Recently, five male students exchanged violent, sexually explicit comments over social media about the president of the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO). One of these men was an executive member of the SFUO and three held positions as leaders in the university’s academic associations. All of them have since announced their resignations.
There have also been serious allegations about the U of O’s men’s hockey team committing a sexual assault.
The pro-rape chants during the orientation weeks of Saint Mary’s University and the University of British Columbia, the concert booking of Rick Ross—whose lyrics perpetuate rape culture—by the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA), and the events at U of O described above, all indicate that rape culture continues to be normalized on our campuses and that sexual violence is a very real concern for students.
Rape culture is the promotion of sexual violence through speech, actions, attitudes, or behaviours.
Rape culture not only creates an unsafe environment for women and other marginalized genders, it also furthers attitudes of complicity in sexual violence.
It is important to acknowledge that rape culture is prevalent on campuses across the country.
I want to emphasize that there are high rates of sexual violence on campuses throughout North America and suggest we concern ourselves with the ways in which places of learning are increasingly places where sexual violence occurs.
It is crucial that we fight back against a culture that allows our universities to be unsafe spaces. It is also important for university administrations to actively support students in responding to sexual violence and ending rape culture on our campuses.
I extend my solidarity to SFUO president Anne-Marie Roy. I support her in bringing forward the sexually violent comments made against her, and in exposing how threats of sexual violence are used to disempower leaders of marginalized genders, and to keep individuals of marginalized genders subordinate and silenced.
Threatening sexual violence towards leaders who identify as women is not only damaging to the individuals being threatened, it also contributes to a culture of fear and misogyny that prevents others from feeling safe taking leadership positions. These types of attitudes have no place on our campuses.
There are individuals on our campuses who experience threats and acts of sexual violence and do not have the forums and power to bring them forward and encourage public response. To those individuals I offer solidarity and support. I call on both the U of O and Carleton administrations to actively work with our student unions to challenge rape culture and combat sexual violence on our campuses.
