Monday, June 9, 2014

Apparently the Miss USA Pageant Rewards Victim Blaming

During last night’s Miss USA pageant, the top six contestants were each asked a different question about an important cultural or political issue.

For Miss Nevada, Nia Sanchez, Judge Rumer Willis asked a question about sexual assault on college campuses. She asked why Nia thought such crimes have been "swept under the rug for so long" and what colleges can do to combat that. Here is the response from Sanchez:

"I believe that some colleges may potentially be afraid of having a bad reputation and that would be a reason it could be swept under the rug, because they don't want that to come out into the public. But I think more awareness is very important so women can learn how to protect themselves. Myself, as a fourth-degree black belt, I learned from a young age that you need to be confident and be able to defend yourself. And I think that's something that we should start to really implement for a lot of women."

The reason this response is so cringe worthy is that it completely puts the responsibility on women to prevent rape. In other words: If women are confident, learn self-defense, and fight back- rape will be prevented. On the flip side: If they DON’T fight back, somehow it is their fault that the assault occurred. This is a terrible message and one that goes against everything we know about effective prevention.

Last month I wrote about the White House’s new report “Not Alone” and PSA which focuses on protecting students from sexual assault. They both highlight important strategies for preventing assaults which include:

  • Identifying evidence-based strategies for preventing sexual violence
  • Developing and evaluating new prevention strategies
  • Getting everyone to step in (also known as bystander interventions). Everyone is asked to speak out against rape myths and intervene if someone is at risk of being assaulted.
  • Enlisting men as allies

Effective strategies focus on making change at the system-level. They focus on changing a culture (campus or beyond) that accepts sexual violence. They fight against rape myths that include: “she was assaulted because she didn’t fight back”. Unfortunately, the Miss USA pageant provided a huge stage (literally and figuratively) for that myth to be perpetuated. And Nia Sanchez was greatly rewarded for promoting this victim blaming myth- she was crowned Miss USA.

8 comments:

  1. I appreciate your commentary that the perpetrators of the crime are ultimately responsible. Unfortunately, bad people will always exist, and no amount of education for men will eliminate rape. Miss Nevada's answer was more a message of empowerment for women who should take control of their own safety, rather than seeking the protection of college administrators and government officials.

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    1. Thank you for your comment! To clarify: I am very supportive of women taking self defense for the purposes of feeling empowered. If it makes you feel good and confident to do so, absolutely! The problem in my opinion is that these courses are billed as rape prevention- going by the name Rape Aggression Defense (or "RAD" courses). Again, it leaves the responsibility for prevention entirely up to women. It also assumes that women are always in the position to defend themselves. After working in college health and sexual assault prevention for years, I can say that is not always the case. Rapes are more often happening among peers/acquaintances vs. the "dark alley stranger" scenarios that are presented in these courses. I think colleges offer "RAD" courses and think- "we have made a great effort to prevent rape" and we should be pushing them to do much more.

      Thanks again for your comment! I appreciate the great dialogue on this topic.
      Leah

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  2. What strikes me most about this is how not-out-of-the-ordinary her response was. Women are socialized to think about their role in sexual assault, be-it their attire, not going out at certain hours or their obligation to protect themselves. I see her response as an honest reflection of what she has been taught about how to prevent becoming the victim of a sexual assault, which is truly sad.

    While self-defense may prevent an assailant from causing further harm, the sexual violence occurred before self-defense was needed. Preventing that, on a broader scale, requires several of the upstream tactics Leah noted.

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    1. Thank you for your comment. You make an excellent point about how women are socialized to think about their role in sexual assault. That is an important point to remember as we strive to change the larger culture.

      Leah

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  3. Leah, I respect you tremendously, and I value your opinion on this. In fact, a woman's opinion on this is always going to be more informed than mine, no matter what. I'm not a father, but I am a brother to a young lady, a husband and a son. I want those women in my life to be ready to defend themselves at all times because there are monsters out there that will not listen to reason no matter how hard we try to tell them that rape/violence/etc is not acceptable.

    I think that Ms. Sanchez answered the way she did because she was trying to tie her answer to a personal experience or characteristic, something you always want to do when being interviewed impromptu. I would love to give her the benefit of the doubt and let her expand on other ways in which sexual assault can be prevented that are "upstream." I detest absolutes, so I detest saying that the problem of sexual assault overall and sexual assault at colleges in particular can be solved by one action of one group at one time. Self defense, and similar tactics like asking for a campus police escort, are just one in a complex series of steps women (and men) can take to be safer overall.

    But, again, I'm coming at it from the point of view of a six-foot-tall Mexican male who has been told that he is "intimidating" and "scary-looking" until people get to know me. I'm hardly one to give an accurate assessment/opinion on sexual assault of women.

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    1. Thank you for the comment! I value your opinion on this as well. The male perspective is important too- that gives us the other half of the picture regarding cultural messages, the effectiveness of education/prevention, etc. I appreciate you pointing out her strategy of tying her answer to a personal experience during an interview. I was thinking about that as well- that focusing on self defense would also give her another chance to tell the judges that she was trained as a black belt (i.e., she is well rounded, strong, etc.) And I agree- a 30 second answer is no place to give a description of comprehensive sexual assault prevention.

      My frustration comes after years of working in college health and sexual assault prevention. Her response is what is heard very often on campuses- "we should offer RAD classes!" However, if classes (and security escorts) are just one part of a comprehensive prevention plan and more upstream strategies aimed at culture change and bystander intervention are also included- I'm much more supportive!

      Thanks again for your thoughtful and insightful comment. This post has really sparked a great discussion.

      Leah

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  4. I also viewed miss nevada's response as empowering and not blaming the victim. The police can drive up and down Streets all night looking for crime, but if I make a poor decision to walk down a dark street at night in a bad neighborhood, that puts me in a bad situation that I can't really blame others for putting me in. This is not to say that you are 'asking to be attacked' but with some education perhaps you would not have put yourself in a bad situation to begin with. I feel like schools are the same way. They can provide well lit areas and escorts, but education for the public And self defense provides another layer against becoming a victim. It's everybody's responsibility to help prevent attacks, not just the schools.

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    1. Thank you for your comment. As I note in response to the first comment above, I am very supportive of women taking self defense for the purposes of feeling empowered. If it makes them feel good and confident to do so, absolutely! However, I think we are kidding ourselves if we think these courses can really prevent rape. Rapes are more often happening among peers/acquaintances vs. the "dark alley stranger" scenarios that are presented in these courses (and that you present above).

      It was interesting to read your comment because while you said a woman in a bad neighborhood isn't "asking to be attacked", you also said that if you walk down a dark street in a bad neighborhood, you can't really blame anyone but yourself if something happens. It seems a little contradictory to me.

      I also tend to steer away from saying someone "put themselves in a bad situation", because it again lends to blaming the victim (i.e., she shouldn't have gone to that party alone, she shouldn't have been drinking, she shouldn't have worn that outfit, etc.)

      Women (or men) should be able to walk down any street or any campus without being assaulted. That is why we need to focus on changing culture and environment vs. just accepting violence as part of our culture.

      Thanks again for your comment. I appreciate the discussion.

      Leah

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