A protester holds a #MeToo sign at a march.
This October marks the one year anniversary of the #MeToo movement and is also Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The University of Arizona Consortium on Gender-Based Violence is working to combat all forms of sexual and domestic violence.
The consortium, which works within the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, focuses on research, education, training and support services for survivors of sexual violence, domestic and dating violence, harassment and stalking.
The consortium's Amalia Mora says the #MeToo movement has been helpful in changing the conversation about sexual violence.
VIEW LARGER Amalia Mora, with the University of Arizona Consortium on Gender-Based Violence. "People are no longer just talking about sexual assault. People are talking about the nuances of sexual violence — the fact that sexual violence exists on a spectrum where, I guess, rape exists as the worst kind, if you will, and things like harassment or even sexual coercion are the more, quote-unquote, benign forms."
She says there's also a greater cultural conversation underway.
"And it's also raised the conversation of just male entitlement in general. I think that ultimately sexual assault is just part of a larger cultural fabric of male entitlement. This idea that men are deserving of anything that they want, whether it's the best job, or the seat at the table, the loudest voice in the conversation or a woman's body."
Mora says recognizing these cultural patterns is a good first step in eradicating them.
One of those patterns Mora is attempting to highlight is the connection between sexual violence and domestic violence.
"It's easy to think of that stranger in the alley. The reality is that most sexual assaults are perpetrated by people we know. Thirty-five percent of college-aged women who are sexually assaulted are sexually assaulted within the context of a domestic violence experience," she says.
Mora emphasizes that gender-based violence is not just physical violence.
"How many men do we know who distinguish between women that they like and women they like to sleep with? How many men do we know who can't even acknowledge when a woman makes a good point, let alone a better point than his own? Or, who joke about her appearance and who joke about her age."
Mora says that men will often make jokes at the expense of women and chock it up to harmless humor.
"And yes, they may be doing it as a kind of posturing ... as a way to impress other men, and if it didn't impact women, if it didn't actually harm women, then we could be having a different conversation. We could still be saying, 'This is just about their insecurities, so let's try to heal them.' Which is an important conversation to have, but it harms women."
When asked what she would say to critics who say that the #MeToo movement has overstepped its bounds, she says, "To those men who might say this has gone too far, I would say it hasn't gone far enough."
The consortium, in collaboration with the office of the dean of students, has spearheaded the UA's new survivor advocacy program. Two survivor advocates will be available as of fall 2018 to provide confidential support for survivors of sexual violence, domestic violence, dating violence, sexual harassment and/or stalking, with a primary focus on student survivors. Support services will be provided at the Women and Gender Resource Center.
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