Sarah Stein: Sexism groundwork for assault

Ned Barnett’s Sept. 20 column “Student’s essay stirs a storm” appeared just one day before the release of the American Association of Universities’ survey of 150,000 college students on sexual violence and harassment. The survey showed more than 25 percent experienced sexual violence in four years of college, and 27 percent experienced unwanted sexual contact. The women brave enough to report are subject to denunciations of their characters.

As Barnett’s column revealed, the usual suspects similarly rallied to silence Blake Dodge for her depiction of the daily experience of women, young and old. The “acceptable” subtle sexism she reports on lays the ground for the rape and sexual assaults we see in such staggering numbers. The two are related.

The AAU report noted that most sexual harassment and assaults are not reported because of the violence of the efforts to keep women silenced and the failure of authorities to treat them seriously by taking action to stop the predators.

I agree wholeheartedly with Barnett. Dodge will look back 20 years from now with well-deserved pride at being willing to state what so many want to virulently deny: Women are constantly subject to a wide range of actions designed to keep them at risk of verbal and sexual abuse.

This story was originally published October 5, 2015 at 5:29 PM with the headline "Sarah Stein: Sexism groundwork for assault."