ACPA Standing Committee for Women Blog

The Complexities of Addressing Sexual Violence on Campus

Over the course of the past eight months, the issue of sexual violence on college campuses has received increased attention in mainstream media and among student affairs educators.  Commonly referred to as a “women’s issue,” sexual violence is a complex and multi-faceted topic that requires increased attention and resources on our campuses.  I am grateful sexual violence prevention is getting the attention it deserves; however, as I observe mainstream media coverage and read legislation designed to address sexual violence, I am concerned about the ways systemic oppression informs our collective response to sexual violence on our campuses.  Although nothing I identify in this post is necessarily new information (it has been said before by queer and women of Color feminists and their allies; see INCITE! as a place to start), it is worth repeating and reframing in a collegiate context.  Additionally, members of the Standing Committee for Women may be in a unique position to interrupt the dominant narrative about sexual violence on our campuses by speaking up and challenging well-intended yet oppressive strategies.

Although mainstream media attention on this issue has increased dramatically over the past year, the focus still tends to be on what people want to consider “typical” survivors: stereotypically attractive, apparently cisgender and straight, white women from middle-class backgrounds.  Most of the coverage of the crisis of sexual assault on college campuses has been at elite institutions where many students have the time and energy to dedicate to social activism and to whom mainstream media outlets and legislators are paying attention.  A student I talked with recently described this as the “white saviorhood complex,” and described how the use of a “typical” victim as the face of sexual violence has led to increased attention to sexual violence on college campuses because these are the women “worth saving.”  He explained,

“News outlets and people are looking for stories of people that they feel that they can save and also that they have a desire to save. And so that means that someone who is appealing to a demographic, so that’s straight presenting white cisgendered women who look like they come from upper, middle class….who go to an elite school…I would definitely say that I see a lot of that white savior complex and people really wanting to save these people who go through these horrifying, horrifying things but only really interested in saving those who they find sexually appealing.”

By centering the experiences of survivors with primarily dominant social identities, women of Color, trans*, queer, and male survivors may not have the support and resources they need for healing because they are invisible as survivors of sexual violence.  Further, by focusing on one type of survivor, we limit our prevention and response initiatives significantly.  Ignoring a significant number of survivors’ experiences does not allow us to explore and address the roots of sexual violence: power and entitlement.  Instead, we spend time and energy focusing on the “typical” survivor’s experience, which leads to prevention and response strategies at focused on one type of survivor, rather than addressing oppression as the core of sexual violence response.  When we acknowledge that sexual violence is a form of oppression, rooted in the same kinds of entitlement and access to power as other forms of oppression (including racism, homophobia, transphobia, etc), we may start to engage in more complex and effective prevention and response strategies. 

For example, some of the most common responses to sexual violence on college campuses include things like campus escort services, blue lights, and self-defense courses. Not only do these programs place the responsibility squarely on the potential victim/survivor to “prevent” sexual violence, they also address violence from a simplistic perspective, rather than acknowledging the complexities of power and entitlement at the root of sexual violence.   These simplistic strategies for prevention target “typical” victims and support the white saviorhood complex – thinking of victims as pretty, white college women worth saving who just need some extra support in getting home safely.  If we instead addressed the root of the problem: the rape supportive culture in which we allow misogyny, white supremacy, and transphobia to thrive, we may be in a better position to prevent sexual violence from happening to all survivors, not just the ones many think of as “typical.”

Further, the required reporting focus in legislative action is rooted in an assumption of a white, middle-class, straight, cisgender survivor and fails to take into account the complex history of many communities with criminal justice systems.  It is an understatement to say that communities of Color and LGBT communities have not been well-protected or cared for by the criminal justice system in the US.  In fact, the criminal justice system often causes members of these communities more harm than not through unwarranted brutality, inequitable sentencing, among other things.  Until racism, transphobia, and homophobia are addressed in the criminal justice and other reporting systems, survivors should not be required nor expected to report sexual violence to these unsafe spaces. 

One additional trend I have noted related to power and privilege in sexual violence on college campuses (and beyond) is the representation of alleged perpetrators in the media.  Perpetrators of campus sexual violence are rarely named in mainstream media; however, when they are named, student athletes and men of Color (sometimes both) are overrepresented in this group.  White men also commit sexual violence, yet are rarely named as perpetrators in the media.  The inaccurate representation has significant implications for the well-being of men of Color the prevention of sexual violence on our campuses.  The misrepresentation of a “typical” perpetrator of sexual violence leads to increased hostility and racism directed at men of Color as potential perpetrators, which fuels racism in the criminal justice system. 

As college educators and feminists, we have a unique responsibility to speak up and challenge the racist and transphobic (among other) oppression plaguing sexual assault prevention and response efforts on campus.  I am limited to 1000 words in this post, yet there are a multitude of examples on our campuses and in our media.  I hope those of us with white, straight, class, and/or cisgender privilege find our voices and our courage and use them soon.  Our students – ALL of them – are depending on it.

Chris Linder

University of Georgia

Assistant Professor, College Student Affairs Administration

linder@uga.edu, @proflinder