Miami University: Top Ten Ways to Get Away With Rape

A couple of weeks ago a flier was discovered in the men’s bathroom of a co-ed dorm that read: Top Ten ways to get away with rape.  The list was depicted as an educational tool teaching young men how to rape a woman and how to get away with it.  The flier describes in Rule # 1: “Put drugs in the woman’s drink therefore you won’t be remembered”, #4:  “If a woman’s window is unlocked sneak in and rape her to teach her not to do it again”, #7:  “Practice makes perfect, the more you rape, the better you get”, and last but surly not least #8: “If your afraid the girl will identify you slit her throat.”

On behalf of all women I would like to say fuck you to the students who wrote this disgusting and offensive piece of garbage!

After the flier was found students was not made aware of it because administration said, “it posed no immediate threat”.  How does this flier pose no immediate threat?  Campus police and Oxford police reported that there have been 25 reported sexual assaults in 2012, 5 occurring between September 3rd and October 9th, and 2 of those sexual assaults occurred within 24 hours of the flier being posted.

Students received an email from student body president; Dave Hodge yesterday that expressed his concern and sympathy to anyone they flier may have affected.  This statement took Mr. Hodge two weeks to send out to the students he is supposed to be representing.  Mr. Hodge also proceeded to insert a Youtube video advertising Miami University’s hockey team, stating that the message delivered is what Miami is really about.

So I get it… Miami cares all about their athletics and all about the men on campus but could care less about  sexual assault and gendered oppression.  Just last semester two gay men were jumped and beaten because they were seen holding hands after the LGBTQ services’ annual pride week drag show.  Miami also discriminates against transgendered individuals, a female to male trans student applied for a resident adviser position on a men’s floor and was denied.  However, the RA applicant was offered a position in the gender neutral housing facility that is only available to first year students.  On the Hamilton regional campus a professor who was the academic adviser for the Gay Straight Alliance began getting death threats and hate email after holding a semester long LGBTQ film festival.  Students again were not punished because the emails posed no immediate threat.

I have to ask as a student, why is this oppression still continuing on my campus?  Why should I have to fear rape when I walk home at night?  Why should anyone have to conform to the heteronormative binary discourse that the Miami University imposes onto us?  After all, isn’t it Miami’s goal to offer a safe and welcoming environment for everyone?

Maybe we should consult Mr. Paul Ryan, the Vice Presidential Nominee and running mate to Republican hopeful Governor Mitt Romney.  I wonder what this dynamic duo would have to say about the Alma Mater of Mr. Ryan?  Since there have been no statements about this issue by either candidate, the rape flier must be legitimate!