When No Doesn’t Feel Like an Option on College Campuses

“Come on, it’s just a joke, why don’t you just chill out.”

Those are the words I have heard before, right after words that felt like punch to the stomach. That was the extra little slap to the face when I was already down. Those words come after the statements like, “yeah, she is such a slut”, “I got with her last weekend,” “oh come on, who has not been with her”, “she is easy.” And so many other words, none of them true, but those that say them do not seem to care. This brings the question to mind, why is sexual harassment so prevalent in college campuses, and what can be done about it?

Those words I just talked about? When you first heard them, you may not know why they even matter, besides being rude, and cruel, and crude. Yet they are sexual harassment. And sadly, they are incredibly prevalent on college campuses, more so then most people know. They are even harder to prove then sexual assault as a lot of times it is “just words”. For many people it takes a long time for them to discover that this is a form a harassment. When they do learn this, they are faced with the question of “what I do now?” If you do decide to get help you are faced with the problem of, what if no one believes me?  This can bring up even more questions, such as “what if they think I am just overreacting?” and “am I just overreacting?”

Young women are taught when they are growing up that they must be polite, and should not rock the boat, or do something that might displease others. Society sets them up to be disadvantaged in a power dynamic by raising them to think that they are lesser then their male counterparts. They are not given the tools to say no, even when they want to, and they have the constant fear of, what happens if they do say no.

To take the firsthand experiences of a friend from home. She started her freshman year at a school she really wanted to go to. She was young and naïve and excited to be there. But during her second month of school she found herself in a position where a guy in college did not take no for an answer. First with harassment, and “jokes” as people called them. But then when she tried to get help she was not listened to. It was all “boys will be boys” and “he’s just joking”. This lasted until one night he had been drinking and he did not take no for an answer again. But he went farther this time. He went as far as possible and she lost a part of herself that night. All because it was just “boys being boys” because no one listened to her and it was all just a “joke”.

Not everyone’s story ends this way. Some in college are just the cruel words and the rumors and the “jokes”. Other times it progresses, and it does go further down the line from sexual harassment into sexual assault. This does cause lifelong negative affects to victims.

While so far, I have used articles and the firsthand experiences of people I know, I also have personal experience with this topic that occurred shortly after I arrived at college. In my very first week of classes, I found my self in a position of being with a boy who was not used to hearing no, and that shocked me. He not only felt entitled to many things in his person and academic life, but he also felt entitled to me. Luckily for me he accepted my no, after protesting for quite some time. I left room, and while troubled by this situation I thought it was over. But that was the case, in fact he took that as a way to spread sexual in nature rumors about me. I did not know this when it first happened, but this was sexual harassment.

A study by researchers Dziech and Weiner found in 1984 that around thirty percent of female students report sexual harassment during their time in college. They define sexual harassment as generalized sexual remarks, seductive behavior, sexual bribery, sexual coercion or sexual assault. Then in 1987 another survey was done by Koss, Gidycz, and Wisniewski that found that more than 25% of women undergraduate women were sexually victimized during their time in college. In 2000 Fisher, Cullen, and Turner found that 16% of women in college were sexually victimized during that current academic year. As recently as 2016 the National Institute of Justice found that 25% of undergraduate women were sexually assaulted in college.

Despite how horrifying these statistics are, we may never know just how many women are sexually harassed during college as not everyone will report it. Due in part to a lack of education as to what constitutes sexual harassment many people, including myself, may not even realize what is happening to them can be classified as sexual harassment. When this happens, it can negatively affect the victims physical, emotional, and mental health. It also creates an environment in which the perpetrators are never held responsible for what they have done, making them often feel like they didn’t do anything wrong.

The EEOC (The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity) defines sexual harassment as “Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitutes sexual harassment” While this definition is in the case of the workplace, clearly sexual harassment can cause immense harm in the college and academic setting. Sexual harassment has been found to trigger symptoms of depression and anxiety in women who have not experienced them before or can further exacerbate previous conditions. It also isn’t uncommon for some forms of sexual harassment to lead women to exhibit symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

 

While some people may think, that it is reasonable to for sexual assault to have these lasting effects on people, many don’t understand why non-violent sexual harassment would. Psychologists Dr. Nekeshia Hammond explains that sexual harassment can register as a trauma, which can be difficult for patients to deal with, causing their bodies to become overwhelmed. It can be caused by someone’s mental health becoming so overwhelm that they cannot even process that they have been traumatized or that they are depressed.

I experienced this situation last semester after my experiences with sexual harassment on campus. After I was no longer directly being affected I kept telling myself that I was fine, and I should just forget that it even happened. But in reality, I wasn’t fine, and I was losing enormous amounts of sleep because of it, this led to my physical health decreasing, and my grades dropping, as well as damaging my relationships. I became a much more anxious person, always second guessing all my actions and interactions, because I blamed myself for what had occurred. It took quite some time before I could accept that I wasn’t okay because of this and get help. When I finally took this step, I was terrified that when I talked to a professional they would just think that I was overreacting, and that I was being ridiculous.

A large issue in this is society is the way that young men are being raised. When people say these awful things are just “human nature” or “boys being boys” they are making it seem as if there is no way to prevent this. And they are also insulting the men. Categorizing them pretty much as just wild animals that can not control their urges. Or making it seem as if they can never change for the better, and that all of them are like this no matter what.

All of this is indicative of greater issues in our society, but sadly I don’t have an answer as how to fix them. All we can do right now is strive to make the world a safe environment for everyone, especially those that are more vulnerable, such as young women going through immense changes in their lives. We also need to educate people more on what sexual harassment is, and what can be done about it legally.

 

 

Works Cited

“How Sexual Harassment Damages a Woman’s Health.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, www.nbcnews.com/better/health/hidden-health-effects-sexual-harassment-ncna810416.

Paludi, Carmen A., and Michele A. Paludi. Academic and Workplace Sexual Harassment:

Handbook of Cultural, Social Science, Management and Legal Perspectives. Praeger, 2003.

Paludi, Michele A. Sexual Harassment on College Campuses: Abusing the Ivory Power. State University of New York Press, 1996.

“Scarlett Johansson Call out James Franco at the Women’s March.” Scarlett Johansson Call out James Franco at the Women’s March, Now This Her, www.facebook.com/NowThisHer/videos/1198767690254104/.

“Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center.” What Is Sexual Harassment? | Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center, sapac.umich.edu/article/63.

Sexual Harassment, www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/sexual_harassment.cfm

“The Truth About Statistics of Sexual Assault in College.” The Hunting Ground, 31 Jan. 2017, thehuntinggroundfilm.com/2017/01/the-truth-about-statistics-of-sexual-assault-in-college/.

“Title IX and Sexual Violence in Schools.” American Civil Liberties Union, www.aclu.org/title-ix-and-sexual-violence-schools.

“What Is Sexual Harassment?” Findlaw, employment.findlaw.com/employment-discrimination/sexual-harassment-what-is-it.html.