Part-time Carleton University professor Robert Sibley shared his opinions on Carleton’s new sexual assault policy in a letter to the Ottawa Citizen. According to Sibley, rape culture does not exist on our campus, and the assumption it does is due to “propaganda” rather than fact.
The denial of the existence of rape culture, as well as the normalization of blame put on those who have experienced sexual assault or sexual harrassment on campus, disrespects and belittles their accounts. Carleton does not exist in a vacuum that is different from the rest of society—according to statistics from the YWCA, there are 460,000 sexual assaults in all of Canada every year.
Belittling the accounts of those who have experienced a sexual assault on campus is also problematic when it comes to the effectiveness of this new sexual assault policy. The purpose of the policy is to make Carleton aware and ready for instances of sexual assault, and the most important opinion is that of students who have experienced it first-hand.
Sibley writes “individual feelings, or even individual experience, don’t necessarily reflect collective reality,” but sexual assault is often an individual experience and the policy that is being drafted is meant to address that sexual assault is a reality that exists on university campuses. Why else would there be much discussion on this policy if there wasn’t a need for it?
As a university, we need to understand and recognize the problematic notion behind the denial and normalization of rape culture, as it is the only way to positively move forward.
