexual assault is trivial, that it will never initiate real change. Some people say those of us who do so anyway are wasting our time – that sexual assault is too hard to prove, too hard to prosecute, too hard even to define.
This week we have evidence from across the world to refute that argument.
Norman, Oklahoma
Last week, Jezabel published an article about a serial rapist at Norman High School in Oklahoma, asking why he had gone unpunished despite three victims’ testimonies. The story was brought to Jezabel’s attention by a feminist knitting circle in the area, who had brought together parents and Norman citizens under the hashtag #YesAllDaughters to demand the perpetrator be punished.
Following a #YesAllDaughters protest at Norman High School and the scathing Jezabel report, the Norman Police Department and District Attorney’s office began investigating the allegations against Tristen Killman. Yesterday, the police department arrested Killman and charged him with two counts of rape.
“The arrest has lifted a weight off of our community and especially off the victims and their families,” one of the #YesAllDaughters organisers announced yesterday.
Norman High School has suspended Killman indefinitely, stating, “He won’t be a student of Norman Public Schools ever again”.
Killman’s bond has been set at $250,000 and he is now awaiting trial for two counts of rape in the first degree.
Sydney, Australia
Last month, the University of Sydney’s student newspaper Honi Soit released a report alleging the university had failed to act on an accusation of sexual harassment of one student at the hands of another. According to the report, the university refused to take action against the perpetrator despite having a written confession from him.
Following the Honi Soit report, university students organised a protest demanding the university take action against the perpetrator and establish an effective policy for dealing with sexual assault cases. Students demanded the first step in this process be a comprehensive survey on sexual assault on campus, to determine precisely how widespread and entrenched the problem is.
This week, the university announced that an independent inquiry into sexual assault and harassment would commence in 2015.
“The University has agreed to conduct a survey into the unwanted sexual experiences of students on campus,” said the spokesperson. “It is not doing this because it believes there is a problem greater than anywhere else in society at the University but because it is proactively concerned about the welfare of its students.”
Charlottesville, Virginia
Last week, Rolling Stone magazine published a damning account of a gang rape in a fraternity at the University of Virginia. According to the report, the victim reported the assault to the dean responsible for dealing with sexual assault. When the victim, Jackie, asked the same dean why she could not access statistics on sexual assault on the campus, he allegedly replied that the statistics were never collected or published for fear of looking like a “rape school”.
After a series of protests, rallies and town hall meetings at the campus over the following days, as well as a flurry of social media attention the world over, the university administration has been forced to take action. It announced over the weekend that all fraternities across the campus would be suspended, effectively immediately, until all allegations were investigated.
In one single week, three separate institutions were forced to take action on sexual assault allegations as a result of mounting pressure from the global community. These cases, by virtue of being publicised by media outlets and picked up by social media across the globe, became issues so big that the institutions could no longer ignore them. That is the power we have.
Let this past week be a reminder that together we can use that power to hold others to account. It is this power that will eventually turn the tide in the way we, as a society, approach sexual violence.