Speaking on October 14 to a packed auditorium, Peggy Reeves Sanday, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, addressed faculty, students and administrators on the issue of campus date rape. Her talk, entitled " `Working a Yes Out': The Causes and Consequences of Violence Against Women," was sponsored by IROW, Women's Studies and the Student Association Women's Issues Office.
Beginning by referring to the disturbingly high incidence of rape in the United States, the results of one study suggesting that twelve million American women will be the victims of forcible rape during their lifetimes, Sanday expressed concern that too many people define sexual assault and rape as "normal sexual behavior."
After relating several specific incidents of sexual coercion and assault drawn from her own experience and from her research, she challenged the notions of biological determinism sometimes used to explain violent and coercive sexual behavior. Instead, Sanday pointed to environments and attitudes that program men to think about sex as a commodity. "Rape," she explained, "is not an integral part of male nature, but is often used to induct younger men into male roles."
This emphasis on culture makes Sanday hopeful that we can begin to transform America into a rape-free society. She argued that as members of campus communities, we must begin here to reinforce the value of community and responsibility for others and to rethink "the dictatorship of male bonding" that institutions such as fraternities promote.
In closing, Sanday called for a new vision of sexuality that rejects coercion and instead promotes compassion, intimacy and equality. Continuing to address the issue of coercive sex in an afternoon seminar, Professor Sanday described the content and methodology of her book-in-progress on the St. John's University rape case and trial. Seeking to understand why three of the defendants were acquitted, she argued that the "sexual genres" of popular culture led many, including the jurors, to deny that the young men involved had committed a crime.