By Rachel Bowman
ASSISTANT FEATURES EDITOR
After celebrities started to share their experiences with sexual assault and harassment online, social media became flooded with women and men alike sharing their stories using the hashtag “MeToo,” displaying the magnitude of this epidemic.
The Me Too campaign started almost 10 years ago as a grass-roots organization founded by activist Tarana Burke and has found prevalence in social media this past week. In response to the Harvey Weinstein scandal, actress Alyssa Milano tweeted, “If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet,” and Twitter became flooded with people sharing their stories.
“I believe that a rapist has the mind of a rapist no matter what they’re taught, and the only thing we do have control over is making bystanders aware so that they can step in if they see something,” said Simma Lamb, a survivor and sophomore public relations major. “I personally think it’s extremely unfortunate that something has to happen in Hollywood for this to even be a thing.”
RAINN, a national anti-sexual violence organization, reports that among both graduate and undergraduate students, 11.2 percent of all students experience rape or sexual assault through physical force. The spring 2017 Hofstra University Campus Climate survey showed that “students reported a low prevalence of sexual assault and relationship violence at Hofstra.”
“It is important to raise awareness for all incidents from harassment to assault,” said Hofstra Title IX officer, Allison Vernace. “Services for students on-campus include Public Safety, the Title IX Officer for Student Issues, the Title IX Officer for Employee Matters, Student Advocacy and Prevention Awareness, the Student Health and Counseling Center and the Interfaith Center. The Safe Center LI [an off-campus non-profit] also provides on-campus counseling sessions for students at no cost and is working on developing a survivor support group.”
Hofstra University is required to abide by the New York state law “Enough is Enough,” which requires colleges to adhere to a set of comprehensive procedures and guidelines to protect students from assault.
“I think there are good outlets here [at Hofstra]; the Saltzman Center, the Title IX office and even some teachers are good to talk to,” said Izzy Gonzalez, a survivor and sophomore psychology major. “We shouldn’t have to make Facebook posts for people to know how big of a problem it is.”
Both Lamb and Gonzalez agreed that the Me Too campaign is not going to bring about the change they wish to see in help towards harassment and assault.
“It is showing the magnitude of the problem but it’s not showing the effect of the problem to each personal experience,” Gonzalez said. “It’s one thing for everybody to know it happens a lot, but if people don’t know the effects that it has on people then what’s it really doing?”
“I actually really don’t like the campaign because it’s clumping assault and harassment together,” Lamb said. “I’m a strong believer in the fact that if you speak up, more people around you will. I know especially with me, it’s nice to know that you’re not alone in your experiences, so because of that, I think [the campaign is] great.”
However, both survivors had ideas about what can help make a difference.
“I think [Hofstra] could help advertise a lot, like posters in the hallway to let people know they’re not alone. The little things matter more than the big lectures,” Gonzalez said.
“I think that it’s important to have some sort of campaign that speaks up about men also being victims of assault,” Lamb said. “As much as assault is becoming less and less stigmatized, the fact that there are male victims is still taboo.”