On November 5th, College Humor teamed up with the White House’s “It’s On Us” campaign to film and release a public service announcement about sexual assault on college campuses. The video, titled “What If Bears Killed One In Five People?”, plays off the statistic that one in five female students will experience sexual assault by the time they graduate college. In the skit, five men are in a garage hanging out when one of them discovers that there is a large, angry bear behind the door. This bear is a threat to all five men in the room, and they are all very aware and afraid of its presence.
One of the men in the group time after time tries to terminate the other men’s concern about the bear by saying lines that mimic what someone might say to disregard sexual violence’s presence on a college campus. “It’s only going to eat one in five!” and “What happened between you guys and the bear is none of my business!” are sentences he proclaims to his friends as if this entire situation is some sort of joke. The least subtle reference to sexual assault comes when the character says, “You guys know the old saying, bears will be bears!” The actor of this role, when asked to describe the line of thought for the skit stated, “As a bro, you kind of look the other way and there’s a line a bro won’t cross against another bro. … I think that is so tired.” … Seriously, College Humor? Are “bro lines” so strong that we must find another route, mainly satire and humor, to get our message of sexual assault across to the community?
This two-minute skit is a frustrating one to watch as a female college student because it goes to the very last resort, humor, to tackle a very large, upsetting, prevalent social issue. There has been repeated debate in the past about what the actual statistic is for the number of individuals who are sexually assaulted and if the “1 in 5” is actually accurate, but I find the exact number to be unimportant in this argument. Why? Because simply put, any amount of sexual assault is completely unacceptable. And for College Humor to tackle the “bro code” surrounding sexual assault in such a satiric way gives the message that somehow sexual assault has to be lessened in seriousness before it can be spoken about. Though I commend the group for taking a stand on such a difficult and important topic, perhaps making the PSA more serious instead of satirical would have been a better approach.
What about those who are victims of sexual assault at colleges and universities across the country? For them, it is not a bear who is threatening and looming over them, but is instead another person who threatens the minds and bodies of innocent victims. It is not a joking matter, and it is certainly not one that should be depicted as such in such a satiric way through a PSA. While I agree that past approaches to highlight the importance of sexual assault prevention have been largely unsuccessful and do applaud the White House for taking initiative on this issue, it is difficult to defend this video in its message and in its further implications. For the 1 in 5 women who are sexually assaulted during their time in college and for all college students at risk as well, College Humor and the White House can do so much more for you than this subpar, satirical PSA on such an important and crucial social problem in our country today. Though this PSA may perhaps bring awareness to a great group of people through its satire, I truly believe that there are better approaches to this situation through more serious and open dialog about sexual assault on college campuses.
Despite this PSA, I believe the “It’s On Us” campaign can and will make great strides in sexual assault awareness and prevention, and I highly encourage everyone to take the campaign’s pledge against sexual assault.
Sources:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/reliable-source/wp/2015/11/05/new-wh…
http://media.salon.com/2011/04/sexual_assault_in_college_is_it_getting_w…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNVFPkmZTQ4
http://cdn1.theodysseyonline.com/files/2015/10/02/6357942373076389921842…
itsonus.org/#pledge