Case Study: Campus Anti-Rape Movement (CARM)
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Current demographics indicate that one in every fifteen college women is raped. It is argued that this number is often overlooked. However, there are an estimated 10 million college students globally (Burkland, 2017). Therefore this indicates that more than 66,000 college students experience rape. This led to the declaration of sexual harassment and rape in colleges as a national crisis for the past half-century. To date, the statistics are still worrying leading to continued activism against the concern
Emergence
Campus Anti-Rape Movement is a social movement that addresses the issue of sexual violence in colleges and schools. The movement emerged in 2013, as a rebrand of the preceding activism against sexual violence and was regarded as a new peak of activism. The dynamics and workings of CARM categorize the movement as a social movement in the form of contentious politics. Sidney Tarrow synthesized the definition of contentious politics to include the interaction of movements with elites, opponents, and authorities (Staggenborg, pg.18). CARM challenges governments and judicial bodies to establish and enact new laws to help curb the issue of sexual violence in schools. Its workings are therefore based on judicial bodies, Congress, and the white house (Heldman, Breckenridge-Jackson, 2018).
The movement is an initiator movement seeking to revolutionize activism towards sexual harassment/violence and rape in colleges. The initial activism towards campus sexual violence was in the 1970s. However, the impact of these movements had little influence on the government and other stakeholders to establish laws and policies that addressed their concerns. CARM, therefore, emerged as a rebranded social movement dominated by students backed by feminist organizations. Young people highly influenced major social movements that transformed human history due to their enthusiasm and hard work. With the most significant percentage of them being successfully influenced the new emergence of the CARM.
Development
CARM as a rebrand of a previous activism campaign against sexual harassment in colleges and institutions of higher learning took over the grievances of the previous campaign in addition to a few new grievances which include;
- Disregard of Rape Cases in Colleges
Despite their prevalence, reports of rape cases within institutions of higher education were often disregarded. By 2014 a record number of colleges and universities were under federal investigation for their handling of reports of sexual assault. The panic over campus sexual assault continued to escalate, and many individuals and organizations were seeking to profit from this fear. According to Dr Jennifer Freyd in an interview with The Huffington Post, colleges and universities would rather spend large sums of money on an outside product to address the issue than to work with their faculty to combat the problem. Besides, sexual harassment survivors of colour, LGBTQIA, and males were ignored, discredited, ostracized, and disbelieved.
- Prejudice against victims
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Victims have often been blamed for triggering the perpetrators. Also, most media accounts of survivors of campus sexual violence focus almost exclusively on white, heterosexual, cis-gender females. The experiences of survivors of colour, LGBTQIA+ and male survivors are not only ignored, but these survivors are more likely to be discredited, ostracized, and disbelieved than survivors who fit the ideal victim. This realization is particularly meaningful because, despite sixty years of research, it was not until the success of the new CARM that public discourse around this epidemic grew. Trans and gender-nonconforming undergraduate students had the highest rates of this type of sexual victimization at 12.4%, followed by undergraduate females at 10.8%. Freshmen were at higher risk, and this risk declined steadily as years in school increased. Overall, transgender and gender-nonconforming students have the highest rates of all forms of sexual victimization at 21% (Heldman & Breckenridge-Jackson, 2018).
- Lack of policies / Insufficient policies
The campus legal landscape is shifting in ways that now require schools to take sexual violence prevention more seriously. Campus activists are using new laws and new applications of old laws. Even though laws regulating campus response to sexual violence have been on the books for decades, campus administrators mostly used ad hoc approaches to the problem until the new CARM raised public awareness that shone a spotlight on the issue that politicians were eager to do something about.
In a bid to raise awareness and protest sexual harassment on campuses, various awareness campaigns have been conducted with each of the campaign framing the issue in a different aspect. The following campaigns indicate the different ways in which the issue has been framed.
- Take Back The Night
Take the back the night is the most predominant campaign within campuses that addresses the issue of sexual violence.
The march began as a protest by women protesting about insecurity. The campaign later reframed its objectives to sexual violence of women in public places after a woman was raped and murdered on her way home. The events are typical on campuses in the occurrence of sexual assault cases in addition to their annual occurrences. The event entails candlelight vigils, rallies, marches, and open mic speak-outs where survivors share their stories. Attendants carry signs that address the issues of sexual harassment.
- Denim Day
Denim day is a protest movement against the incapability and incompetence of the judicial system in handling sexual assault cases. Denim day was a protest of a ruling made by the Italian Supreme Court that stated that the victim could not have been raped because she was wearing tight jeans. The court concluded that the victim must have helped the perpetrator to remove them. This prompted a demonstration where female members of parliament wore jeans to work the next day. To mark this event, students on campuses wear a blue pair of jeans on a chosen day in April.
. A group of students in an Indian college wearing blue jeans to mark the campus-wide denim day
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- Clothesline Project
The clothesline project was initiated as a platform where victims could share their stories freely in the form of writings in t-shirts. With victims fearing victimization and negative stereotyping, the clothesline project was created as a platform where women would share information while hanging clothes relating to domestic violence and other issues. Therefore the analogy behind the clothesline project was to break the silence. Select colours are set aside for various categories where survivors of rape and sexual assault hand red or pink t-shirts.
https://la.indymedia.org/uploads/2008/05/clothesline-1.jpg
Display of the clothesline project at the University of California, Los Angeles. Red coloured t-shirts are reserved for sexual harassment survivors, with the image to the right displaying a message by one of the survivors.
- SlutWalk
Women have often been blamed as prompting sexual assault to themselves due to their dress code. Following a remark by a police officer towards a group of students stating that women should avoid dressing like sluts to avoid getting raped, the slutwalk was effectuated. The slutwalk involves a march by scantily dressed women to protest the justification of sexual rape with regards to the dress code.
A slutwalk protest against sexual violence, with a poster advocating for consent before having sex
https://asnailinmypocket.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/slutwalk-0071.jpg?w=1400.
Political Opportunity
The political climate of CARM has recently suffered immense regression. During the tenure of President Obama, the movement enjoyed interminable political support from the government. The most significant contribution being the establishment of the White House Task Force, whose purpose was to protect students from sexual assault. However, with the appointment of a new president, the political environment has gone to rack and ruin. With the current president being an alleged sexual offender, his actions involving appointments and budget cuts have exhibited indications of suppressing the efforts of the movement and that of his predecessor. The president’s appointee as secretary of education allowed for the use of alternative standards of proof for sexual rape that allowed for the perpetrators to get off easily. In addition, they allowed for mediation as an alternative for such cases. Budget cuts were made to Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice, which were the two agencies that funded the Violence Against Women Act (VAMA).
Resources Mobilization
With the prevalence of young people, the movement takes the descriptive status of a student-dominated movement. Student-dominated movements are characterized by specific aspects of campus that incorporate a list of attributes that the students share in common in addition to them being a fairly close community. Therefore mobilization of members is rather a default process by students attending the colleges. Having existed for over half-century indicates that continuing or previous members of the movement have completed studies and are working. Therefore, it is this category of people that offer donations to the movement that allows for its sustenance. Communication technologies precisely social networks have allowed for the movement to sustain resource mobilization. However, the use of social media has resulted in a vice of individual prominence by informal leaders in the networked social movement.
Women highly dominated the previous composition. However, with the rebranding of CARM and it’s eventual in structure to a networked movement allowed for activists who were comfortable with online and social media technologies to contribute to it. This considerably changed the mobilization of people with access to technology is the fundamental requirement. This has allowed for the voicing of students from all categories of schools, unlike previous stages of the movement where only students from Ivy League schools and expensive private institutions participated.
Campaign Strategy and Tactics
Technology has been a pivotal factor in the organization and running of campaigns by the movement. Hidden networks allow for the organization to connect to isolated individual activists and groups in addition to quick and cheap communication platforms for organizers. A networked nature of the movement interprets the decentralization of organizers lowering the chances of organizers being coopted. Hidden identities also enable victims to reveal and share their stories without revealing their real identities where they feel threatened. Technology also allows for the movement to be in control of the message. With the provision of a massive audience via social media, the movement can control the message and avoid instances of misinterpretation and censorship or omission. The use of social media has also allowed for the movement to draw the attention of the press due to increased engagement of the issues raised. These tools enable CARM to put the issue of campus rape on the national agenda using tools such as federal complaints, group lawsuits, and social media shaming.
Movement Outcome
The most significant impact of the movement was felt in the field of legislation. This is in relation to the enactment of new laws and reinforcement of new laws (Heldman. & Breckenridge-Jackson, 2018). The new CARM saw the enactment of The Campus SaVE Act (2013). The act holds schools responsible for providing programs to reduce and prevent sexual violence. In addition, the Campus SaVE ACT mandates for standard procedures policies in handling complaints of sexual complaints that are transparent. The standard procedure for filing a complaint in a school must encompass the following five stages; Reporting, investigation, adjudication, sanction, and appeal. In relation to reinforcing laws, CRAM allowed for the enforced of the Clery Act. Established in 1990, schools couldn’t enforce due to understaffing and underfunding. However, CARM allowed for the doubling of Staff and funding increase and in turn schools were able to enforce it. This was signified by the increased fines against institutions in its violation.
The movement also saw an increase in awareness of sexual violence. Awareness can be purported to take various aspects. One of these aspects being the welfare of victims. Through various protests and channels, victims were given a platform where they could share their experiences and in turn, the movement created to support programs for them. Examples of such programs are inclusive of the awareness campaigns indicated in the issue framing section. It is also important to acknowledge the efforts of the movement that have made the issue of sexual harassment as a national concern.
6 app is a recent technological advancement towards the prevention of sexual harassment in colleges. https://5b0988e595225.cdn.sohucs.com/images/20180728/ebc23b1098bc43f9b21a5384ac2ac67e.jpg
However, the future prospects of the movement have been dimmed by the current government. A significant percentage of the previous success of the movement can be interpreted to be a result of the favorable political climate. With the movement receiving immense support from the president and vice president. With the current government showing indications of frustrating its efforts, the probability of future success is greatly compromised.
Book Blind Spots
From Staggenborg’s theoretical perspective of social movements, CARM categorizes as a new social movement (Staggenborg, pg.21). New social movements are identified as movements that were established in the postindustrial era. This movement is characterized by the existence of submerged networks and new organizational structures, qualifying it as a new social movement. However, the movement identifies as a rebrand of the previous movements that campaigned against the same issues. This brings a situation of uncanniness with regards to the essence of the movement. In order to give certainty the author requires to indicate the large-scale changes and new ideologies that led to its rebrand, rather than only indicating changes in the operations.
References
Act, C. S. (2013). The campus sexual violence elimination act of 2013. Retrieved May, 28, 2016.
Burkland, W. (2017). Sexual assault cases shown through theatre. Cardinal Points.
Heldman, C., Ackerman, A. R., & Breckenridge-Jackson, I. (2018). The New Campus Anti-rape Movement: Internet Activism and Social Justice. Lexington Books.
Staggenborg, S. (2015). Social movements. Oxford University Press, USA.