Mario Arvanitidis
Upon reading Normalizing Sexual Violence I was shocked and suprised to say the least with the findings of the study which was geared towards male sexual aggression towards females. What suprised me the most were the explicit interviews and the age of these young girls being harassed in what we should consider safe settings such as schools and school busses. The study does a great job in exposing the negative influence which patriarchy has on the “culture of sex”. Hlavka asserts that, “Girls in this study said they did not want to make a ‘big deal’ out of their experiences and rarely reported these incidents to persons in authority” (346). This mindset is terribly wrong, with the notion that these situations can escalate the more they go unreported. It is essential that females are made aware of the difference between mere flirting and sexual harassment. Hlavka states that, ” Harassment was dangerously constructed as romance and flirting” (345). With this misconstrued concept, males are given freedom to violate females without the worry of consequence because the harassment is viewed as flirting. Males and females alike should be educated on the difference between innocent flirting and sexual harassment and in general to respect eachother’s personal space. In the case of 14 year old Janice, who was sexually harassed by a “30-something-year-old” monster named Matt, I stress again the need for females to report any such activity to authorities. Whether they believe it was normal or not, girls need to be informed that nobody is to violate their personal space without their consent. I also believe that parents should take the time to talk with their children about sex and make them feel comfortable with the idea that it is normal and natural to have sexual urges. I know this is hard and may be awkward at first for both the parent and the child, however this may help a child be more suseptible to report such sexual harassment and keep monsters like Matt from violating future victims.
