Sexism is a parasite and it is alive and well: A Feature Article.

Earlier this month, it emerged that Cambridge University are holding compulsory sexual consent workshops for new students in an attempt to eradicate ‘rape myths’ and ‘lad culture’ in higher education institutions. While I agree that education on sexual consent, harassment and violence is essential in ending the global epidemic of rape and sexism, I do not believe this approach proposed by Cambridge, and other universities including Oxford, will be effective in tackling this issue.

The reasons behind my doubt in the success of this campaign are, firstly, while these sexual consent seminars are supposedly compulsory, students are under no obligation and cannot be forced to attend. Therefore, these workshops, despite how they are labelled, are in fact optional and those who have already developed misogynistic and sexist attitudes towards consent are very unlikely to be present, even less likely to attend with an open mind and a serious attitude, and more likely to remain set in their ways and against changing their sexist and outdated views.

Secondly, this approach of targeting young adults, adults and mature students in universities is to imply that the issue of sexual harassment is exclusive to higher education institutions and the upper classes, which is completely false. Why initiate sexual consent education later in life after those it attempts to target have already developed sexist attitudes which have the potential to translate into sexist bullying, harassment and violent behaviour? To address this problem, sexual consent education needs to begin at the point of basic sex education in the early years of secondary school around the time of puberty; during the transition of child to adult, girl to woman and boy to man. By educating children in a school setting in which they are legally obligated to be a part of and targeting them before it’s too late while they are still open minded, progressive and unprejudiced is the only way to change perceptions and promote equality of the sexes.

Cambridge University also cited in a survey they conducted that of 2,100 students, almost half the participants had been subjected to being ‘groped, pinched or grabbed’ and more than 100 experienced ‘attempted serious sexual assault’ during their time at the university. While these statistics are shocking, the part I find most concerning is that being ‘groped, pinched or grabbed’ is considered by many people around my age as ‘playful’, ‘harmless’ and women who report these advances as sexual harassment are ‘over exaggerating’ and ‘should be grateful for the attention’. These responses while repulsive and appalling are, sadly, not uncommon. We need to repeat the message as consistently and loudly as possible that if you are making sexual advances and forcing yourself upon someone who is: frightened, vulnerable, crying, pushing you away, drunk, drugged, asleep, passed out, underage, silent, wearing clothes you find revealing, behaving in a provocative way that you believe signals sexual availability or saying ‘no’ is not someone who is willing consenting to sex. Only someone who is verbal, sober, enthusiastic, willing, active and who is voluntarily and continually saying ‘yes’ is someone who is consenting to sex. Consent is not a blurred line. To have intercourse with someone who is not consenting is not sex; it is rape.

Another part of the story of sexual harassment and violence that many of us forget is that it is not only men who rape women. Men assault women, men assault men, women assault men and women assault women. In addition to hammering home a definitive and clear message of exactly what consent is, we also need to eradicate the idea that only men commit sexual assaults against women. The issue of sexual violence is fundamentally a cultural and political problem that we are evidently not dealing with effectively. Schools, colleges, universities and workplaces desperately need more funding and training from our government in order to become better equipped to police sexual harassment and how to properly support survivors of sexist bullying and sexual assault. Our police force needs to be better trained and laws changed in order to arrest and convict more offenders and our courts need to pass tougher sentences to those who commit sexual offences.

While times are moving forward and we are making steps towards permanently removing sexism from our society, there is a lot of work still to be done. Sexism is an issue that we must stop ignoring and we must admit that it is not a thing of the past; sexism is a living, breathing parasite and it is alive and well. Millions of people took to Twitter in May this year in a social media campaign to exemplify this exact message. The ‘Yes All Women’ hashtag compiled of millions of tweets illustrating the immense amount of sexism that is still present in our society and to demonstrate that all forms of sexual harassment and violence are utterly unacceptable. Several tweets reiterated the message that feminism is a necessary movement that aims to achieve social, economic and political equality of the sexes, that it does not mean ‘men-hating’ and that it is not about being ‘butch’ or anti-feminine. But by far the most relevant and accurate tweet I found was: “#NotAllMen harass women but #YesAllWomen have been harassed by a man.” As a society, we have to accept that we all collectively have a responsibility to end sexism by educating our young people, effectively policing harassment and sexual violence and by firmly rejecting all forms of sexist bullying until the disease that is sexism is dead and gone.