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Emanuele writes: "The notion that men should dominate, humiliate, harass, rape or assault women is constantly reinforced in modern American society and culture. That being said, college campuses are some of the worst offenders."

Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity at the University of Alabama. (photo: Dave Martin/AP)
Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity at the University of Alabama. (photo: Dave Martin/AP)


The War Against Women: College Campuses and American Culture

By Vincent Emanuele, teleSUR

10 September 15

 

For decades, women around the world have resisted patriarchy and the culture and institutions that produce it. But where are their allies?

n the U.S., hyper-sexualized images of women dominate the advertising campaigns of Fortune 500 companies. Cinematic depictions of women haven't improved since the 1950s. And the pornography industry, now more violent and exploitative than ever, rakes in more cash than Hollywood.

Indeed, the notion that men should dominate, humiliate, harass, rape or assault women is constantly reinforced in modern American society and culture. That being said, college campuses are some of the worst offenders. Here, I'm not just referring to flippant forms of harassment, but also rape, violent assault and murder.

Consequently, the American university is an important political, cultural, and ideological battleground in the ongoing War Against Women. Yet, universities only represent one segment of the larger War Against Women, a war that has taken countless lives, and destroyed numerous others, a war that reaches every inch of American society.

Campus Life

Recently, several fraternities have been photographed displaying highly demeaning and offensive banners from the balconies of their fraternity homes. At Old Dominion University, the banners read, "Hope your baby girl is ready for a good time," "Freshman daughter drop off," and "Go ahead and drop Mom off too." At Ohio State University, the banners read, "Daughter Daycare," "Plan B is Plan A," and "The couch pulls out, but we don't."

However, these events represent only the tip of the iceberg. Unfortunately, female students endure much more than degrading forms of harassment on college campuses — they face life and death scenarios on a regular basis.

For instance, a recent study "found that 25 percent of young women experienced 'unwanted sexual incidents' in college." Another study indicates that almost 20 percent of female college students have been "raped" as undergraduates. Of course, these numbers are artificially low as only 25 percent of sexual assaults perpetrated against women are reported to the proper authorities. Furthermore, according to the US Department of Justice, "More than 30 percent of students say they have experienced domestic violence with a previous partner." Yet none of this is new, for American universities and male fraternities have a long history of violence and harassment.

Should we be surprised?

Growing up in the U.S., college was always considered a party atmosphere, a place to hook up with coeds, drink massive quantities of booze, and attend sporting events. Most of my childhood friends were not concerned with academia or student loans. They didn't care which university offered the best program for their particular fields of study. In short, they wanted to attend the university with the best parties, and the hottest girls.

Without doubt, these ideas didn't arise organically: the seeds were planted by American pop-culture. Films, TV shows, books and magazines depict college life as a nonstop party and orgy. From the 1970s Hollywood cult classic film "Animal House," to its modern equivalent "Old School," college-aged students are encouraged to casually harass, objectify, and disregard women. In this cultural context, women have only one purpose: to submit to the wants and perceived needs of male students.

Boys Clubs

Unsurprisingly, some of the worst offenders are boys clubs: military, police, fraternities, etc. These entities are professional generators of sexist attitudes and violent behavior towards women.

In the military, we used to refer to female marines as "WMs," or "Walking Mattresses." Our drill instructors and infantry training gurus used to call women "cunts," "skirts," and "cum dumpsters." Hence, we shouldn't be surprised that over 1/5th of female veterans report military sexual trauma(MST). Much like women on college campuses, female veterans vastly underreport their traumatic experiences.

The story is similar for female police officers in the U.S. For example, "In Miami Beach, at least 16 police officers — including two former high-ranking officials — are under investigation for hundreds of racist, pornographic and offensive emails spent between 2010 and 2012." The lewd and disturbing emails were described as "juvenile behavior" by state attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, who describes a "locker room mentality" in the police force, fomented by former Miami Beach police chief Raymond Martinez.

Again, none of this is new. Back in 1993, the "Los Angeles Times" reported that Gary Herron, a self-defense instructor for female police officers in Orange County, turned in a video tape of a stripper performing "at an Orange County sheriff's training facility" to the television program "A Current Affair."

According to the "Los Angeles Times," Herron "grew increasingly concerned about what the two-year-old videotape showed after hearing stories from women in his classes who said they had been abused and raped, and also about the Irvine Police Department investigation into an alleged sex club formed by officers there."

Again, university fraternities are no different. Jessica Valenti, writing for the "Guardian," notes that, "These are not anomalies or bad apples: numerous studies have found that men who join fraternities are three times more likely to rape, that women in sororities are 74 percent more likely to experience rape than other college women, and that one in five women will be sexually assaulted in four years away at school."

Clearly, institutions that are male-dominated and created within a culture based on male-dominance will produce dreadful, often deadly results for women.

The Bigger Picture

The statistics highlighting the larger War Against Women are startling at best, and utterly terrifying at worst. For instance, as Alanna Vagianos reflects that, "the number of American troops killed in Afghanistan and Iraq between 2001 and 2012 was 6,488. The number of American women who were murdered by current or ex-male partners during that time was 11,766."

Vagianos also notes that three women are murdered every single day in the U.S. by a current or former intimate partner. Over 38 million women in the U.S. "have experienced physical intimate partner violence in their lifetimes." And 40-45 percent of women who are in physically abusive relationships will be raped or sexually assaulted by their abusive partner.

Of course, the numbers are worse for disabled, lesbian, transgender, black, Latino and indigenous women, as they are disproportionately raped, murdered, harassed and assaulted by their current or former intimate partners.

Indeed, the cycle of violence perpetuates itself, for the World Health Organization reports that, "Worldwide, men who were exposed to domestic violence as children are three to four times more likely to perpetrate intimate partner violence as adults than men who did not experience sexual abuse as children."

Where are the Good Men?

It's hard to argue that 38 million women unfortunately got involved with a "few bad apples." Without question, there's a fundamental problem in American society and culture when more women are murdered domestically than the amount of soldiers killed in overseas wars.

Clearly, it's up to men to reject patriarchal culture. For decades, women around the world, including those in the U.S., have resisted patriarchy and the culture and institutions that produce it. But where are their allies? Are men afraid to speak up when their fellow males behave in such unacceptable ways? It seems so.

In short, males must police their own. It's the responsibility of men, not women, to change these social, cultural and political dynamics. The sooner males deconstruct the cult of masculinity, the quicker we can grow as a society.

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