The Hunting Ground

Nikki Bracci
Professor Kara Richardson
TA: Nikki Fortier
PHI/WGS 297 - Philosophy of Feminism
Blog Post #4 - The Hunting Ground
03 November 2016

The documentary “The Hunting Ground”, opened a door that many prefer to keep closed - rape culture across college campuses. The developers of the documentary are sexual assault survivors themselves and they saw the ignorance and lack of assistance colleges provided to survivors so they decided to make a change. The purpose of the film is to expose this injustice that survivors nationwide are facing - through their outreach nearly fifty colleges have been sued due to incorrect or lack of Title IX reports.

I fully support the protests and legal cases of false reports. I think that sexual assault to any degree can be a traumatizing experience and yet, as stated multiple times throughout the film, colleges ignore reports as to keep their numbers down and seem more appealing to incoming students. In my opinion, I would be more attracted to a school that supports victims and helps make the campus safer by removing dangerous predators than one that has a low statistics - because removing the predators will not only lower the statistics themselves but act as an example for the consequences of such a horrendous act.

Students all over the country are banding together in protests on their campuses in an ongoing fight for justice. In May of 2015, Emma Sulkowicz, a senior at Columbia decided her senior thesis would be to carry around her dorm room mattress everywhere she went until her rapist was removed from campus - she walked at graduation with her mattress in hand. Emma is just one example of students who are trying to get their voices and stories heard. Students at Syracuse University this semester banded together in protest of the mishandling of Title IX cases on campus. It is appalling that a university that was the first to promote the “It’s On Us” campaign still refuses to aid the survivors of assault.

It is evident that big sporting Universities tend to protect their athletes more than the rest of their students. It is assumed that since those (typically) men are protected because they are a large source of income for the college. As seen in the documentary, University of Michigan hid their starting quarterback for weeks due to upcoming games - they even have rules that law enforcement is not allowed to approach athletes while they are in athletic facilities. The same concept works for men in fraternities. In every college there are fraternities that have bad reputations, but the schools maintain them due to the fact that they have a high concentration of alumni who are large donors to the universities.  This just goes to show that the universities are out for themselves and for money rather than the well being of their student bodies.

Universities fail to see the issue with how they handle these cases. They can not promote equality and safety when they won’t enforce it. They victim blame and conveniently forget to file things and look out for the best interest of the school's reputation. Progress will never be made in this horrible issue if colleges continue to ignore rape culture on their campuses.