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Blog and Media Roundup - Monday, January 15, 2018; News Roundup
Topic Started: Jan 15 2018, 04:40 AM (114 Views)
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http://troymedia.com/2018/01/14/rape-culture-myth-campus/

Dispelling the myth of rape culture on campus

By Frontier Centre for Public Policy on January 14, 2018

The concept of rape culture was invented by feminists to tar all men with the brush of the worst of them

Accusations of rape made by students against other students or staff members have caused great concern in universities and beyond.

Female students at McGill University, according to individual and in-class conversations, frame rape as a result of “rape culture.” But their definition of “rape culture” doesn’t fit with what’s usually meant by “culture.”

In order to say that we, members of McGill University or, more broadly, Canadians, have a rape culture, two conditions would have to be met. First, rape would have to be regarded as a good thing, something desirable, beneficial. Second, people would have to be encouraged to engage in rape. I don’t believe that either of these conditions is met.

Furthermore, I would estimate that 98 per cent of rapes among students are unintentional. Students don’t say, “I’m going out to rape someone tonight.” Rather, they say, “I’m going out to party, I want to get wasted, I want to get laid.” They may not do their due diligence in regard to consent, and they may not use good judgment in proceeding or stopping. They may do wrong but not intentionally. This is further evidence that they’re not being guided by a culture, which inculcates intentions.

It’s true, of course, that rapes take place. But does that mean that we have a rape culture?

Let’s take another example that could be framed in a parallel fashion. In North America there are hundreds of thousands of serious car accidents every year, and tens of thousands of people are killed in auto accidents. Does this mean we have a car accident culture?

In fact, we have a car safety culture, which includes laws about who may drive, extensive training and testing requirements, under what conditions people may drive, elaborate rules of the road, penalties for those who violate the rules, and oversight to catch those who violate the rules. People don’t intend to have accidents but they do intend to do things that inadvertently lead to accidents: they drink and drive, text while driving, drive in fog, snow and ice, and sometimes impulsively speed or pass other cars when they shouldn’t.

As a male who has spent more than a half century in institutions of higher learning, I’ve never heard anyone say that rape was a good thing and I have never heard any man encourage another man to engage in rape.

So it appears to me that the concept of rape culture in North America is without merit. There is no rape culture in North America.

With regard to violent sexual assaults on females, the feminist narrative combines with the traditional male protectiveness toward women when women may have been subjected to violent sexual assaults, to rape. Hillary Clinton’s plea that “every survivor of sexual assault deserves to be heard, believed and supported,” was and is understood as meaning that any female making an accusation must be believed.

The administration of former U.S. president Barack Obama sent directives to institutions of higher learning making it clear that accusations by women must be accepted and acted upon. American university administrators saluted and acted energetically, trying, suspending and expelling accused men. The same spirit moves Canadian universities: McGill University designates any person who makes an accusation, with no test of validity, a “survivor.”

In courtrooms, where accusations of rape were tested against evidence, it turned out that some accusations of rape and sexual assault by females were unsupported by evidence or were outright lies.

In some high-profile cases, prosecution has, in fact, failed. And in others, accusers were deemed to have lied and were sentenced to incarceration. Canadians watched as prominent television personality Jian Ghomeshi was accused of sexual assault by a number of women whose testimony failed to convince a judge and Ghomeshi was acquitted on all charges.

In another case, a female American college student named Nikki Yovino apparently had consensual sex with two male college football players and then accused them of rape so her boyfriend would not be mad at her. She was charged with giving a false incident report and with tampering with physical evidence, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. She was released on $150,000 bond pending trial.

Why would intelligent, educated, otherwise reasonable young women assert such an invalid proposition?

The concept of rape culture was invented by feminists to tar all men with the brush of the worst of them. Denigrating your male opponents, especially morally, enhances feminist claims for legitimate female ascendency.

It’s a dishonest trick but those are not unknown in politics.

Philip Carl Salzman is professor of anthropology at McGill University, senior fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, and fellow of the Middle East Forum.
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http://www.oanow.com/news/auburn/safety-a-priority-for-auburn-campus-community-in-wake-of/article_330f9558-4034-580f-8353-bf82eb70bb0e.html

Safety a priority for Auburn campus community in wake of transit-bus attack

Kara Coleman | Reporter
Opelika-Auburn News
kcoleman@oanow.com
Jan 14, 2018 Updated 15 hrs ago (0)


It’s been about four months since an Auburn University student was sexually assaulted on a nighttime transit bus, leading to the arrest of the bus driver and his co-worker. Now that classes are back in full swing for the spring semester, officials are working to have students walking onto a campus that is safer than before.

After the incident, which occurred on the Friday of Homecoming weekend in September, the university began implementing extra safety measures in an attempt to prevent a similar situation from occurring in the future. Those steps included bystander intervention training, hiring extra security personnel and live video monitoring of late-night bus routes.

“Safety has become a huge issue, especially transit safety,” university president Steven Leath said in his address at the most recent Board of Trustees meeting in November. “We’re trying to make improvements as quickly as we can. We did not take our time on this; we’ve been moving very fast.”

The two men involved, Tony Martin Patillo of Columbus, Ga., and James Don Johnson Jr. of Auburn, were immediately terminated from their jobs at First Transit, the company the university contracts out with to provide bus services. Patillo is accused of sexually assaulting the 18-year-old female passenger while Johnson drove the bus.

Taking action

First Transit operates the Tiger Transit buses that take students around town and campus during the day, and the Tiger Ten shuttle services that operates from 10:30 p.m. to 3 a.m. on most Fridays and Saturdays.

Auburn is requiring all First Transit employees on campus to go through Green Dot bystander intervention training, said Bobby Woodard, vice president for student affairs. About 7,000 university employees and students also have gone through the Green Dot training, and Woodard said he hopes the training will be implemented into the Emerge leadership program for freshmenby Fall 2018.

The bystander intervention training is not just something the campus community is doing. Downtown bars 1776, Bourbon Street and Quixotes all participated in Green Dot training last fall, a move Woodard said is very appreciated.

"We're trying to get other downtown business involved as well," he said. "Because it's not just the bars, but places like Little Italy and Mellow Mushroom. Our students go there and hang out and night. That's a good town and gown issue for us."

The university has a good working relationship with Auburn Police Division Chief Paul Register, Leath said.

“We’re both seriously concerned about the safety of our students and staff,” the president said at the board meeting. “We’ve been talking to people about nighttime parking, lighting the parking lots, everything we can do. I want to make sure you know this is a real focus for us. There’s more to do, but we’re not waiting until the whole plan is in place.”

Live monitoring

Some safety measures have been taken on the buses themselves. Security personnel, contracted through U.S. Security Associates, now ride on each bus.

“That company is the same company the university contracts with for private security,” said Chance Corbett, interim executive director of Campus Safety and Security. “These officers are the ones who are tasked with patrolling different areas of campus on foot. These are the same security officers who work in the library, and in the residence halls.”

At First Transit’s local office off Wire Road in Auburn, employees monitor live video feed from bus cameras at night. Cameras constantly record video whenever the buses are on, said Rex Huffman, manager of transit services for the university. Cameras have been on the buses for nearly a decade, but prior to the September sexual assault, the live feed was only monitored sporadically.

“They were monitoring, but not constantly, like they are now,” Huffman said. “There was somebody periodically checking it, because they had other things to do. But now, they’re on the monitors until their shift is finished.”

One or two First Transit employees monitor the live feed at any given time during the night, he said. They take breaks periodically, but at least one person is always watching the nighttime shuttles.

Students also have the option of catching a ride with one of two night security shuttle vans operating through Campus Safety and Security. Those vans are driven by security guards for the university, Corbett said.

“We think it’s important that you see First Transit and the university are taking measures,” he explained. “The university’s priority is safety, no doubt about that. Yes, we have an academic mission. But the safety of everyone is number one at the end of the day.”

Going to students

Leath has been given safety updates regularly since the assault occurred, Woodard said. He and other officials, including the university's Health Promotion and Wellness Services, spent the rest of the fall semester speaking to the more than 500 registered student organizations on campus about safety.

“We’re talking to different student groups and putting stuff out there about traveling with a group and staying in well-lit areas,” Woodard said, in addition to the bystander intervention training. “We try to hit as many people as we can, kind of a grassroots effort. That’s been an effort we’ve tried for the past year, but since Homecoming, we’ve made an even bigger push.”

In a Student Goverment Association-led initiative, the 135 blue emergency light stations scattered throughout campus are tested three times each year, Woodard said. A group including SGA members, campus safety officers, local police and university officials test them to ensure the blue light flashes, cameras are working and 9-1-1 is called when someone pushes the button on the post.

Students at Auburn say they still feel safe on campus and believe the university is doing its best to protect them.

"I feel very safe," senior Brooke Malone said. "Probably, that's a little naive. But I've never really felt uncomfortable, like I didn't want to walk alone, or anything like that."

Freshman Shelby Bramblett said she occasionally rides the Tiger Transit bus to class in the mornings, if it's raining or cold outside. She added that she feels safe on campus, but she uses the buddy system when out at night.

"I feel like it's always a good idea to have a group or a friend with you as you're walking at night, no matter what's going on," Bramblett said. "But overall, especially during the day, I feel safe, for sure." She voiced her confidence in the university's safety measures. "I feel like they keep it up, especially now."
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Quote:
 
The concept of rape culture was invented by feminists to tar all men with the brush of the worst of them. Denigrating your male opponents, especially morally, enhances feminist claims for legitimate female ascendency.

It’s a dishonest trick but those are not unknown in politics.


Worth repeating.

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