Joanna Williams: Es gibt keine Rape Culture an britischen Universitäten!

Wer glaubt, die Hysterie angeblich allgegenwärtiger sexueller Übergriffe sei auf amerikanische Universitäten beschränkt, dürfte sich irren. Die Journalistin Joanna Williams macht dasselbe verstörende Phänomen an britischen Hochschulen aus und sieht in dieser Hysterie, nicht in der phantasierten allgegenwärtigen Bedrohung, ein Problem für viele Studentinnen und Studenten. Nachdem unter anderem die #Aufschrei-Kampagne gezeigt hat, wie fruchtbar auch deutscher Boden für diese Stimmung ist, zitiere ich aus Williams Artikel, aus dem sich einige Passagen fast eins zu eins auf Deutschland übertragen lassen:

The statistic most frequently used to prove the existence of rape culture in UK universities is the Hidden Marks claim that ‘nearly one in four’ female students has ‘experienced unwanted sexual contact’. This figure comes from an online survey of 2,058 self-selecting students who would likely have chosen to participate because they were sufficiently interested in the topic. The definition of ‘unwanted sexual contact’ includes kissing and ‘touching, including through clothes’. Whether these students experienced drunken fumbling as unwanted at the time or only labelled it that way the following morning is unclear. Yet unwanted kissing, touching and even name calling are all used as anecdotal evidence to support claims of rape culture. The myth of rape culture relies on assuming an equivalence between rape on the one hand, and pop songs, drinking games, banter and other behaviour until recently derided as ‘laddish’ – now labelled ‘a bit rapey’ – on the other. All of this works to trivialise rape.

(...) The rape culture discourse is premised upon an entirely false view of women as innocent, defenceless victims and men as predatory, potentially violent rapists. Campus campaigns like Lose the Lads Mags and No More Page 3 reinforce the view that women are passive victims of lecherous ‘objectification’, unable to deal with banter, bad songs or boobs. Neither men nor women benefit from this as the everyday, sometimes messy, but often fun experiences integral to growing-up and negotiating adult relationships come to be viewed through a continuum of sexual violence to rape.

(...) Instead of being left alone to grow up, students are being taught that privately negotiating their own sexual relationships is dangerous. This is symptomatic of the way in which the myth of campus rape culture damages student life. Students learn to be suspicious of each other and to revel in their own vulnerability rather than see their time at university as an opportunity to experiment, have fun, make mistakes and grow up. Women have far more to lose from seeing all males as potential rapists than they do from having sex they might later regret.