This morning, a mass email was sent out to every student at Ball State University from the Department of Campus Police and Safety.
My immediate response, after I snickered at the word buttocks (sorry), was appreciation that my campus was willing to recognize this as assault and send out a warning: recognition that they were beginning to take this type of non-consensual assault seriously. Props to the young women involved who recognized this as assault and reported, and to my school for taking action.
There is a problem with the language of this email, however. What is the need for the specifics? "Slapping on the buttocks" is only setting this situation up for ridicule. If this was a more serious form of assault, I doubt they would be getting into specifics and mentioning body parts. While this is a step in the right direction, and perhaps appropriately labeled as a security alert, it should have been a forum to recognize the boundaries of sexual assault and raise awareness, especially since it is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
But most notably, a seriously problem lies in the backlash and response to this email by the rest of my campus. I am disgusted to admit that this has served as a platform for those on my campus to glorify, trivialized, and even celebrate sexual assault and the non-consensual touching of women on this campus. The day is not even over, and the facebook page "The Ball State Ass Slapper" already has over 4,000 fans. People are asking, "Why is this a big deal?" and making statements such as "An ass slap is a compliment!" and "It is showing weakness in women to go whine to the police about something like this..."
More disturbingly, students are turning this into a game. The facebook event "Ass-Slapping Wednesday" has cropped up, and already has over 800 people "attending." They are making t-shirts and turning this assault into a game. As long as this is consensual, I don't see why they can't have some fun... but technically, isn't modeling such a game after an incident of assault, by which two women were disturbed enough to report to the police, seriously indicative of my generations skewed view of sexual assault? A proposed point system is even more enraging: "1 point for a consensual slap, 2 points if they don't like it, and 10 points if BSU sends out a mass emal."
After voicing my opposition to this group, I started receiving harassment, most notably in the form of being called a "crazy feminist" (okay, that one might be true, but regardless...) and even a "skank."
Ball State is hosting various anti-assault events this week, such as Walk a Mile in Her Shoes. This gave me hope that the majority of my peers, especially those in the college community, were supportive of victims and willing to recognize that inappropriately touching or harming a woman, or anyone for that matter, is inherently wrong. But this recent situation has brought to light the ignorance surround this type of incident. People simply don't understand why this is wrong. And that, my friends, is nothing short of frightening.
Michelle Colpean
mlcolpean@bsu.edu
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