Attached is the story "What's In the Juice" and the photo.
Photo courtesy of thedrinksbusiness.com
Students have begun preparing for finals and upcoming parties hosted by male organizations on campus. With the rise of the hype for the parties on social media, comes the rise of unconscious participation in rape culture.
Whether some students know it or not, their ways of promoting parties are a part of rape culture. Rape culture refers to your environment desensitizing sexual assault or rape with or without knowing it through music, tv shows, jokes, actions, or the way that men and women are viewed in certain settings.
For example, the way drunk men and women are viewed as a good night of fun for sexual purposes.
Definitions.net defines rape culture behaviors as “victim blaming, sexual objectification, trivializing rape, denial of widespread rape, refusing to acknowledge the harm of some forms of sexual violence, or some combination of these.”
A common way that these parties participate is not just the fact that they’re having a party–that’s harmless fun. The problem is in the promotion tactics.
Often, prominent figures of these male dominant organizations resort to social media to draw students to their party by promising strong alcohol, not with the intentions to have fun with friends, but in hopes that sexual activities could take place after the party.
EconoFact’s article titled “Football, College Party Culture, and Sexual Assault” stated that alcohol-fueled parties present a situation where there is a lot of interaction among people in diminished or distorted cognitive state. The CSA study reports that more than half of incapacitated rapes reported by college women occur at parties and that a majority of perpetrators were under the influence of alcohol.
The use of provocative photos of women on fliers further worsens the case. When a college student sees a half-naked woman on a flier that promotes large amounts of alcohol, it affirms rape culture.
Kiera Mitchell, a sophomore accounting major, attended a juice girl interest meeting just to see how these organizations promote their parties.
“It was extremely predatory in a way, they’re requirements to be involved was oversexualized,” Mitchell said. “I was extremely turned off by it after they required that all women who participated in the night be natural born females. They didn’t have a valid reason for that in my opinion,” she said.
Aside from the over sexualized view of women and poorly planned promotion, prominent figures in these organizations promote their parties to peers by telling them there will be girls and alcohol via Twitter posts, so they should “DEFINITELY” want to come now right?
“My first reason for going to juice parties is because of the alcohol, my second is because of all the girls that will be there. Girls and alcohol mixed together is the reason,” said Mychael Taylar, a freshman industrial engineering major.
Despite the harmless intentions of the individual, motivating people to attend a party with alcohol followed by suggestions to plan their hook-ups beforehand is a harmful tactic.
In most safe sex courses, students are taught consent can’t be given under the influence by anyone involved. A pre-planned hookup before a juice party will NOT stand in court either, if either party feels they have been raped or sexually assaulted following the encounter.