There are 3 steps in social change movements: awareness, attitudes, behaviors. If everyone saw this film, we’d suddenly be able to focus on attitude and behavior… which is a huge leap.
12 years ago, when I began speaking out about how the prevention of sexual assault on college campuses was a men’s issue… I had to bring entire rooms full of young men up to speed about the reality of the epidemic and the complicit nature we all have in the culture of rape at college. I have since led 300+ workshops and I wish I could go back and make every person in my audiences sit through a pre-screening of “The Hunting Ground” before attending.
This is a film about the hypocrisy of the university system. It shows how the system incentivizes universities to protect their own reputation, their alumni donations from fraternities, and the image of their athletic programs before protecting students – particularly but not limited to women.
When I first arrived at a top university, I assumed that “rape didn’t happen” in civilized societies like a well-funded upper class private university. I was wrong. Rape culture is really entitlement culture… here’s a good primer on rape culture if that’s a new term to you… and entitlement knows no socioeconomic border. This film exposes the upper echelon of our most esteemed universities and their ongoing position as Institution vs. Survivor in these cases (and there are countless).
There are 3 steps in social change movements: awareness, attitudes, behaviors.
If everyone saw this film, we’d suddenly be able to focus on attitude and behavior… which is a huge leap.
My only concern with this film is that it does not address the beginning of the issue. As is so often the case, we see people who are hurt and we want to heal them… which is valid and healthy and honest; but this film never talks about the process of preventing the pain from ever happening in the first place.
The film leaves me feeling more hopeless and helpless upon leaving the theater, despite the incredible courage of our protagonists, who have created a system that allows students to easily file Title IX complaints against their universities and thereby begin the process of legislative and judicial triage.
The truth of the matter is… there is hope. In order to prevent rape, we have to prevent rape culture. The key element of preventing rape culture? Understanding what masculinity means and how it is formed culturally so we can make it cool to be a good man… thus, the value of movements like The Good Men Project, President Obama’s action on this issue, and campaigns like Man Up.
This is a beautiful, tragic, canary-in-the-coal-mine type of film. I’m so glad it was made and I hope it does as well at the Oscars as it has done this year at Sundance. Just remember, there is something you can do to help prevent sexual assault.