Post here any suggestions for our focus(es) for the next round of research and discussion as a class. How do we best follow up on our first round? What issues or questions did you confront in your papers that would be good for us to take up as a group?
OK. Here are my impressions from today's totally terrific TED talks, which indicated not only where we are, but what vistas might be opening up for us in our next round.
ReplyDeleteFirst, we indicated that we want to broaden our scope beyond the campus. That doesn't mean we can't still consider what happens on campuses, but that we want to include the culture of rape in our society at large.
Responses to rape, especially as colored by our culture, make up one area that we seem ready to explore. So, where does blaming the victim come from? Why is are our responses constructed so that we place a lot of barriers in the way of reporting rape and pursuing justice? Why do we have, in many areas (e.g., fraternities, the military, pro and semi-pro athletics, college campuses), a kind of organized system for covering up rape? How might that change with a different, more rhetorical approach to justice?
Gender as a dimension of rape culture also emerged as a possibility. Rape is a crime of violence and domination/control, yet we respond to it as if it were a crime of sex. It is, of course, a crime involving sex/gender roles, and exploring how our attitudes toward gender come into play would be productive, too. Hypermasculinity is another aspect as well.
Overall, we seem to have reached an understanding that rape culture goes beyond the circumstances that make rape more possible (alcohol, late nights, lack of lighting, drugs, etc) and that we might think about how to make change that wold prevent rape per se, rather than merely reduce the circumstances under which currently more rapes occur.
I'm not sure that all these are not actually related, or that we need to focus on just one issue. But this is the beginning of that discussion. So. Respond and converse through Sunday, and that night I'll put up our decision.
Well, OK. Hearing no objections or suggestions, the post above acts as the guideline for our next round of considerations. I think it's strong and broad enough to be really fruitful. So Responses to Rape is the overall theme, with gender as one dimension and culture change that might actually result not only in less rape, but even take us OUT of a culture of rape as the other emphasis.
ReplyDelete