For this week’s E-Portfolio post, I have chosen to discuss the tv show “Unbelievable.” I know we have already discussed this series in class, but it fits hand in hand with my topic (sexual harassment).  I want to discuss this insightful show in a broader sense. This series shines a bright light on how our justice system handles rape victims. In my opinion, saying the justice system is screwed up is an understatement. The series thoroughly points out that detectives do not question the integrity of someone who comes into the station claiming to have been robbed, but when it is a woman claiming to have been raped, there is an entirely different outcome.  It takes an unimaginable amount of courage to come forward and report your truth, and a lot of women never manage to.  The women who do gather the courage to report their rape stories are often treated inhumanely by the justice system.  In the series “Unbelievable,” when Marie comes into the station, the detectives working her case make her out to be the criminal, instead of treating her like the rape victim she is.  This behavior is beyond unacceptable and unfortunately regularly happens, yet people still question why women are not more willing to reach out for help after a tragedy like this occurs.

The two male detectives who are working Marie’s case and basically everyone else in her life doubt her because of her troubled past and a few minor inconsistencies between her statements and the witness statements.  These minor factors lead the detectives who work her case to badger and belittle her to an inhumane level.  They accuse her of fabricating the whole story.  They repeatedly drill it into her head that she will be thrown directly into jail if she is caught lying.  Everybody in her life doubting her makes her stop believing herself. She eventually questions if she could have dreamed the whole thing and withdraws her statement altogether out of fear. Even the people she counts on in her support group attack her verbally, making various accusations, making her feel that no one believes her and that she is entirely alone. She feels so lonely and detached from the world and all the people in it that she considers suicide. As she steps over the railing of the bridge, contemplating jumping into the rushing water and ending it all, something changes her mind. We never find out what that something was, but I am sure everyone watching the series is grateful for it. She climbs back over the railing and calls her friend, asking for help. 

Throughout this eight-episode limited series on Netflix, multiple other rapes occur.  Two female detectives investigate a series of extremely similar attacks.  In each rape discussed in the series, there are text consistencies with Marie’s story.  It is discovered that the man who raped Marie is a serial rapist.  The series ends with the rapist being sentenced to the maximum prison sentence, 327 ½ years.  Towards the end of the series, the detective who originally worked Marie’s case finds her at work and apologizes profusely for his prior treatment to her.  She tells him to do better in the future.  I believe this is such an important underlying message of the series.  The justice system needs to do better, and we need to do better.  This show has so many powerful messages in it that have stuck with me and have stuck with other watchers of this Netflix hit.  The response to this Netflix documentary has been extremely positive and has received a powerful response from fans. 

For this week’s E-Portfolio post, I will discuss an assigned reading from my women’s studies class.  This particular reading directly aligns with my blog focus on sexual harassment and the extents it can escalate to.  In week 12’s assigned reading, Victoria L. Banyard and the four coauthors thoroughly analyze the various effects of unwanted sexual experiences throughout the article, “Friends of Survivors: The Community Impact of Unwanted Sexual Experiences” (294). This piece was originally published in the “Journal of Interpersonal Violence.”

The coauthors of this piece are either fellows or professors at the University of New Hampshire. Victoria L. Banyard is a psychology major with an affiliation with justice studies. She additionally conducts extensive research on mental health and the resilience of sexual assault survivors. The coauthors’ majors include women’s studies, justice studies, sociology, and social psychology of law. People interested in these subjects and students who major in these fields or fields similar will most likely be assigned this reading at some point in their study. I ran across this insightful and informative reading in my women’s studies class, and I am sure various other people have encountered this reading and readings similar in the same way.

This piece has received quite a response since it was originally published. It has been posted and republished across various other mediums that focus on similar subjects. This media significantly contributes to any individual’s body of knowledge on unwanted sexual experiences and how they affect not only the victim but the entire community. Baynard states, “Several studies have gone further to examine the consequences for survivors of telling others. For example, Ahrens (2006) documented the silencing effect that negative reactions from others can have on survivors who disclose” (Baynard, 295). This study is mind-boggling to me and is rather offensive. Why are victims treated like the criminal when they come forward with their story of being assaulted? How the system treats sexual assault victims is extremely damaged, and this becomes more and more apparent to me every time we are assigned a documentary to watch or an article to read on sexual assault. Baynard additionally states, “They found that although women told on average 2.67 people about their assault, they found the average number of support sources who were helpful to be 1.86. Women also reported a variety of negative social reactions to telling others, including being stigmatized or hearing rape myths from others. Some were even revictimized by those they told” (Baynard, 295). The negative social reactions read about in this piece are consistent with the negative social reactions I have read about in other pieces that focus on the same subject. I find this to be revolting.

Saraswati, L. Ayu, et al. Introduction to Womens, Gender & Sexuality Studies Interdisciplinary and Intersectional Approaches. Oxford University Press, 2018.

Life on the run

“Gasping for air
legs winding
faster than the breeze
I ran through the woods
beating the crisp leaves and debris
with my soles shedding skin
with every thrashing pace

Faster

Faster than the sound
thousand drumsticks
“double time beat”
drumming in my chest
perfectly put charcoal hair bun
unfurls
like the sails on sea

I ran
faster

Faster than I could catch my breath
razor-sharp dry twig
sharper than double edge sword
cut through my calf muscle
streaming vermilion river
piercing pain
I don’t have time
I had to run

Faster

Crashed before a deserted church
in this lifeless woods
grimed in darkness
groaning
lungs puffing for air
white chiffon dress
soaked with blood and sweat

A beautiful prey
for those hungry
filthy men
thirsty for lust
how can I escape this life


Eyes flooding
like a rain filled cloud
glossed ebony eyes
bitter salty tears
just waiting for my consent
but my lashes won’t allow
so I close my eye lids;
hugging tighter
cascade of tears
I wrap my arms around me
It’s mist cold here

A drop
crystal clear
high from up above
perched on my cheek

I look up in the sky
so hazy and murky
just like my life
joining in my sorrow;
drizzling relief rainfall
dampen white clothes
revealing my sinful body
mixing dirt and mud
on my wheat legs
I like my skin better now

Washing blood and sweat off
who can notice my tears now

Showering rain
on these forests
sounds like a chant
I start to lose my consciousness
slowly losing my self
blurry vision
its getting pale and dark

Worn out weary body
rest on this muddy soil
My four feet thick hair
envelopes me
like a jacket
miss my mom’s warmness

Do you feel my pain
do you care?
come find me now”

I came across this descriptive and thought-provoking poem as a result of a google search on sexual harassment poems and literature. This poem is currently posted first in the Modern Award Winning Sexual Harassment Poetry website. This particular form of media further contributed to my body of knowledge regarding my chosen topic, sexual harassment. This poem allows the reader to see things from a victim of sexual harassment’s point of view. In my opinion, the line, “A beautiful prey for those hungry, filthy men, thirsty for lust, how can I escape this life” (Life on the run) really pulls the poem together in an insightful way. It makes the descriptive trauma from the female victim’s point of view expressed earlier in the poem make sense. She compares her experience of being the victim of social harassment to gasping for air, to running through the woods beating the crisp leaves and debris, with her soles shedding skin with every thrashing pace. She next compares her experience of being the victim of sexual harassment to sprinting through the woods as fast as she can, with razor-sharp dry twigs, which are even sharper than a double edge sword cutting through her calf muscle, resulting in a piercing pain. She additionally compares her experience of being the victim of sexual harassment to crashing down before a deserted church in the lifeless woods she has been desperately running through, grimed in darkness, groaning while her lungs are puffing for air. She states that her white chiffon dress is soaked entirely with blood and sweat as a result of her injuries. When she is frigid and crying, she gazes up at the hazy and murky sky. She then compares the appearance of the hazy and murky sky to her emotions and to her life. She explains that as a result of the torment of sexual harassment, her body feels sinful when exposed, so she feels more comfortable when her skin is not visible and is instead covered by dirt and mud. She further expresses that she feels she is losing herself, that she feels no one understands her pain or even cares, and that she feels extremely worn/beat down. All of these feelings the anonymous author of this poem expresses are common feelings experienced by victims of sexual harassment. According to extensive research, the common feelings associated with being the victim of sexual harassment are depression, hopelessness, despair, frequent crying spells, the feeling of losing who you are, insecurity, and sometimes even thoughts of suicide.

“Poems / Sexual Harassment Poems – The Best Poetry on the Web.” Sexual Harassment Poems – Modern Award-Winning Sexual Harassment Poetry : All Poetry, allpoetry.com/poems/about/Sexual-harassment.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=janies+got+a+gun&view=detail&mid=06FBD34CF26E84D0B4D406FBD34CF26E84D0B4D4&FORM=VIRE0&ru=%2fsearch%3fq%3djanies%2bgot%2ba%2bgun%26form%3dEDGEAR%26qs%3dPF%26cvid%3ddc4ee8e0f2594e8eb4deb4c89d9695c2%26cc%3dUS%26setlang%3den-US%26plvar%3d0

The song I have chosen to analyze is “Janie’s Got A Gun,” written by Aerosmith, and released as a hit single on November 8^th, 1989.  This is an extremely controversial song, especially taking into consideration the time in which it was released.  This hit song quickly ranked top four on the “Hot 100”, and the music video for the song went into heavy rotation on MTV.  This song goes into extreme depth on a severe case of sexual harassment that rapidly escalates to an alarming level.  This revolting case involves incest, molestation, rape, severe violence, and much more. This song deals with one of the numerous extents that sexual harassment can reach. This severe problem has drastically affected people of all cultures, ages, genders, social classes, sexualities, and racial distinctions. Many artists from varying mediums revolve their art around this broad subject and the extent it can reach. This issue is of vital relevance to society, and it deserves to be analyzed and have its resulting societal effects explored in depth. 

This song discusses a young female who reaches an emotional breaking point and shoots her biological father after years of continuously enduring sexual harassment, molestation, rape, and severe violence.  Janie’s father’s immoral, lewd, and repulsive actions are exposed in the line, “He jacked a little, bitty baby. The man has got to be insane” (Aerosmith).   This line leads us to believe that Janie’s father began to sexually assault her when she was just a baby and continued to do so throughout the remainder of her childhood.  This line was originally written as, “He raped a little, bitty baby” (Aerosmith).  According to extensive research, Steven Tyler altered the verse due to the request of John Kalodner.  John Kalodner was an executive at Aerosmith’s record company that assisted Aerosmith with better meeting commercial interests.  Kalodner was under the impression that radio stations would avoid playing the song on their channel if it was too controversial or too graphic.

Incest is by no means openly discussed as a comfortable subject in society. I guarantee all of you have heard the various widespread West Virginia or Alabama incest “jokes” and stereotyping.  Incest occurs regularly and is frequently treated as a laughing matter, but it is not. Many sexually abused victims find it uncomfortable and frightening to come forward with their emotional and physical trauma out of fear of becoming the butt of a vulgar joke.  Unfortunately, various forms of abuse were commonly considered an accepted behavior in society for many years and often went unreported and unaddressed.  While new awareness of this issue has potentially made this a less accepted behavior today, abuse is not only still often overlooked by society but also by both the abuser and the victim. Family members of the victim are often aware of the incest but prefer to keep the shame of the sexual abuse private and inside the family instead of broadcasting it for the whole world to see. For example, in the music video listed above, it is made apparent that Janie does have a mother.  It is assumed that Janie’s mother was aware of the sexual abuse inflicted upon her daughter but remained silent out of fear of facing the truth. The mother wanted it to stay a “private matter.”  Janie felt that no one believed her and that no one ever would, so she took matters into her own two hands the best way she knew how in an attempt to end her suffering.  Janie turned to revenge for resolve, which resulted in her abusive father’s ultimate demise.  After being arrested for the murder of her father, the shocking truth about her abusive childhood was publicly revealed.

The message of this song has an extremely deep underlying meaning.  It discusses a very controversial issue that severely impacts the victim as well as society as a whole.  Abusers are an extreme burden on their victims, bystanders, and on society in general.  The lyrics of this song give the listener an internal glimpse of the emotional torment and trauma personally endured by Janie.  Society tends to place the blame of the abuse on the victim, shaming them, rather than rightfully blaming the abuser.  However, in this song, the blame is placed entirely on Janie’s father, the abuser.  The song lyrics encourage us to sympathize with Janie, the victim, instead of blaming her.  This is illustrated in the line, “What did her daddy do, what did he put her through” (Aerosmith).  In my opinion, it seems that society would rather blame the innocent than to seek the truth.

Rolling Stone. “Readers Poll: The 10 Best Aerosmith Songs of All Time.” Rolling Stone, 25 June 2018, http://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/readers-poll-the-10-best-aerosmith-songs-of-all-time-21418/7-mama-kin-26859/.

The aforementioned is a select one of the countless memes that I discovered as a result of a quick Google search on sexual harassment. While some memes are designated to bring awareness to a certain subject, the most common purpose of a meme is to make people laugh. This meme is guaranteed to grab the attention of a wide variety of individuals, ranging from young children to full-grown adults. By comparing this controversial subject to a Pokémon game, a broad audience made up of individuals of varying ages and opinions is pulled in. Pokémon games are extremely popular and are becoming increasingly more popular by the day. If you have never played a Pokémon game, allow me to give a short explanation of the underlying meaning of this meme. In any Pokémon game, when another Pokémon trainer detects your presence, an exclamation mark pops up above their head, and you have no choice but to participate in a battle. Even if your party Pokémon are drained of health, exhausted of energy, and are lacking spirit, when spotted by a Pokémon trainer, you are forced to battle, regardless of condition. This meme compares a Pokémon trainer’s persistence to battle and the lack of any possibility of escape to being sexually harassed and the lack of consent involved. When “The Meme Center” published the meme illustrated above, they were attempting to be comical while additionally casting a light on how utterly powerless and out of control you feel when being sexually harassed. While navigating through social media sites to select a meme that deals with this touchy subject, I discovered SO many memes that treat sexual harassment entirely as a joke. In my opinion, sexual harassment is by no means a laughing matter. Sexual harassment is a very serious topic that is quite often normalized. The fact that there are THOUSANDS of memes on sexual harassment (if not even more) constantly circulating through a multitude of social media platforms proves this. Searching through this kind of media (memes) sheds light on how often sexual harassment and assault are normalized in society.

I want to address that men also regularly experience sexual harassment of varying intensities, but because I am currently enrolled in a Women’s Gender Studies class, throughout this semester I will be focusing specifically on women who experience sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is a normalized phenomenon, especially among young women of this generation. So many women (and men for that matter) are sexually harassed daily in a variety of different settings. Sexual harassment and assault can occur in a multitude of social settings such as the workplace, school, church, the store, or even in your own home. Quite often, young women make sense of and cope with the pervasive violence in their lives by framing it as routine, like it is no big deal. Women are often taught that we should take this inappropriate attention as a compliment, laugh it off, or to just ignore it in general. Women are taught from an adolescent age that we should dress in more wholesome clothing if we want to avoid being sexually harassed. Society has engraved it in our heads from a young age that men cannot control themselves, so we must cover-up. This is even the case with elementary school dress codes. They teach us when we are six years old that we must cover our shoulders so that we do not distract the boys. In my opinion, it seems a bit messed up that we are in a way teaching our boys and girls that sexual harassment is normal at such a young age? By normalizing sexual harassment in society are we essentially saying that kind of inappropriate behavior is okay? Is there not a way that we can ensure our daughters are aware of the dangers of the world without essentially teaching them that if they are sexually harassed, it is their fault?

Sexual harassment ranges in levels of severity.  Sexual harassment can rapidly escalate from being catcalled/whistled at to receiving twenty texts in a row begging for nudes, to having someone physically putting their hands on you, and can escalate to even more extreme circumstances. It has been proven in numerous scenarios that catcalling can quickly escalate into sexual assault and other intense forms of violence. While these more extreme circumstances are not guaranteed to occur, if you are being sexually harassed you are at an extremely high risk of being sexually assaulted, physically abused, or even raped. I do not know a single female who has not endured sexual harassment, assault, or even worse.

Hi, my name is Allison Ray. I just recently turned 18 years old and am currently enrolled in my second semester of college. I have created this blog for my HUM 150 Women’s Gender Studies class here at Durham Technical Community College. I have chosen to focus specifically on sexual harassment and to what extent it can reach as my topic for the semester. So many women (and men for that matter) are sexually harassed on a daily basis, and in a variety of different settings. Sexual harassment and assault can occur in a multitude of social settings such as the workplace, school, church, the store, or even in your own home. In the image representing sexual harassment/assault below, sexual assault is occurring in the workplace. Sexual harassment is a normalized phenomenon, especially among young women of this generation. Quite often, young women make sense of and cope with the pervasive violence in their lives by framing it as routine, like it is no big deal. Women are often taught that we should take the inappropriate attention as a compliment, laugh it off, or to just ignore it in general. I want to better understand why sexual harassment is so commonly overlooked in society today. I suspect that by the end of the semester, my knowledge of this subject will have widened tremendously.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=sexual+harassment&&view=detail&mid=7CDBBD182A8C9D7A75C47CDBBD182A8C9D7A75C4&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dsexual%2Bharassment%26FORM%3DHDRSC3

This video is an extremely mild representation of how extreme sexual harassment can become but is still very informative.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

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