Now is the time, Rachel Griffin told a Great Hall audience earlier this week.
Now is the time to speak up and speak out, on behalf of all women, living in a world in which violence against women has become mundane. It’s time to offer compassion to all survivors of sexual violence. Now is the time to build a campus community that unapologetically offers accessible, confidential and sensitive support to survivors.
“All over the world, survivors of sexual violence, like me, are ignored, dismissed and accused of lying. I sincerely believe, from the inside of my heart, that if everyday people just like me, and everyday people just like you, really understood what rape feels like, then people and campuses and governments alike could consistently respond to survivors with compassion and support,” said Griffin, an anti-gender violence advocate, who is a professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Southern Illinois University.
Griffin gave the keynote address at the Consent & Compassion: A Forum on Preventing and Responding to Sexual Violence at Western on Monday in the Great Hall. The half-day event also included a panel discussion featuring on- and off-campus support services, as well as opportunities to share ideas and strategies with campus peers and colleagues.
Many campuses in the United States are scrambling to address sexual violence, Griffin said, and Canadian institutions are in a similar position, given recent headlines of gendered violence on campuses across the country, including Dalhousie and Ottawa.
The world is grappling with the complexity of sexual violence, but the issue is, if not personal, local. Think Jian Ghomeshi, she noted. Or Bill Cosby, who recently visited London and made an inappropriate cautionary joke about drinking in his presence to an audience at Budweiser Gardens.
“You have the opportunity to fuse the intellectual and the emotional, and save lives, more than ever before. Your government is paying attention; your campus is paying attention. Create a sustainable campus culture that unapologetically humanizes survivors. This campus can potentially become an international and national exemplar in policy and practice that demonstrates all survivors are worthy of our time, energy, attention and compassion,” Griffin said.
“For those of you in this room with positions of power to consistently respond with funding necessary to continually fuel prevention, education and response, what I’m here to do is add what I perceive as a rarely heard perspective – a survivor’s point of view,” she added.
In between tears and passionate pleas, Griffin related to a silent room her experience – being raped while she was a high school student, by someone she liked, in her own home. She stayed silent about the ordeal for seven years, reasoning with herself that leaving for university would help her cope and forget the experience. Instead of coping and moving on, Griffin said, as an undergraduate student, she went into a manic mode en route to self-destruction. It was on campus, during an event much like the one in the Great Hall, where she broke down and reached out for help.
“Talking about sexual violence is hard. It’s uncomfortable for students, staff, faculty and administrators alike and it just … it just hurts,” she said quietly.
“You have remarkable momentum here; please push harder. Take advantage of this opportunity, this moment, to grow, to learn, to advocate. I beg you, because survivors like me desperately need people like you,” Griffin said. “Without you, there would be no Dr. Rachel Alicia Griffin. My life and potential were in hands like yours.”
It is an institutional duty and responsibility to stand up and educate, she went on. Intervene in the global rape culture. We cannot resist funding supports for survivors just because assault continues to happen, or because the numbers of reported incidents are going up. If the numbers are going up, it doesn’t mean we’re failing. It means we’re doing the work and building a space in which a survivor feels safe to come forward, Griffin explained.
“Your journey against sexual violence must be incessant because we are up against a global rape culture that thwarts and thumps like the game Whack-a-Mole. Institutions are situated in a global culture that continually normalizes and perpetuates sexual violence, in general, and men’s violence against women, in particular,” she added. “Please push harder.”