In an era where survivors are blamed and rapists often walk free, any move to combat sexual assault is greeted with acclaim.

That is exactly what happened this week when Syracuse University garnered praise for becoming the first large private university to support Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s (D-N.Y.) bipartisan Campus Accountability and Safety Act.

This law would make colleges more accountable by requiring universities to survey their students anonymously about on-campus sexual violence. It would also establish new support and resources for survivors, require a standard disciplinary process for perpetrators and provide greater information regarding sexual violence on campus to students. Additionally, the federal government would be able to penalize universities that do not comply with the act.

Although positive, millennials should acknowledge that legislation alone is not enough to battle a culture that normalizes rape and takes power away from its survivors. More comprehensive education across the board is needed in order to prevent sexual assault on campuses. Disheartening statistics as well as empirical evidence, like Kesha’s highly-publicized battle with Sony, show the importance of ending the toxic attitudes toward survivors of sexual assault that have pervaded current and previous generations.

Though in the spotlight, Kesha’s situation is not an anomaly.

According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, one of every six women and one of every 33 men has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape. Of these sexual assaults, only 32 percent are reported. Even fewer — two percent — land the perpetrator in jail.

On college campuses, the statistics are even bleaker: 21 percent of women and 7 percent of men said they had been sexually assaulted during their undergraduate years, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

It may seem counterproductive not to report a rape. However, women avoid going to trial for many reasons. They often fear retaliation, lack of evidence and an ineffective criminal justice system, according to the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault. People who take their rapes to trial are often subject to increased scrutiny as they recount their traumas, as if they are the guilty ones.

“The very difficult time that lots of women have in the legal system discourages women from coming forward,” said Robin Riley, a professor of women’s and gender studies at SU.

As seen in Kesha’s ongoing trial, survivors’ fears may not be unfounded. A judge refused to nullify Kesha’s contract with Sony last week when the singer sought to part ways with her music producer, Dr. Luke, who allegedly drugged and sexually assaulted her. If somebody as rich and famous as Kesha cannot find justice, regular women will obviously be discouraged from pursuing justice of their own.

The downplayed voices of survivors indicate a morally corrupt, victim-blaming society. Even talk show host Wendy Williams said this week that Kesha should have recorded her sexual abuse on film if she wanted her allegations to be taken seriously. Instead of providing education about proper consent at an early age to all genders, adults teach their young daughters to live in fear and this is a sentiment that follows them throughout their lives.

“Women get silenced,” said Riley. “They’re given second-class citizenship. They get told over and over again that there are certain places that they can and can’t go. They get told how they should and shouldn’t dress.”

These attitudes teach women that if they are raped, then they are at fault. They place the burden of blame on the victims rather than the perpetrators. As long as women are told that they were “asking for it” because they wore a certain dress or they were drunk when they were assaulted, rapists will never face adequate justice.

SU is not immune to these attitudes. Two female students reported within 30 minutes of each other that they were sexually assaulted near campus last semester to the Department of Public Safety.

When DPS notified students in an email, they also provided advice: travel in well-lit areas, never walk alone and avoid walking in the early hours of the morning. Although this advice may be well-intentioned, it places the responsibility on students, particularly women, to avoid being attacked.

The focus on policing women also completely ignores the fact that men can be raped, as these warnings are almost always implicitly directed at women. However, male rape survivors do exist, and may feel less comfortable seeking justice because people don’t acknowledge that women can rape men. By associating an act of sexual violence with a specific gender, people limit the recourse that victims may seek.

Instead of being given gendered advice, men and women in our generation and future ones should equally be taught about consent as soon as possible. Rather than the brief informational videos colleges may require students to watch before coming to school, a thorough understanding of true, affirmative consent should be a mandatory part of sex education throughout grade school curricula.

Legislators and educators must work to change attitudes toward rape and its survivors if any true difference is to be made. Education is a powerful tool and, instead of teaching survivors to blame themselves, those in positions of power should prevent sexual assault in the first place by promoting respect.

And by being informed, millennials can transform this society from one that normalizes rape to one that seeks justice.

Tayler Knapp is an undeclared freshman in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at tmknapp@syr.edu.

Published on February 25, 2016 at 1:36 am