How a Good Campus Sexual Misconduct Policy Fights Oppression
You may have noticed that I have been concentrating on the concept of intersectionality in relation to creating better sexual violence campus policies lately. I have turned to this ecause I think that many people who talk or think about sexual assault concentrate on the pain of the individual victims (or the attempts to preserve the reputation of the university most often to the detriment of the survivor). I think it is important to look at the impact of poor policies on a larger scale - how they affect society as a whole. At their site, SAFER lists “What Makes a Better Sexual Assault Policy“, where they say “efforts should challenge sexism, homophobia, racism and other oppressions rather than reinforcing or ignoring them.”
In my experience, Tufts’ (presumed) ignorance of oppressions at play when I was raped merely reinforced those same oppressions. In my last post I looked at the different types of intersectionality. Now I want to refer to the different levels of oppression (micro and macro) and how a university could easily perpetuate oppression on already disadvantaged students.
The macro level of oppression refers to oppression and discrimination that exists in the relationship between individuals and groups to social institutions, systems, and structures. For example, this would include the relationship between a student victim of colour and a university.
There are four different macro levels: structural, political, economic, and representational. Tufts (or any other uni) would fit under the structural category. When one looks at the structural macro level of oppression, they will see “how domination is enacted and privilege is maintained through social institutions.” * Arguably, Tufts could also fit under the political and economic - but I won’t go into that now.
So, how have I seen Tufts contribute to the structural macro level of oppression? Well, part of a good SA policy is having a comprehensive, mandatory educational and prevention program about sexual and domestic violence. Educational institutions play a huge part in shaping our beliefs. How can we expect the graduates of Tufts University to take sexual violence seriously if the administration fails to do that very thing? The blaring absence of a good mandatory education program and accountability for rapists on campus would produce a number of people who graduate from there believing that rape “just isn’t that big of a deal.”
If a school was serious about fighting oppression instead of contributing to it, they would take serious measures to ensure that it is MANDATORY of all students to participate in the sexual violence education program. The program would show that Tufts had no tolerance for violence and that it is UNACCEPTABLE on their campus. They would also have to show that domestic and sexual abuse are NEVER justified and that they would not laugh at a survivor of violence behind their back because of what they may think about them (ahem). Pointing out that violence is a way that people are oppressed and how Tufts does its best to reverse any oppressions that could result as a consequence.
It has been much easier to get to a judicial hearing about cheating on a paper than about raping a classmate on campus. In my opinion, that creates the illusion that Tufts is more concerned about having cheaters on their campus rather than rapists. If a rape victim who has lack of access to resources because of their class, race, etc. (BASICALLY OTHER OPPRESSIONS THAT HAVE BEEN IN PLACE EVEN BEFORE THE RAPE), the school should care more about the statistics of performance of students in that school and dismiss them. By getting rid of that already disadvantaged student (from rape, lack of wealth, lack of access to resources, gender, class, race, etc) they just add onto the oppressions, and contribute to the inequality of our society as a whole.
* all definitions from the National Women’s Alliance Violence Against Women Targeted Technical Assistance Project
Originally published at Tufts University Survivors of Sexual Violence. You can comment here or there.