Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil
As I began learning about implicit bias and how it relates to intimate assault I was shocked. Implicit Biases are subconscious judgments and stereotypes that we use to create a perception of a person. Many times implicit biases are based on race, clothing, age, and gender. Perhaps most interesting and sobering to me as I examine implicit biases are those relating to gender.
According to the Utah Department of Health one in three women will be the victim of some form of sexual assault in her lifetime. The Cougar’s article, Battling Sexual Assault on Campus, revealed shocking statistics. One in four women will be sexually assaulted on college campuses in their undergraduate years. 50% of these incidents go unreported. 25.6% of eyewitnesses claim that they did nothing because they didn’t know what to do, 75.7% of bystanders simply did nothing to stop the assault from happening. These statistics shocked and repulsed me.
Rapes and sexual assaults are occurring at shockingly high rates. I believe that in order for these statistics to change we must change our implicit biases. No longer can we allow women to be shamed and victimized. No longer can we allow stereotypes of masculinity to teach violence and control.
In September 2014, Emma Watson, Goodwill Ambassador for UN Women, presented a smart, moving, and unprecedented speech on gender equality. In her speech Watson stated: “We don’t often talk about men being imprisoned by gender stereotypes, but I can see that they are, and that when they are free, things will change for women as a natural consequence. If men don’t have to be aggressive in order to be accepted, women won’t feel compelled to be submissive. If men don’t have to control, women won’t have to be controlled.”
In order to stop intimate assault we must change the implicit biases that we hold for men and for women, truly seeing them as equals. When men don’t have to uphold the gender stereotypes pressed on them by society both men and women will change “as a natural consequence”
We must see no evil- by opening our eyes to what is happening around us and consciously changing how we view people to stop our natural biases. We must hear no evil- by turning away from things that normalizes sexual violence and rape culture including ‘locker room talk’. We must speak no evil- by reporting incidences of sexual assault and raising our voices to promote change, because now is the time for change.
