Last semester, I took a course called “Sex, Power, and Culture in the United States” through the Gender and Sexuality Studies program, taught by Dr. Red Tremmel and Dr. Krystal Cleary. The official description of the course describes it as such: “This course invites students to learn the skills necessary to identify, analyze, and ultimately transform the cultural, social, and political forces that shape and are shaped by sex and sexuality. Approaching sexuality as a system of norms, values, beliefs, and patterns of interaction, students will learn how sexuality intersects with gender, race, age, ethnicity, religion, ability, and other axes of power and privilege. Students will be introduced to the current body of empirical data and theory to identify how these intersecting systems of power take shape in patterns of human interaction such as forming relationships, dating rituals and sexual scripts, and interpersonal conflict and violence. In sum, students will develop the skills to 1) analyze how their own interpersonal and intimate relationships are embedded within and constitutive of broader systems of power and 2) how to work individually and collectively to change them.” The course took a specific look at how its topics existed on Tulane’s campus with a specific interest in examining and responding to the findings of the 2017 Tulane Climate Survey.
This class changed my life; it introduced me to ideas I had never thought could be possible and gave me knowledge I never knew I could have access to. Being a writer means I should be able to find the words to describe what I learned and how it made me feel, but I find myself at a loss for words when I think back on this course and what it gave me. So, instead of creating new words, I will use the ones I have already said to describe my experience; the final assignment for this course was a critical reflection with the prompt to answer the question “what would the world look like if sexual violence, and the threat of sexual violence, no longer existed?” In our critical reflections, the students of the course were implored to use key concepts and vocabulary previously discussed throughout the course to answer the prompt questions. Below is my answer to this question.
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Before you read this:
- Content warning: Sexual Violence
- Consent:
- All In Tulane official definition:
- An agreement between two people to engage in sexual activity
- Freely and actively given using mutually understandable words and actions
- Free of threats and coercion
- Ongoing and can be withdrawn at any time
- Students who are incapacitated from alcohol and/or other drugs cannot give consent
- All In Tulane official definition:
- Resources:
- The following are resources you may find useful if you or someone you know has experienced some form of sexual violence.
- Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS) | (504) 314-2277 or The Line (24/7) | (504) 264-6074
- Case Management & Victim Support Services | (504) 314-2160 or srss@tulane.edu
- Student Health Center | (504) 865-5255
- Tulane University Police (TUPD) | Uptown – (504) 865-5911. Downtown – (504) 988-5531
- Sexual Aggression Peer Hotline and Education (SAPHE) | (504) 654-9543
- Title IX Coordinator | (504) 314-2160 or msmith76@tulane.edu
- The following are resources you may find useful if you or someone you know has experienced some form of sexual violence.
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The year is 2050: Lizzo is the president, we have adopted the Green New Deal and are on our way to ending climate change, and sexual violence and the threat of sexual violence has been eradicated. What a world to live in. It is the world that I want to live in. If we lived in a world without sexual violence or the threat of sexual violence, huge parts of our society and culture would operate completely differently. We would all have the freedom to love, live, and connect on our own terms, everywhere.
Rape culture is a cultural environment in which we live where sexual violence is normalized, trivialized, and even expected. Through rape culture, even smaller attacks on people’s body sovereignty is not only permissible but something that is not even considered in our everyday interactions. We are constantly touching people and being touched without asking for explicit verbal consent, and we often do not fully conceptualize how that unwarranted touch can make others and ourselves feel. In a world without sexual violence, there is no rape culture; instead the default is consent culture. Consent culture means it is normal and expected to ask for consent in all facets of light, and subsequently forces not asking for consent to be odd, unacceptable, and frowned upon. If people are expected to ask, individuals are empowered in their answers to that question, whatever it may be. Additionally, people who do not ask for consent, or do not respect other’s answer to the question of consent, are held accountable for their actions.
The concept of rape culture and the power to say no plays a significant role in multiple aspects of Tulane culture. The most dominant culture at Tulane is that of hook-up culture. In this culture, it is expected that students go out and party at least once or twice a week and most of the time you should end the night by hooking up with someone. In fact, the most “normal” relationship at Tulane is a hook-up.
Tulane students, due to the pervasive nature of the school’s hook-up culture, follow a specific mandate of sexual behavior: they think that they always have to say yes, they accept any touch, attention, or advance wherever it may come, and they are disappointed in themselves when they don’t successfully act out this sexual script. In a world without sexual violence, this would be turned on its head. When there is no pressure to always say yes, people would be able to say no much more freely and with autonomy and individual power. If it were not seen as a social requirement to participate in hook-up culture, those who genuinely want to have hook-ups will be liberated as their decisions to have hook-ups become their own and not just part of a social phenomenon. While this phenomenon is a hallmark of Tulane culture, it is expansive and can be found everywhere else in the world, especially on college campuses. So, everyone would reap the benefits of a lack of rape culture and an embracing of consent culture. On the most fundamental of levels, the way we feel and the way we interact with the people in our lives would improve if we practiced consent culture and not rape culture.
In her article “Beyond Yes or No: Consent as Sexual Process,” Rachel Kramer Bussel explains the positive effect of ensuring explicit verbal consent by saying, “By embracing a broader concept of consent… consent can be about more than just ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ It means not taking the ‘yes’ for granted, as well as getting to know the reasons behind the ‘yes,’ and those, to me, are what’s truly sexy.” Consent enriches our sex lives; rather than burdening relationships and moments, it liberates us. The concept of consensual interaction does not just pertain to sex. In Hazel/Cedar Troost’s article “Reclaiming Touch,” they share their feelings on an experiment they did in which they asked every person they interacted with in a day to ask for explicit verbal consent before touching them. The result, they said, was that “every hug, every kiss, every touch felt incredible, without any of the danger that comes with non-negotiated touch.” Our relationships become more fulfilling, loving, and intimate when we embrace this aspect of consent culture.
The way the world would change if we eradicated sexual violence is for the better. It would make living as a human being a fulfilling, safe, and loving experience. This reality would make going to Tulane completely different; our culture would turn on its head but in all of the ways it needs to. I want this world where we can be free and love freely, and I am willing to fight for it. I hope after reading this, people will join me in that fight.