American Horror Story

A friend and I had just finished an episode of American Horror Story when he stood up to leave.

One glance out the window at the vacant street below and a knot of apprehension formed in my stomach.

“Please don’t walk — please take a cab,” I said.

My friend arrived safely, so when the sun rose the next morning I was ribbed for my overprotection. I was willing to concede I acted silly when someone quipped, “He was fine, he’s not a girl.”

The knot came back, but this time it was irritation.

I feel the freshman class has an inaccurate sense of safety on campus.

When a feminist blogger posted on Tumblr her “university teaches ‘How to Avoid Getting Raped’ instead of ‘Don’t Rape’ at freshman orientation,” I counted the IU class of 2017 lucky.

The famous “Welcome to College” musical effectively combated a large handful of stereotypes and misconceptions about sexual assault.

Nationally, the statistics are grim.

The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics reported one in six American women have experienced rape or an attempted rape, and more than a quarter of college-aged women have experienced sexual assault.

In Bloomington, we are safer than we’re led to believe.

According to the Campus Safety and Security Data Analysis Cutting Tool presented by the U.S. Department of Education, the frequency of sexual assault on IU’s campus has declined in recent years.

The number of sexual assaults has shrunk by half, from 21 to 11, since 2009, while occurrences of burglary almost tripled.

But do you ever hear of a college girl worrying about having her wallet stolen?

Of the freshmen women I’ve talked to, all have either stated or implied they’re significantly more worried about being alone at night than their male counterparts and that there are good reasons to worry.

I can blame the media. Gender roles and victim stereotypes are too easily reinforced with provocative characters and crime scenes.

With victim-blaming, the media makes rape seem like an inevitable side effect of foolishness.

I know I’m not the only woman who has looked out from her dorm window and seen nothing but fear. But why was I so scared?

Was it just because I had watched American Horror Story, or because that’s the nature of sexual assault and its resulting stereotypes?

­— sbkissel@indiana.edu
Follow columnist Sarah Kissel on Twitter @QueSarahSarah.