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'No Gray Area' provides understanding of sexual assault
The Advocate
One out of three women will be sexually assaulted according to Liz Jacobsen, a crisis response coordinator from the Sexual Assault Resource Center (SARC) at the Wednesday event “No Gray Area.”
The event was held because April is Sexual Assault Awareness month. Jacobsen was joined by fellow presenter Elisa Saphire, a volunteer in the education program for SARC.
Saphire called the event “prevention based” to provide an “understanding of root causes” when it came to sexual assault.
This started with a definition of what consent is and how it plays into sexual assault. Saphire and Jacobsen requested audience participation in defining consent.
“We can’t understand a definition of assault without a definition of consent,” Saphire said.
Together, Jacobsen, Saphire, and the audience described consent as being “free of guilt, bribery, intimidation, pressure, threats, manipulation, drugs and alcohol.”
“This can go on forever,” Saphire said of defining consent.
Next, Jacobsen informed the audience of some statistics courtesy of the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN.) However, Jacobsen believed the statistics might be “on the lower end.”
According to the statistics, one out of six women will be raped or experience an attempted rape. Jacobsen added that, “alarmingly,” 48.8 percent don’t report that they’ve been assaulted. This is because the victim didn’t consider what had happened to be a sexual assault.
“We place blame and we question,” Jacobsen said. “The assault is never the fault of the victim.” She added that assault couldn’t occur at all if it weren’t for the existence of an assailant.
Saphire and Jacobsen began asking the audience how people give their consent. Members of the audience suggested that a consenting person can give verbal cues, written cues, or a certain body language.
However, consent isn’t always so cut and dry, as Jacobsen pointed out.
“There are a whole lot of reasons someone might want to stop even though they were enjoying it,” Jacobsen said. Some of these reasons, Jacobsen, Saphire, and the audience decided could be a person’s belief, values, timing, readiness, environment, access to protection, reputation, and intention. However, not everyone wants to quit, the audience figured, because they might be embarrassed, feel guilty, afraid, or obligated.
In both instances, one person involved felt a particular boundary has been broken.
“We all have a good idea of what it’s like to have boundaries,” Saphire said.
Jacobsen then drew two continuums, for good and bad sexual relationships. The first, being a good relationship, included actions such as glances, flirting, and petting before leading up to intercourse. The second, being a bad relationship, included actions such as leering, grabbing, and physical force before leading up to rape.
“It’s important to illustrate what we’re talking about,” Jacobsen said, of the continuums explaining how sexual assault progresses.
Jacobsen added that “there’s no crossing of these lines, there’s no gray area.” Saphire added that “these (continuums) are separate, they’re not overlapping.”
This brought up the subject of alcohol and how it can play into sexual assault.
“Alcohol can become a green light for people,” Jacobsen said. Jacobsen added that in instances of sexual assault, alcohol becomes an excuse for the assailant and “the blame” for the victims.
“When alcohol’s involved you have to make sure the other person’s capable of giving consent,” Jacobsen said. Saphire added that because “it’s so hard to know” that “it’s not worth it to take that risk.”
As the event started to wrap-up, Jacobsen said that when it comes to making people aware of what sexual assault is, “it starts with individuals.”
When an audience member asked about instances where an individual reported a false sexual assault, Saphire said that “almost nobody makes up sexual assault” and that 2 to 8 percent of reported crimes are fake.
“What I’m really hoping to do is raise some awareness,” Jacobsen said of the event. “Just raising awareness and giving basic tools.”
Saphire added “It’s about making a change in our culture and making people aware that it (sexual assault) is not okay.”
Chrissie Bloome, health and education counselor and coordinator, said, “SARC is a great resource. They have really competent and knowledgeable people.”
SARC has a 24-hour hotline available for sexual assault victims, or people who know sexual assault victims, at 503-640-5311.