The Hunting Ground

I brought a couple of my friends to the see the screening of The Hunting Ground and we were all greatly troubled by it. We're all hardcore feminists, and understood the rape culture problems before the movie, but had no idea of the problems with universities before we watched the film.

I walked away furious and terrified. I'd thought that America was on the rapid moral slope upwards, but seeing how many girls and women were raped and disregarded all across the country was shocking. All that a rape needs is a rapist -- so for that many girls to be raped, there needs to be quite a few rapists. And if there are that many rapists, it means that there is a severe discrepancy between proper sexual education and common, adult behavioral characteristics. The one quote of the young guy who said "Just because she said no, and you have sex, doesn't make you a rapist" says it all. Why is there such a lack of understanding of consent?

My first answer is, of course: the patriarchy. Men take what they want, as they've always done...the cause of the sex trade industry, international conflict, robberies, cartels, capitalism, buffets, free samples at Costco, everything. They want it, so why wouldn't they just take it? Right? And the woman obviously wants it, because she obviously wants me, because I'm perfect. *eye roll*.

It's the whole "Men are aggressive and women are passive" thing, but on a criminal level. And yes, rape is a crime, thank heavens. But it's such a sensitive subject, no one wants to talk about it. Or if they do, the man usually finds a way out of it.

My second answer -- though, in a way, still relates to misogyny -- is that there is too much of a focus on women/victims being to blame, and not enough of a focus on the perpetrator. Even in church, during Sunday School; I've had the modesty lesson maybe three hundred and seventy times -- including being told that I "need to help the boys out", or "the boys can't help it", or "being immodest is like throwing your body away and allowing any random boy to take it" -- but I've never met a guy who's been talked to in church (or in school) about respecting other people's privacy. Or, other people. Their biggest lessons are "pornography is bad...I know you probably like it, but try not to do it", not "women are people too. would you like it if there were Photoshop'd pictures of you splattered all over the internet for teenage women to drool over, download, and sin with?"

At college, this is dramatized, because all of a sudden, these kids are on their own. They're making their own decisions, and are drunk off of their independence. They made it to a university, so obviously they're always right and deserve everything! Hormones are peaking, fraternities are "cool", yada yada yada. Brigham Young University has it, too. Even within couples and marriages, I've learnt.

The moral of the story (?) is, don't be a jerk. Also, spread this movie, The Hunting Ground, along.