#MiddToo: A Movement Lost and Found
Try screaming for 51 seconds straight. It seems like a nearly impossible feat, unless you have something worth screaming about. On Saturday, October 6th, hours after Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court, hundreds of emotional Middlebury Students gathered outside Mead Chapel to scream for the survivors of sexual assault whose voices are continuously silenced. They screamed for 51 seconds, in response to each of the 51 senators who voted to confirm Kavanaugh to the highest court of the land despite the allegations of sexual violence against him. The students’ cries went far from unnoticed, sparking much larger conversations about rape culture and gender inequality at Middlebury College.
At Middlebury, Kavanaugh’s confirmation has meant a resurfacing of the #MiddToo movement against sexual violence on campus, created last December by students Emma Schoblocher and Vee Duong. #MiddToo, inspired by last year’s #MeToo and #Time’sUp movements, aims to elicit conversations surrounding the actions of alleged perpetrators at Middlebury, but also the “complicity of the Middlebury Community as a whole” in tolerating sexual assault on campus, according to a statement issued by the Sexual and Relationship Respect (SRR) Committee. Now more than ever, survivors and student activists are saying “Midd Too” to reject the notion that sexual assault doesn’t happen on Middlebury’s campus, widely known for its hard-working and morally upstanding student body. “We have to stop pretending like there aren’t rapists at this college, because there are, and we are putting more students in danger the longer we do nothing about it,” said a female student who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Middlebury students took to all corners of campus to stand in solidarity with survivors of sexual assault in the wake of Kavanaugh’s confirmation. Maybe you saw the “WE BELIEVE SURVIVORS” signs plastered on the dining hall walls, or the bolded “#MiddToo” chalk writings inscribed on the sidewalks of Mead Chapel Hill. Perhaps, on Friday, the day before the Senate vote, you were one of hundreds of students wearing all black to support survivors of sexual violence, or witnessed the on-campus protests where the formerly voiceless ripped tape from their mouths to reclaim the sense of agency and dignity that their assaults so brutally stripped them of. “The past week has taken a toll on many in our community,” read an email the SRR Committee sent to the school. “The Supreme Court Senate hearings have once again sent a message that survivors do not need to be taken seriously.”
The #MiddToo Movement has come a long way in attempting to change this climate, as it has certainly served as a call to action for students and survivors of sexual assault at Middlebury and beyond. For a long time, survivors defined their own sexual harassment as something unspoken, private, and not to be acknowledged under any circumstances. Now, survivors are speaking up about their experiences, not only in the hopes that perpetrators will be held accountable, but also to stop the pervasiveness of sexual harassment and gender inequality on campus once and for all. Events on campus such as “It Happens Here” have given survivors a platform to tell their stories so they might echo far past the reaches of Wilson Auditorium. In addition, the first of many support group meetings for survivors of sexual assault took place at the Parton Health Center on October 25th, giving victims a chance to crack the stiff emotional front many have had to put up for so long.
The Title IX office also felt the aftershock of Kavanaugh’s confirmation. Phone calls from survivors and alumni inspired by Christine Blasely Ford’s testimony flooded Title IX coordinator Sue Ritter’s mailbox, some describing experiences dating back to as far as 1983. “It’s been an empowering experience for people who graduated years ago to finally be able to pick up the phone and make a report,” said Ritter, who left her position as Title IX coordinator to become special assistant to president Laurie Patton, beginning November 15th. These reports are now to be included in the crime statistics that the college is mandated to release under the Cleary Act, which requires colleges receiving any amount of federal funding to disclose this information to the federal government.
While the #MiddToo movement has made massive strides in addressing an epidemic that many elite institutions simply push under the rug, students note there is still a long way to go, as this surge of activism on campus did not receive overwhelming support from all sides. Two suitemates got their own bitter taste of the interplay between power and sex on Middlebury’s campus after certain male students repeatedly tore down the signs they hung up reading, “WE BELIEVE SURVIVORS!” After someone repeatedly smudged the message inked on their white board, they decided to put up real signs instead. Within hours, the suitemates woke to a male student tearing the sign to shreds and casually walking away. “It stings, but it’s not surprising,” said suitemate Juliana Dunn. “We’d like to expect more, but we’ve been here long enough to know we can’t do that.”
Another issue that the #MiddToo movement is attempting to tackle is the underlying assumption that it is primarily white, able-bodied women who are sexually assaulted at Middlebury. This lack of intersectionality in addressing sexual harassment on campus is of grave concern to survivors and student activists, as LGBTQ populations and people of color are disproportionately affected by sexual assault compared to their white cis-gendered counterparts, according to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network. In addition, men who are sexually assaulted at Middlebury rarely come forward due to the heteronormative climate that they feel dictates campus culture. “I guess it would challenge a lot of the beliefs we have about ourselves,” one male student, who chose to remain anonymous, said about reporting. “Men have to be strong; there’s no room for them to be vulnerable.”
The global reach of the #MeToo and #Time’sUp movements was not the only factor that prompted the creation of #MiddToo. Last December, a senior student came out with a Facebook post that rocked the typically dull finals-week scene at Middlebury. “The List,” as students now commonly refer to it, contained the names of alleged perpetrators on campus, as well as the degrees of their offenses, ranging from verbal assault to serial rape. The post broke the long-maintained silence surrounding the actions of individual perpetrators at Middlebury.
That week before winter break, a wave of survivors used the momentum created by the list to come forward and say “Midd Too.” By the time students returned to campus in January, however, the movement appeared, almost immediately, to “lose its urgency,” said junior Ayesha Bhala. Classes resumed, and the hustle and bustle of everyday life placed the list as old news in the back of students’ minds. Those accused threatened to sue the school, the student who posted “The List” received disciplinary sanctions, and that was that from the administrative level.
Among students, however, the list initiated a larger discussion about the lack of institutional sanctions for crimes of sexual violence. Survivors say they are hesitant to take up sexual harassment cases with the administration, as many are convinced that the institution’s obligation to protect its brand takes precedence over students’ humanity in the reporting process. “It just sometimes feels like I’m pushing against a brick wall,” said co-creator of the #MiddToo movement, Emma Schoblocher.
When it comes to reporting cases, students say that those they know who have had experience with the process find it to be more traumatizing than the actual assault in many instances. Former Title IX Coordinator Sue Ritter whole-heartedly acknowledges this dilemma, noting that the office often finds its hands tied when conducting a thorough investigation to recognize the rights of the accused, while simultaneously respecting the survivor’s needs. “At the end of the day, when a case is over, it is so important for us to say that it was handled fairly and with the utmost integrity,” said Ritter. “When we compromise fairness, that hurts everybody — whoever’s involved.”
Because Middlebury receives some federal funding, the college’s reporting guidelines follow federal Title IX statutes for responding to cases of sexual harassment, which emphasize the impartiality of an investigation to ensure a fair process. This, Ritter says, ultimately makes the process less grueling by reducing the probability of court-involved legal retaliation from either party. The problem, students claim, is that assailants are often merely found to violate policies such as the “respectful behavior” policy while victims’ dignities may be forever compromised.
As part of the #MiddToo movement, student organizations are also looking to change the way, and extent to which, consent and bystander intervention are being taught on campus. Currently, groups such as Feminist Action at Middlebury and the Sexual and Relationship Respect Committee are working together to push the reform of Green Dot at Middlebury. Green Dot is a national bystander intervention program that “trains students, faculty, and staff in bystander intervention to help prevent instances of power-based personal violence,” as the Middlebury Green Dot website reads. However, many students feel that Green Dot severely downplays the prevalence of sexual assault on campus, as students are seen laughing in the program video, and everyone at the trainings is referred to as a potential bystander rather than a potential perpetrator. There is also a danger in the allure of Green Dot merchandise, students note, as perpetrators could easily hide behind Green Dot t-shirts and stickers on the backs of their phones and computers.
The road ahead is a long one, but the #MiddToo movement has certainly succeeded in doing what it originally set out to: to empower women, and men, who are assaulted to raise their hands and fight back against a climate that they feel attempts to conceal the prevalence of sexual predation at the college. Ultimately, students recognize that they need to assume the responsibility of combatting rape culture on campus and the gendered power dynamics that coincide with it. In the end, the power lies within students to speak for the voiceless, to stand up for those whose experiences are consistently belittled, and to fight for those who are continuously marginalized. Today, tomorrow, and every day after, they will stand together until they have bred a culture that teaches “don’t assault” instead of “don’t get assaulted.”
