There are things in life we shouldn’t have to be taught, things that are just common sense: fire is hot, water is wet, hurting people is bad. So I understand some of the confusion over the quickly-spreading “yes means yes” standards and classes on consent and sexual assault. “Don’t rape people” should be an easy enough lesson to learn without specific instruction.
But it’s not enough to not be a rapist - what a depressing standard. We have a social responsibility, all of us, to stop rape. And when schools mandate classes on consent, or states put “yes means yes” laws on the books, it’s not because the people behind those decisions believe that all men are rapists or that people don’t understand that rape is bad. It’s quite the opposite. Wanting everyone to learn about rape is a sign of true optimism. It means that we think most people are capable and caring enough to help stop it.
And while learning about sexual assault won’t end the crime entirely, it will help. So long as that’s the case, rape education should be mandated in schools. (And not just colleges.)
It’s true, a rapist or potential rapist probably won’t turn over a new leaf thanks to a college orientation on sexual assault - research shows that rapists know what they’re doing. Their crimes aren’t borne from confusion or mixed signals, but a deliberate decision to violate another person. But what classes on consent can absolutely do is give people the tools they need to weed rapists out of their communities - to make abusers easier to pick out, and victims easier to help.
Part of that education does need to be a back-to-basics lesson about what constitutes assault. When a high school student does nothing after walking in on an unconscious girl being penetrated because he didn’t understand that to be sexual assault - as happened to be the case in Steubenville, Ohio - we have failed. Or when someone as venerated as a Yale law professor can actually question whether “unconscious sex” should be considered rape, it’s not unreasonable to conclude that we need to do a better job of talking to students - talking to everyone - about rape.
Classes on what rape is and how rapists operate also give young people specific knowledge that helps them to see the warning signs of a potential crime. Bystander intervention, though contentious in feminist circles - has shown an incredible rate of success.
The Green Dot program, for example, showed a 50% reduction of sexual assault and 40% reduction in sexual harassment, stalking and dating violence in the 26 high schools that completed the training. Students could spot someone in trouble before a rape occurred and were trained to intervene accordingly.
It’s not enough to know the basics. It’s not enough to declare yourself not-a-rapist and move on. This problem is bigger than any one individual person and their potential for hurt feelings. If we want to end rape then it’s all hands on deck.
