The VP has been bringing sexual assault awareness to college campuses nationwide.
Last week, Vice President Joe Biden took to the University of Pittsburgh to discuss the “It’s On Us” call to action before a crowd of students, as an ongoing initiative to end campus sexual assault.
April is sexual assault awareness month, and with startling statistics about college sexual assault, the white house wants to take action. Vice President Joe Biden has been travelling to campuses around the country to call for change.
According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, it is estimated that for every 1,000 women attending college, there are 35 cases of sexual crimes per academic year. Other startling statistics estimate that one in five college women will be sexually assaulted during her academic career.
The Obama administration launched the “It’s On Us” initiative in 2014 as an awareness campaign to put an end to sexual assault on college campuses. The initiative isn’t just to recognize the act of sexual assault, but to be more than a bystander— a solution to the culture that enables it.
Biden passionately spoke in front of nearly 1,000 students about sexual assault and how victims are treated by their schools and, even, the law. “The legal system and the court of public opinion still allows prosecutors to ask victims of rape, ‘what were you wearing?’” He then added, “What difference does it make, what a woman was wearing?”
Over the past few years, victims of rape and other sexual crimes, have taken a stand against the rape culture rhetoric of “what were you wearing” because it implies that the blame ultimately falls on the victim’s choice of dress.
Also touched upon was consent, which to some can be confusing. The blurred lines of consensual and non-consensual sex has devastating consequences such as rape and sexual assault. “We have to change the culture that allows the abuse of women and men, and it must be clear that no means no. When consent cannot be given, it is assault, it is a crime, period.”