Take a look at the stalls in the women’s washrooms on campus and you’ll find posters advertising Carleton’s Department of Safety’s Rape Aggression Defense (RAD) class. Providing lessons on rape prevention and risk reduction, the course also teaches students how to defend themselves from attackers as part of Equity Services’ Sexual Assault Awareness Week.
You won’t find these posters in the men’s washrooms.
This might seem like a simple idea. It’s women who are most frequently the victims of sexual assault and rape.
And for women our age, the chance of attack is even greater—according to the Canadian Women’s Foundation, 66 per cent of victims of sexual assault are younger than 24. Giving female students the opportunity to learn how to reduce their chances of being raped and how to fend off an attacker if they are assaulted is hardly a new concept.
What’s also not a new concept is holding women accountable for preventing their own assault.
Alicia Poole, the Rape Agression Defense System coordinator, said learning how to recognize, reduce, and avoid risk is 90 per cent of self-defense education. For Poole, being aware of risks means being aware of your surroundings and trusting your instincts.
This is something most women know how to do without enrolling in a self-defense course.
It’s a skill we’ve been taught since we were in elementary school. The fearful advice is endless: keep one earphone out when you’re listening to your music on your walk home, so you can hear someone coming up behind you. When you’re alone at night you should stay on the main streets, not take the poorly lit shortcuts. If someone grabs you, yell “fire” not “rape.” People are more likely to help you that way.
Things are no different on campus. There may be a low rate of reported sexual assault at Carleton and that is something to be thankful for, but sexual assault is still a real fear for female students.
In 2014, a man was charged with sexual assault against three women who worked at Carleton. In 2007, a student suffered a broken jaw and separated shoulder during a sexual assault on campus.
Along with their books and laptops, female students bring to school all the cautious guidelines they’ve been handed over the years.
Female students will still walk more quickly in the deserted tunnels, will still feel a flicker of apprehension in those small library washrooms that are concealed behind bookshelves, and will still peer uneasily at the driver before getting into a cab alone.
It doesn’t matter how secure campus is—fear of assault is second nature for women.
When asked about whether a course similar to RAD is offered for male students, Poole explained none exists as there has never been a demand for a men’s course.
So here is my demand:
I demand female students no longer take on the entire burden of stopping their rape. I demand male students be forced to take responsibility for preventing sexual assault. I demand male students stare at posters in the washrooms offering a course on how to reduce their likelihood of raping women, how to recognize that women are constantly avoiding being raped, and how to defend women who they see are being harassed.
It is sexual assault awareness week on campus, and it’s time female students are no longer the only students who are aware.
