In the fall of 2014, a visual arts student began carrying around a dorm room mattress everywhere she went. This was not a joke, this was not a prank. This was a protest. Emma Sulkowicz began carrying the mattress around after she had been sexually assaulted by a fellow student at Columbia University and the University failed to take action. Sulkowicz declared that she would carry the mattress around until the other student was no longer allowed at the university. She ended up carry the mattress all the way to, and through, their same graduation ceremony. As news of this protest art piece spread, so did the concept. Students at schools around the country began carrying around dorm room mattresses as visual protest against their own or other people's sexual assault cases that were not prosecuted properly.
In the U.S, we live in a culture that tolerates sexual violence. While sexual violence is a topic that people find uncomfortable to talk about, it is perpetuated in almost every source of media we have. It is used for entertainment, in jokes, as an insult, and incorporated in music. It’s shown in our favorite television shows. It is sensationalized in almost every aspect of our lives, without many of us even realizing it. The media infects us with it. How do we make a change to the culture that surrounds sexual violence and how do we lower the rates of sexual violence, if it is embedded into almost every aspect of our lives? How do we change the conversation when we don’t even realize the conversation is happening? I believe the best way to overcome this toxic rape culture is to combat it with a similar form of representation: art. In this essay I will explain what rape culture is, how it is represented, and how we can use the media and the arts to make a change and combat violence.
Unlike what our current media shows us, sexual violence is not a joke. It is a serious problem that effects people of many different social groups. Sexual violence is not about sex, but about power. Cis-Women, trans people, and members of the LGBT+ community are the predominant targets, but cis-men (usually in a powerless role) can be as well. Sexual violence is a social justice problem because the people targeted are those who are often in powerless situations and face different oppressions while the assailants are usually people in positions of power and privilege. This leads to even further oppression of the targeted peoples.
To change the current messages in the media, we first need to know what the problem is and how it is represented. Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines sexual assault as:
“illegal sexual contact that involves force upon a person without consent or is inflicted upon a person who is incapable of giving consent (as because of age or physical or mental incapacity) or who places the assailant (such as a doctor) in a position of trust or authority”
From this definition, it seems easy to determine what is sexual assault. In our media and criminal justice system though, this is not the case. Cases like Brock Turner, Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, and many others have garnered much attention in the news media, but not necessarily in a good way. They haven’t brought attention to the horrible acts of sexual assault. They are simply sensationalized pieces featuring a confused legal system and public opinion on what “counts” as rape or who is “actually” a victim. In the media we hear a lot of "was it really rape?" Shannon O’Hara’s article “Monsters, playboys, virgins and whores: Rape myths in the news media’s coverage of sexual violence” explores how the media harmfully portrays sexual assault.
In the discussions of sexual violence, many rape myths about victims can occur within the media. O’Hara writes that popular ones “include: ‘only bad girls get raped’, victims ‘ask for it’ by getting drunk at parties or wearing provocative clothing, and women who claim they were raped are lying, have ulterior motives, or wanted sex at the time but changed their minds afterwards.” (pg. 248) The problem with these myths is that they do not do anything to solve the problem of sexual assault, in fact they further perpetuate it in our society because there isn’t any blame on the assailant, only on the victim. Adding to this, O’Hara explains that the media will also sensationalize and mystify the perpetrators by comparing them to “beasts” or “perverts” which distances them from what society sees as “ordinary men” (pg. 248). The combination of these answers to sexual assault can make their way into the public’s opinion and perceived knowledge which can lead to policy changes, or lack thereof, and problems understanding sexual assault by the legal system.
Aside from the news, cultural attitudes about sexual violence are also prevalent in almost every other facet of our society’s lives. We can see the attitudes and confusion on social media platforms. They’re in our movies and our favorite television. Many times, in these cases, rape is made into a joke or insult, the punchline being more impactful and harmful to the viewers than the on-screen characters.
With the culture that surrounds attitudes and opinions about sexual violence being spread through different facets of media, it seems the best way to change these attitudes is by using the very same facets, expanded into a wider array of forums. What does this mean? Art. To me, one of the best ways to change cultural perspectives and attitudes about sexual violence is by using art in all of it’s various, glorious forms. This includes movies, television, music but also expands it to different, infinite forms like photography, painting, sculpture, performances, and so on. These will all undoubtfully be spread through different forms of social media, putting it in everybody’s faces and making them learn more and understand more about what sexual violence is, what it consists of, how it effects its victims, and what needs to be done to stop it.
This isn’t a new idea. Art has been used to make social change for centuries. It was used in the renaissance, by governments during different war times, in freedom songs during the Civil War, and today in films and other artistic endeavors. I have a personal connection to this as I have done my own art piece about rape culture. With this piece I found how much of an impact an art piece can have and how far it can spread. Wanting to focus on how art could be a part of consciousness raising and create a change for sexual violence and the culture that surrounds it, I decided on this interactive art piece titled "Constructing Sexual Violence". The process of this consisted of tabling in our student center for an hour a day, two days in one week. At the tables I provided various mannequin pieces, some descriptions of the project, and various supplies for people to add to the mannequins, such as markers, fabric, sand paper, feathers, stick on letters and numbers, hot glue, and thumbtacks. When people approached the table, all they were told to do was add anything they wanted that reflected things they had either personally experienced or heard/seen the in media regarding sexual violence.
The results for this project were amazing. Many more people added to the pieces than I ever could have expected. In the research paper that I wrote about this project, I go over the implications and findings of this project. This piece made people stop and think about sexual violence and how our society views it. The wonderful thing about art is that it makes people see and feel the problem that exists and think critically about it. It gives the problem a personal aspect, making it much harder to ignore. With the media bombarding us with false ideas, images, and stereotypes, it's easy to get sucked into dangerous thinking about people who have experienced sexual assault (I would strong recommend watching the documentary Miss Representation for more examples of the media's influence on our society). If it's this easy for the media to use different art forms to influence people negatively, can't it be just as easy, and powerful to use it to combat the negative representations? I believe it can be, and that is what I will continue to work towards.
In the U.S, we live in a culture that tolerates sexual violence. While sexual violence is a topic that people find uncomfortable to talk about, it is perpetuated in almost every source of media we have. It is used for entertainment, in jokes, as an insult, and incorporated in music. It’s shown in our favorite television shows. It is sensationalized in almost every aspect of our lives, without many of us even realizing it. The media infects us with it. How do we make a change to the culture that surrounds sexual violence and how do we lower the rates of sexual violence, if it is embedded into almost every aspect of our lives? How do we change the conversation when we don’t even realize the conversation is happening? I believe the best way to overcome this toxic rape culture is to combat it with a similar form of representation: art. In this essay I will explain what rape culture is, how it is represented, and how we can use the media and the arts to make a change and combat violence.
Unlike what our current media shows us, sexual violence is not a joke. It is a serious problem that effects people of many different social groups. Sexual violence is not about sex, but about power. Cis-Women, trans people, and members of the LGBT+ community are the predominant targets, but cis-men (usually in a powerless role) can be as well. Sexual violence is a social justice problem because the people targeted are those who are often in powerless situations and face different oppressions while the assailants are usually people in positions of power and privilege. This leads to even further oppression of the targeted peoples.
To change the current messages in the media, we first need to know what the problem is and how it is represented. Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines sexual assault as:
“illegal sexual contact that involves force upon a person without consent or is inflicted upon a person who is incapable of giving consent (as because of age or physical or mental incapacity) or who places the assailant (such as a doctor) in a position of trust or authority”
From this definition, it seems easy to determine what is sexual assault. In our media and criminal justice system though, this is not the case. Cases like Brock Turner, Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, and many others have garnered much attention in the news media, but not necessarily in a good way. They haven’t brought attention to the horrible acts of sexual assault. They are simply sensationalized pieces featuring a confused legal system and public opinion on what “counts” as rape or who is “actually” a victim. In the media we hear a lot of "was it really rape?" Shannon O’Hara’s article “Monsters, playboys, virgins and whores: Rape myths in the news media’s coverage of sexual violence” explores how the media harmfully portrays sexual assault.
In the discussions of sexual violence, many rape myths about victims can occur within the media. O’Hara writes that popular ones “include: ‘only bad girls get raped’, victims ‘ask for it’ by getting drunk at parties or wearing provocative clothing, and women who claim they were raped are lying, have ulterior motives, or wanted sex at the time but changed their minds afterwards.” (pg. 248) The problem with these myths is that they do not do anything to solve the problem of sexual assault, in fact they further perpetuate it in our society because there isn’t any blame on the assailant, only on the victim. Adding to this, O’Hara explains that the media will also sensationalize and mystify the perpetrators by comparing them to “beasts” or “perverts” which distances them from what society sees as “ordinary men” (pg. 248). The combination of these answers to sexual assault can make their way into the public’s opinion and perceived knowledge which can lead to policy changes, or lack thereof, and problems understanding sexual assault by the legal system.
Aside from the news, cultural attitudes about sexual violence are also prevalent in almost every other facet of our society’s lives. We can see the attitudes and confusion on social media platforms. They’re in our movies and our favorite television. Many times, in these cases, rape is made into a joke or insult, the punchline being more impactful and harmful to the viewers than the on-screen characters.
With the culture that surrounds attitudes and opinions about sexual violence being spread through different facets of media, it seems the best way to change these attitudes is by using the very same facets, expanded into a wider array of forums. What does this mean? Art. To me, one of the best ways to change cultural perspectives and attitudes about sexual violence is by using art in all of it’s various, glorious forms. This includes movies, television, music but also expands it to different, infinite forms like photography, painting, sculpture, performances, and so on. These will all undoubtfully be spread through different forms of social media, putting it in everybody’s faces and making them learn more and understand more about what sexual violence is, what it consists of, how it effects its victims, and what needs to be done to stop it.
This isn’t a new idea. Art has been used to make social change for centuries. It was used in the renaissance, by governments during different war times, in freedom songs during the Civil War, and today in films and other artistic endeavors. I have a personal connection to this as I have done my own art piece about rape culture. With this piece I found how much of an impact an art piece can have and how far it can spread. Wanting to focus on how art could be a part of consciousness raising and create a change for sexual violence and the culture that surrounds it, I decided on this interactive art piece titled "Constructing Sexual Violence". The process of this consisted of tabling in our student center for an hour a day, two days in one week. At the tables I provided various mannequin pieces, some descriptions of the project, and various supplies for people to add to the mannequins, such as markers, fabric, sand paper, feathers, stick on letters and numbers, hot glue, and thumbtacks. When people approached the table, all they were told to do was add anything they wanted that reflected things they had either personally experienced or heard/seen the in media regarding sexual violence.
The results for this project were amazing. Many more people added to the pieces than I ever could have expected. In the research paper that I wrote about this project, I go over the implications and findings of this project. This piece made people stop and think about sexual violence and how our society views it. The wonderful thing about art is that it makes people see and feel the problem that exists and think critically about it. It gives the problem a personal aspect, making it much harder to ignore. With the media bombarding us with false ideas, images, and stereotypes, it's easy to get sucked into dangerous thinking about people who have experienced sexual assault (I would strong recommend watching the documentary Miss Representation for more examples of the media's influence on our society). If it's this easy for the media to use different art forms to influence people negatively, can't it be just as easy, and powerful to use it to combat the negative representations? I believe it can be, and that is what I will continue to work towards.