About 70 participants marched through Athens in the third Annual F--kRapeCulture Homecoming March and Rally.
“Survivors shouldn’t live in fear, get the rapists out of here.”
This chant, among others, echoed through Uptown Athens on Friday as members of F--kRapeCulture and its supporters marched the streets as part of its third annual Homecoming march and rally.
Accompanied by the Athens Police Department and the Ohio University Police Department, the group of about 70 participants walked through Mill Street and Court Street before ending their march on College Green at the Civil War Monument.
Though FRC was not able to acquire a parade permit from the city, police did not stop the participants from marching in the streets. A police vehicle drove in front of the participants while officers on foot helped stop oncoming traffic onto Court Street.
Once at the monument, speakers took to the statues to give remarks addressing various aspects and intersections of sexual violence.
Hannah Koerner, a junior studying English, spoke first and listed some of FRC’s demands, including guaranteed funding for OU’s Survivor Advocacy Program, Better Bystander Interventions and Safezone Training being provided for learning communities, and improved education for mandated reporters on their roles and responsibilities.
“We believe these changes can make this campus a better place for survivors and a campus where sexual assault is less frequent,” Koerner said.
Casi Arnold, an OU junior and resident assistant for two years, spoke about aspects of rape culture they see every day in the residence halls.
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“I hear people, residents and other RAs more concerned about the feelings of rapists than the lives of victims or survivors,” Arnold said. “It’s this mindset that makes survivors feel invalidated, that turns the residence halls into a war zone, a plastic mattress into something that looks more like a time bomb.”
Sasha Gough, a sophomore studying creative writing, spoke about her experiences with OU administration and rape culture. She said she attended a campus conversation on sexual assault and asked the process of reporting an assault, but wasn’t provided with an answer.
“That’s not their fault, it’s the people in charge,” Gough said. “If we can’t trust them to tell us what we need to do to feel safe, I don’t trust them at all.”
Paul Eselgroth, a senior studying computer science, talked about the intersections of sexual violence with race, gender and sexual orientation. He said male survivors are often dismissed or belittled, adding that over two dozen murders of transgender women have happened this year alone.
“I don’t think we have many people here today who would dispute the idea that we do indeed live in a culture that tolerates, excuses and normalizes rape and devalues and dehumanizes the non-male, the non-straight, the non-cis, the non-white,” Eselgroth said.
Oliver Stone, FRC member and junior studying English and psychology, talked about the problems with society’s concept of masculinity.
“Society … says that to be a man you need to be powerful and take what you desire,” he said. “This idea has got to go.”
Representatives from People’s Justice League, a group that works to end personal violence and oppression in Southeast Ohio, also attended the march and rally.
Sarah Fick, one of the representatives, spoke about how students can report incidents of sexual violence that they’d like to warn others about on the league’s website.
“If you think you have something people need to know, put it in there, we’ll share it around,” she said. “Anyone who supports the same mission that we do, we’re going to support you.”
Alyssa Ensminger, a member of FRC and junior studying biological sciences, shared her personal experiences with sexual assault.
“I do not tell you these things to evoke pity, nor for shock value,” Ensminger said. “I choose to tell you these things because I think sometimes we lose sight of why we are fighting the things we are fighting.”
Ensminger called for compassion for survivors of sexual assault.
“(Have) compassion for the survivors who couldn’t get out of bed this morning, compassion for the survivors that feel okay for a single moment to disclose a piece of their story,” she said. “Compassion for the survivors processing what happened to them for the first time and compassion for the survivors having to process what happened to them for the billionth.”
Patty Stokes, assistant professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies at OU, attended the rally.
“Some people call this radical. But what’s really radical about not wanting to get raped or groped walking down the street?” she said after the rally. “What’s wrong with wanting to feel safe walking down the street of the city where you live?”
—Maddie Peck and Kaitlin Fochesato contributed to this report.
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