College Policies Support Rape Cultures
Take a look at this article, reflecting on an experience from the 1970s: How does her personal experience illuminate the many ways that rape culture may be tolerated or perpetuated on campus? See this point for an illustration of the point I made in our first lecture on taking a sociological imagination to understand the problem:
“I don’t think my former boyfriend was an evil person. He certainly was not mentally ill. He read feminist texts; he liked strong women. He was self-centered in a typical way that the racism and sexism of the era encouraged him to be. He was very, very entitled socially, and the sex culture on campus supported that sense of entitlement in myriad ways.”
Across the past couple of years, campus activists, the federal government, and campus administrators have begun to give stronger attention to this problem, which pervades campuses in our society and in other countries. See all of the ways this can fall between the cracks on campuses, including on study-abroad programs. I have known of cases on other campuses where I have taught, in addition to here at ECU. What thoughts do you have about this?