Discussion
  • Read More
    FluterDaleErin Gloria Ryan
    4/29/14 10:48am

    Erin, I will give you $15, a delivery pizza, and my firstborn if you want them - if you will PLEASE dismiss the false accusation brigade before they blow up the comments on your article. This is too good to get spoiled by that shit.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      thesporkgirlFluterDale
      4/29/14 10:54am

      Please, this. Please. To everyone else, if a troll replies to you, you can dismiss the comment by hovering over the top-right-hand corner of the reply, and a down arrow will appear. Click it and then click "X Dismiss."

      It feel wonderful, please do it.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      acornthesporkgirl
      4/29/14 10:58am

      ooo, why did I not know that before!!?

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    wasabi75Erin Gloria Ryan
    4/29/14 11:05am

    Colleges would be compelled to offer sexual assault victims confidential counseling with no obligation to initiate action against their attacker. This requirement exists, according to the task force fact sheet, because many students who are assaulted could benefit from counseling but don't necessarily want to bring disciplinary action against their attacker. Counselors would be trained to assist survivors in reporting their assaults if they so chose as well.

    This one confuses me a bit just because I think schools already do this. I've worked on a state university campus for six years and I've seen a pretty big shit in how this stuff is handled in the wake of Penn State and redefining (more like actually enforcing) the Cleary Act and our reporting obligations. Since the Obama administration has had OCR really looking into assaults as Title IX violations the change was even more sharp. However just going to be honest universities would love nothing more than to have every sexual assault victim seek counseling and choose to not report. That way their ass is covered and the assault doesn't show in their mandatory report crime stats. I appreciate the intention that woman shouldn't be told to go fuck themselves if they don't want to report, but I wish I had a sense that they understood how much universities want this option to be choice A for every student. I would have liked to see something a bit more nuanced that recognized this and in some way said "and hey you better not be encouraging victims to just get counseling and not report!"

    And the website is great but how are they going to get people to find it? Maybe mandate that schools need to have some sort of a rape crisis resource page that links to it. I don't know, I'm glad they're doing something and more than anything I'm glad for the increased OCR scrutiny that has really caused a massive change on my campus, but much of this I don't really see as accomplishing much sadly.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      lostmyburneragainwasabi75
      4/30/14 4:12pm

      Part of the issue is that "reporting" means a lot of different things. Faculty at my U are required to report sexual assaults, but many don't if the student in question asks them not to. I don't have an issue with this, because the alternative would likely discourage students who don't want to go through the rigmarole of formally reporting the incident from talking with anyone on campus (and letting your professors know what's up may be the difference between flunking a course and getting extensions that allow you to continue).

      At a higher level, some universities may counsel students not to report sexual assaults from a purely pragmatic viewpoint—without a certain amount of evidence, a hearing before a conduct committee isn't going to go anywhere. Is it better to counsel that student to put themselves through an ordeal and one that often involves their peers? I'm honestly not sure, but the nature of rape often means that cases are difficult to prove, which is what we see in criminal courts. I know that this is a problem with women's center at my U earnestly wrestles with.

      My sense is that the sort of cover ups you're talking about happen at a higher level. Professors, counselors and other staff are typically less concerned with maintaining the university's public image than someone in a dean's office would be. At any rate, it's a very complicated issue with few truly good solutions.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      wasabi75lostmyburneragain
      4/30/14 5:56pm

      I'm not even talking about true cover-ups. I'm talking about a culture where reporting is not encouraged.

      At my university however now we must report it. If a student tells us of an assault the only people who do not have to report are medical staff and counselors. Everyone else must report. We are encouraged to tell students that upfront before they confide in us about anything.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    bassoonladyErin Gloria Ryan
    4/29/14 10:58am

    Any idea if the counseling they offer will be free to the victim? I know when I found counseling over my assault in college it cost a lot of money (at least for someone who barely worked) and I ended up missing a lot of appointments because I was anxious I wouldn't be able to pay.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      wasabi75bassoonlady
      4/29/14 11:01am

      Was your counseling from college? On the campus I work on there is always free counseling available for students. I suspect this will be free as well.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      fortheloveofbeetsbassoonlady
      4/29/14 11:06am

      That is a very, very important point. Counseling for students who are assault victims should be free.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    Aurelius RoblesErin Gloria Ryan
    4/29/14 10:46am

    I can guarantee that if I ever witness an attempted rape, I'm going to intervene. And the guy or guys will not be doing it again. I say this both as the father of a girl and as someone who has had way too many friends go through this shit.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      HermioneStrangerAurelius Robles
      4/29/14 12:52pm

      The issue with bystander intervention isn't that people don't want to help. Of course you want to help! But there are other obstacles to helping, like not noticing anything, and not knowing what you could do to intervene. We really have to get people before the rape is actually in progress, so like noticing when one guy keeps cornering a girl and she's trying to get away and he won't let her. And that's what some of the bystander intervention education does - focus on what obstacles there are that prevent people who want to help from actually doing it, and figure out how to overcome those obstacles.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      HermioneStrangerHermioneStranger
      4/29/14 12:54pm

      Also, when I say "notice", I don't actually mean "they didn't realize this was RAPE and not consensual sex", I mean, "they were focused on the guy chatting to them at the frat party, not the guy 10 feet away chatting to someone else."

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    rubbersoulfulErin Gloria Ryan
    4/29/14 11:33am

    So many trolls in the comments. MRAs must not have demanding jobs.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      HoBoYaNorubbersoulful
      4/29/14 2:19pm

      They're mostly 17-20 year old white boys who live in their mom's basement. They can find neither jobs nor girlfriends because they have such terrible personalities. They come to the internet to unleash the full force of their under-developed reasoning and prejudices.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    NeonBladeErin Gloria Ryan
    4/29/14 11:32am

    Feminism, the corrupt, duplicitous, fraudulent ideology still relies upon the foundation of Tradition, harking to acts of chivalry which was the entry to this pervading Gynocentric era to once again champion the cause of the infantile wretch that is woman. Although radical Feminists who fancy themselves progressive, will never admit to Feminism's bloodless victories owing to the fact mans innate care for woman. The Progressive savages, woman the mercenary, abusing this knowledge.

    Secondly, only things of virtue are worth salvaging. The American woman is not worth protecting, especially the *European Lady as Schopenhauer declared "In the West, the woman, that is to say the "lady," finds herself in a fausse position; for woman, rightly named by the ancients sexus sequior, is by no means fit to be the object of our honour and veneration, " *(Caucasian, White ) and "The European lady, strictly speaking, is a creature who should not exist at all;"

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      GemmabetaNeonBlade
      4/29/14 12:18pm

      It's so cute when MRAs finally enroll in the their first philosophy course!

      Mazel Tov!

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    mammoth_cloneErin Gloria Ryan
    4/29/14 11:21am

    Question re: counseling: will students' diagnoses and information shared be kept confidential? I've learned through following this issue that students can find themselves dismissed or suspended from school for "mental health reasons" (ie, school liability) if they share things like suicidal thoughts in counseling sessions. I hope schools can get better about this (for ALL students who seek counseling).

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      eyegeegeewhymammoth_clone
      4/29/14 11:41am

      At my college, a girl I knew went to see a counselor over her bulimia. She'd suffered for many years and was in recovery, but just needed to have someone else to speak to (re: someone who wasn't 100% invested in her recovery, like her mother or her therapist, etc.) She went to counseling annnnd.... the counselor reported her bulimia to the Dean of Students. She was pulled into his office one day and the Dean asked if she needed to be withdrawn from school, if she needed help, etc. etc. It was humiliating. She was working really, really hard on her recovery AND her schoolwork. I was so mad at the counseling center.

      In another story, another girl was diagnosed with schizophrenia. It was really intense for her and she was really struggling. She went to see the counselor and talked about how scared she was about her diagnosis and she didn't know if what she thought was real or fake, etc. Well, fast forward a few days, and the Dean of Students pulls HER into his office and forces her to withdraw from classes and the school because she is a "danger" to herself and others. She had to petition to come back to school the next year. Yeah, she'd had some episodes on campus, but she'd been diagnosed, was in treatment, and was trying. Shit, man!

      So yes, I'm interested if they will share the information they learn in counseling. Because from what I can tell, it's not confidential at most colleges.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    fortheloveofbeetsErin Gloria Ryan
    4/29/14 11:07am

    I'm so glad that this is finally getting attention, and I'm so sad that it's taken this long.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      yayloErin Gloria Ryan
      4/29/14 10:44am

      ABOUT FUCKING TIME!

      Reply
      <