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In early May, Grant was hit with an onslaught of debate on the topic of rape culture when Grant history teacher David Lickey wrote a letter questioning its existence. Rape culture is a term used to describe an environment whose prevailing social attitudes normalize sexual assault.

One excerpt of the letter stated that “Rape culture is a theoretical construct that is ill defined.” Another stated that the wording of the term is “hysterical.”

The letter was distributed to a class of freshmen and then discussed as part of a class unit on gender. By the end of the week, it had gained traction on Facebook and quickly ignited a response from the Grant community.

On the Monday following the incident, students wore red to show their solidarity towards sexual assault victims. Teachers brought signs to school written with messages, such as: “You can’t teach the history of Western civilization but deny rape culture.” On social media, students, parents and people around the country engaged in heated discussions over the issue, many speaking out against Lickey’s claims.       

“You can’t tell people that their personal experiences aren’t true; you can’t say that that’s not the way that I feel or that’s not how I’ve navigated the world,” says Sage Davis, a female sophomore at Grant who is a survivor of sexual assault. “Just because you haven’t experienced something doesn’t mean it’s non-existent.”             

Others thought that the letter’s backlash was unwarranted.

“I think when (students) took the whole thing and said, ‘This is all worthless because it questions an idea we have,’ I think that was sort of unproductive,” says Liam Purkey, a male senior at Grant. “While I think rape culture is prevalent and exists, there are a lot of Americans who don’t. I think skepticism about the extent to which it exists is something that is important.”

Amidst the debate, one thread remains unarguably true: Sexual assault is happening at an alarming rate for high school students.  

Research conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that approximately 1 in 6 boys, 1 in 4 girls and roughly 1 in 2 transgender youth are sexually abused before the age of 18. And 98 percent of sexual assaults are committed by men.

But what is often overlooked is the ways in which social norms can lead to those alarming statistics. Rape jokes, catcalling, unsolicited nude photos, groping and a slew of other behaviors and attitudes create what many call a rape culture.

Jessica Murray, Grant’s activities director and leader of Grant’s Women’s Empowerment Group, says rape culture is a systemic issue.

“A lot of people fixate on the term ‘rape,’ and they focus on just that …  And what they’re denying is the culture,” she says. “Rape culture is putting the responsibility for boundary violations on the person being violated … It’s as simple as walking down the hallway, and somebody says, ‘Smile!’ It’s a deep, layered system that has many levels.”

Sally McWilliams, the chair of the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality department at Portland State University, says the term is easily misunderstood.  

“I think to a certain extent, the term ‘rape culture’ can be read as inflammatory,” she says. “Of course we don’t believe that there should be rape in our culture. And then we don’t want to lose track of the actual violence that is impacting young women and other young people’s lives.”

Many female Grant students say that rape culture follows them through the halls, at school dances and even in the classroom.

“During class discussions, it’s predominantly males speaking,” says Rié Durnil, a junior at Grant. “Sometimes (males) shut down females when they are having discussions. The idea that females’ opinions aren’t as valid and they aren’t as strong plays into rape culture.”

Grant freshman Sydney Rawls, who is a survivor of sexual assault, agrees. She points to being “catcalled” on her way to school and being groped in the halls as a precursor to more serious sexual abuse that many girls experience.

“When you really think about it, it is a form of sexual assault,” Rawls says of unwanted groping. “Even little things like that, they just pass it off, like ‘Oh, it’s fine, it’s normal,’ but if you really look at what sexual assault and rape culture is, that’s part of it.”

Dylan Leeman, a male English teacher at Grant who teaches the freshman class that initially received Lickey’s letter, says that he was unaware of the extent that female students experienced rape culture at Grant. When the question, “How does rape culture show up at Grant?” was presented in a class discussion, nearly every one of his female students had multiple experiences to share.

“I didn’t know that so many of my female students say that they hear rape jokes at school everyday,” says Leeman. “Teaching this unit for years, I didn’t suspect that that was the case here at Grant.”

Moving ahead, he believes other students and staff need to take the time to listen to the experiences of female students at the school.

“What we need to do now is dig a little deeper, listen more and find out what’s really going on and talk about how to improve the culture of consent and how to foster a culture of respect,” he says.

Murray believes minimizing rape culture at Grant is dependent on everyone’s own self evaluation.

“I think that what I’ve borrowed from the past, is that when we look at rape culture and we admit that it’s real, we then have to look at it and identify how we’re a part of it,” she says. “There are so many things that are part of rape culture all the way down … It’s these small things, these systemic structures.” ◆

Perspectives

Grant Magazine interviewed a variety of students who are impacted by rape culture. Here are their stories.

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Eleni Mallos

Senior

“Dress codes are a huge part of rape culture. I’ve been dress-coded at Grant before. I was in my cheer uniform, and this was probably the most embarrassing and the most horrific experience I’ve ever experienced from a teacher …  I went to go sit in the back with my headphones and go over choreography, because I had to teach later that day in the dance class. I was just closing my eyes and going through counts in my head, and the teacher got mad at me, and she was like, ‘Um can you go in the hallway? You’re distracting the young boys in here’ …  I was shocked, and I just went in the hallway. But later I went in the classroom, and I was like, ‘Why couldn’t you just say you were distracting, period? Why did you have to say the part about the young boys?’ And she said, ‘Well you’re wearing that flashy outfit, and it’s just very distracting for the boys in here.’ It was super disappointing to come from a teacher especially …  Like, how uncomfortable and embarrassing for me? … That’s part of rape culture, is that if a girl wears a flashy outfit, then a boy can’t control himself, and that’s just not OK. You shouldn’t be teaching that to such young boys.”

– Interview by Toli Tate | Photo by Finn Hawley-Blue

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