Before you ask, No. I’m not writing about the poor student attendance at the MSU game on Saturday.
Think of five women you know. Statistically, one of them will be raped in their lifetime. One in four women will experience domestic violence in their lifetime. About 1 in 5 women are targets of attempted or completed sexual assault while they are college students.
Violence against women is not a joke. Those numbers are not an exaggeration. Those statistics represent real women – mothers, daughters, sisters, friends, nieces, and aunts – who are victims of terrible crimes.
That’s why I was embarrassed and ashamed at last Saturday’s Michigan State University football game as fans in the stadium collectively booed an anti-sexual assault PSA that was played on the big screen between quarters.
I wrote a blog last week on October 1st marking the start of Domestic Violence Awareness month. I mentioned an anti-sexual assault PSA from the White House that places responsibility for prevention on perpetrators, not victims. As part of that campaign, the White House recently released a new anti-sexual assault PSA called “It’s On Us,” which was played at the MSU game on Saturday.
The White House PSA campaign is a huge step forward in ending victim blaming, and raising awareness about violence against women by calling on all of us to take responsibility for putting a stop to it. The reaction to the PSA by the crowd at the MSU football game shows me that we still have a long way to go.
To recognize that non-consensual sex is sexual assault.
To identify situations in which sexual assault may occur.
To intervene in situations where consent has not or cannot be given.
To create an environment in which sexual assault is unacceptable and survivors are supported.
It’s been 20 years since the Violence Against Women Act was passed, but thousands of women and men still experience physical abuse in their lifetime – 85 percent of domestic violence victims are women. Ignorantly booing a PSA that attempts to raise awareness of and change our victim blaming culture is no way to create an environment in which violence against women is unacceptable.
Thank you for this post. I was at the game and SHOCKED at the booing.
I was in the student section at the game during the PSA and I remember being so bewildered when people started booing. I can confirm that about 3/4 of the attendees were blind drunk and that the booing started the second President Obama went on the screen to personally endorse the “It’s on us” campaign. They booed the president, not necessarily the campaign, but it shows that people weren’t even listening to what he was even trying to say. It just goes to show what the political atmosphere is in this country.
I thought it was just the Nebraska fans that booed. That was my perception from where I was sitting. I wasn’t close to the student section, though. I can’t speak to their actions. I was shocked and bewildered by the booing as well. The previous week, the exact same ad ran and there was no booing.
This happened at the Michigan State game yesterday too. Sexual assault is not a partisan issue. If a random person was up on the big screen instead of Obama and spoke out against sexual assault, nobody would boo. It wouldn’t make any sense. Booers need to start listening to voices instead of judging faces