Hannah Chosid
Untitled, 2019
Linocut Print, 10.5x15in
This piece was a project for RCARTS287 (Printmaking) and tells a story about campus sexual assault. I am passionate about this issue and involved in sexual assault prevention on campus broadly, but specifically in Greek life. Over spring break, I read a book called Sexual Citizens, which is a study out of Columbia that is the biggest study of campus sexual assault to date. Much of the study focused on how access to space on campus (what they termed "sexual geographies") can facilitate assault; for example, fraternities and upperclassmen control spaces where more vulnerable students — i.e. underclassmen and women — gather, drink, and party, creating an imbalanced power dynamic. Because more vulnerable students do not control spaces where they drink and party, they are often left in unsafe situations. Additionally, another large portion of the book was dedicated to discussing consent practices among students. Most universities now teach students that consent must be "affirmative," so consent must be given verbally, rather than being the absence of a "no." However, these researchers found that students rarely practiced this gold standard of affirmative consent. Rather, many relied on body language to confirm that another person was interested in/agreeing to sex.
