At our last Her Campus meeting, the other staff writers and I decided the best way to handle the issue of the attacks on campus would be to create a collaborative article about what other people on campus thought of the issue. We decided that this way it would be a neutral way of looking at the issue, which was important because this seems to be a hot button topic. If you tell people to be careful walking at night, you make them responsible for their victimization; if you say that campus isn’t doing enough to make us safe, you’re being naïve about the fact that an attack like this could happen anywhere, to anyone, not just on campus. As well, the safety statement given by the RCMP was directed explicitly to women, a distinction that excludes people who identify as transgendered or any orientation that falls outside of the ‘traditional’ gender roles.
All sides that are battling here seem to represent irreconcilable opinions. Is there a right answer to this problem?
I don’t think there is; I think we’re facing a large issue that may never be solved perfectly. Last month I wrote the ‘Thank you Sauder’ article, expressing my gratitude for the exposure of rape culture in a manner that made it socially acceptable to talk about. Once again, I am put in the questionable position of feeling relief that a terrible thing is happening, all thanks to the attacks on campus. You read right: I am relieved that these attacks happened. Not because I believe that the people who were made the victims in the attacks deserved it – I don’t. Not even a little bit. I am relieved because this is becoming a commentary that allows us to look at an issue that too often is not discussed.
(Locations of the 6 attacks. Credit.)
The woman who spoke out to the Ubyssey about her own experience of attack hit the stride between the two main opinions that seem to be encircling this issue – it’s not okay that things like this are happening, but since they are, people need to be careful. There’s a lot of concern being expressed on all sides that people on campus (women-identifiers in particular) need to be more aware of the risks that they face when they choose to walk around after dark. Like many people who are starting to speak up, the implication that this is a new, never-before-seen problem makes me angry. I say that I am angry with trepidation – I know that angry people on campus have taken some flack recently; particularly with regard to the Take Back the Night protest (check out this gem from the Ubyssey called ‘A sorry excuse for campus activism’ and a personal blog reply I really liked if you want to know more).
As much as I hate the fact that people feel like they need to scream in order to be heard, right now I have to agree. No one seems to be listening unless you get angry, and even though that sucks, I understand why: this is a big issue. Plenty of people have probably never been made to talk about it before. But for those whom sexual violence and its repercussions is an everyday experience, anger is sometimes the only option available because being angry means you haven’t given up. For many people, the exposure of the attacks doesn’t change their reality, because they already know what attack feels like. For me, these attacks don’t change anything except the fact that all of a sudden, it’s okay to talk about sexual violence.
Undeniably, campus felt a bit safer last year, but last year we didn’t know that there was a weirdo hanging around in the bushes waiting for people to walk by so he could molest them. This year, there’s a figure to focus on, so fears seem justified. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t fear before the attacks; it just means we couldn’t talk about it if we were afraid. So the next step from here is to admit it: I am afraid. I am afraid for myself and everyone else on campus who has the potential to be a victim.
I’m not saying that before the attacks I wasn’t a bit less on edge. Last year I would walk home pretty late, often from one end of campus to the other. Now I would never do that. But even when campus was ‘safer’, I still had those nights where I would call my friends or my mom on my walk home, just in case something happened to me. This year, when my parents dropped me off at residence, my mom took me aside and asked me to stop calling her while I was walking home if I felt unsafe. “Why?” I asked her, hurt that she would deny me this one comfort. “Because,” she explained, “if something happened on your walk home, I wouldn’t be able to do anything. And I would have to listen to it.” We never discussed what ‘it’ would be, but we didn’t have to; I just don’t call my mom when I walk home anymore.
Even if there wasn’t a focus to my occasional anxiety before the attacks, it was still there to some degree. So everyone all of sudden telling me to BE CAREFUL ticks me off. I am always careful. There is always a risk. The fact that everyone just decided to start acknowledging it doesn’t change anything.
I didn’t write this article as a hate rant. I wrote this because I didn’t realise until the attacks happened that I was, and always have been, at risk. That’s what makes me mad – the fact that I often don’t feel safe walking alone at night. It’s the same feeling as when I drink too much at a party, or when someone is overaggressive to me in a bar. I am a potential victim for someone regardless of my location, how I am dressed, or whether I’m drunk or sober. In our messed up society, many are at often at risk in a way that ‘less vulnerable’ demographics just don’t get. Before these attacks became an issue, some people genuinely may not have known that sex crimes and other violent attacks on campus are an everyday problem for a larger demographic of society than we maybe would like to admit. More than that, it seems like people think that once this one guy gets caught, the problems of sexual violence on campus will disappear.
I think, first and foremost, we need to change that; we need to all start asking ourselves this: What Now?
Yes, UBC seemed relatively safer last year. But last year, if someone had asked me if I was worried about walking home alone at night, I wouldn’t have had a reason to say no. This year I do. One more fear to run through my mind whenever I feel vulnerable doesn’t make me more afraid, it just makes me angry that I have so many things to be afraid of. So to those of you who feel 100% safe on campus: you can keep telling us ‘vulnerable’ people that we need to adhere to the safety procedures the RCMP suggests if that makes you feel better. In fact, if you’re freaked out enough that you don’t want to walk home alone don’t hesitate to call Safe Walk for yourself. But don’t for a second think that we didn’t know from before the first attack that we are at risk. We were at risk before that. We always are. Cameras or lights or social awareness diminishes the risk, but it doesn’t get rid of it. Exposing the problems with society is important, but it’s not the same as solving the problem. Remember that next time you tell someone to be safe.