Campus after dark:

sexualisation of Campus culture

East Coast Student Leadership Conference 2013
Lyndsay Anderson Dalhousie University

An Introduction
You, me, and a little history Why this topic?

 We have to change how we treat each other. We have to change how society treats women
- University student, responding to the shooting at LEcole Polytechnique in Montreal, 1989

Disclaimers
Open and respectful dialogue Explicit content Non-judgmental I am not an expert! I am not anti-sex! Lets have some fun

Sexualisation of Culture
Significant flaws in current approaches to sexualisation of culture:

the most striking of these is the lack of any consistent definition of sexualisation itself (Bragg et al, 2011, p. 280)

Sexualisation of Culture
a rather clumsy phrase used to indicate a number of things; a contemporary preoccupation with sexual values, practices and identities; the public shift to more permissive sexual attitudes, the proliferation of sexual texts; the emergence of new forms of sexual experience; the apparent breakdown of rules, categories and regulations designed to keep the obscene at bay; our fondness for scandals, controversies and panics around sex (Attwood, 2006, p. 79).

Rape Culture
In a rape culture, people are surrounded with images, language, laws, and other everyday phenomena that validate and perpetuate, rape. Rape culture includes jokes, TV, music, advertising, legal jargon, laws, words and imagery, that make violence against women and sexual coercion seem so normal that people believe that rape is inevitable. Rather than viewing the culture of rape as a problem to change, people in a rape culture think about the persistence of rape as just the way things are. upsettingrapeculture.com

Knowledge of university life

Movies, Television, Music Campus visits

University Marketing
Official Unofficial

Complicating Factors
Technology, social media, pop culture Alcohol culture Sex education and discussion of sexuality

Consent
What is it? Enthusiastic Consent Who are you?

Group Discussion
a. Identify and describe sexist or suggestive examples, innuendos, traditions, or practices in the orientation programs/on campus that are inappropriate and unwelcoming Where does sexualisation/sexism come from in O-Week and throughout the year? What is the source? What about other events? What are the harms of these practices (if any)? How do we repair the harms? How can student leaders start critiquing rape culture and promoting a culture of consent?

b.

c.

d.

Questions?
Thank you!
Lyndsay Anderson Dalhousie University lyndsay.anderson@dal.ca 902-494-4140