What do city subways, college dorms, and military service have in common? They are all venues for the vulnerable when it comes to sex assaults.
The latest horror stories come from women in New York who've been ogled, groped, flashed, harassed, splashed with ejaculate and attacked on subways or in subway stations. One recent account involved a woman who was forced off a train and only managed to escape when she was able to push an alarm button as her assailant dragged her along the platform.
The city, trying to deal with the situation, has proposed a law to upgrade unwanted sexual contact from a misdemeanor to a felony and to turn "sexually motivated touching" into a sex crime with possible jail time.
But one woman blogger says she isn't convinced it will help much. "The most lamentable aspect of taking public transportation as a woman is enduring the unsavory boys and men who exploit the shared space and put our safety in jeopardy. Women understand that most men don't engage in this brand of sexual violence. But the number of guys who are doing these things is sizable enough to make most women uneasy during our commutes."
The seriousness of the sexual assault epidemic on university and college campuses is garnering much needed attention thanks to recently released guidelines promulgated by the White House. Aimed at forcing academic institutions to aggressively combat sexual assaults the recommendations call for anonymous surveys, anti-assault policies, and greater confidentiality for those reporting crimes. The administration wants Congress to pass further measures to enforce the recommendations and levy penalties for failure to comply. It has also proposed a website -- NotAlone.gov -- to track enforcement and provide victims with information.
"No more turning a blind eye or pretending it doesn't exist," Vice President Joe Biden said when the steps were announced. "We need to give victims the support they need and we need to bring the perpetrators to justice."
For Emma Sulkowicz and Dana Bolger that's good news, but it's money-where-mouth-is-time. Raped by a fellow student while at Columbia University, a university official interrogated Sulkowicz about the sex act that occurred, suggesting that it was physically impossible as described. The panel dismissed her accusation, even though there had been other sexual assault complaints against the same man. "Has anything every happened to you that was just so bad you felt like you became a shell of a human being?" Sulkowicz asked a New York Times reporter when sharing her story.
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