Sexual Abuse – The Orbital

24Feb

By Noelle SpillmannNo Comments

Features

The Psychology of Sexual Assault

A year after the #MeToo movement the question, ‘Why do people sexually harass people?’ is still ever present and just as complex as when the stories first hit. The movement shed light on sexual harassment in Hollywood – a realm that was formerly perhaps less of a consideration when examining sexual harassment by virtue of being overshadowed by celebrity culture and the ‘open secret’ dimension - and thus provided insight into the abuse of positions of power to coerce sexual relations. As the movement demonstrated, the power dimension of sexual harassment is by no means as unidimensional as it may seem. The relationship between power and sexual harassment is multi-facetted: lack or absence of power can lead to individuals being sexually aggressive, as can being in a position of power or do...

Hashtag Solidarity

On October the 5th the New York Times revealed numerous allegations of sexual assault against Harvey Weinstein, a Hollywood producer. These allegations stretch over three decades and it was revealed that at least eight of them were paid off. Many women have begun to speak out about the harassment they experienced from Weinstein. Among those women are well-known actresses including Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow. The coverage of these allegations encouraged others in the industry to come forward including Jennifer Lawrence and Reese Witherspoon. Alyssa Milano, an actress, tweeted on October the 15th encouraging assault victims to use the hashtag #metoo to demonstrate how huge the problem of sexual assault is in 2017. She says “This was really about showing this happens everywhere. That ...

It’s Time to Consent

Watching Frozen for the millionth time, I’m still surprised that Kristoff asks Anna whether he may kiss her. Expecting the hero to seize a victory smooch, I realised we’ve long forgone consent because we’re not used to seeing or asking for it. Here was a Disney film portraying consent for a kiss, when 55 years ago the kiss in Sleeping Beauty was metaphor to obscure the character’s rape. Our popular culture, which so heavily socialises us, has brushed over the need for consent. We’re all given Sex Ed. at primary school, and talking about sex becomes as ordinary as a DFS sofa sale. So it’s disappointing that university students find drunken hook-ups less awkward than talking about consent. It’s defined as “agreeing by choice and having the freedom and capacity to make that choice.” ...