Editorial | Stop the silence

Illustrated by Kaz Fantone

On Sept. 12 , two Chapman students who helped Emigdio “Higgy” Vasquez with his Chapman-commissioned mural accused the artist of sexual harassment at the mural’s opening. Protesters gathered, holding signs that said, “Stop the silence” and “You are celebrating my harasser.” One wore a #MeToo shirt.

One student said that Vasquez called her “baby” and contacted her day and night, including a “creepy phone call” which she said caused her to decide to stop helping the artist with the mural.

In August, a Brandman University dean was fired after reporting and advocating against sexual harassment in the workplace, she said. She also accused Brandman, a Chapman-affiliated school, of trying to pay her off in exchange for her silence. She plans to file a wrongful termination suit against the university.

Outcomes like this are a prime example of why many people are still reluctant to report – outing harassers can often jeopardize academic and professional careers, and many believe that it does not improve professional outcomes or psychological health, according to a Journal of Applied Psychology study.

The modern-day movement against sexual harassment and assault began with #MeToo: a simple, two-word hashtag that swept across the nation starting in October 2017, when a New York Times investigation uncovered multiple sexual harassment and abuse allegations made by dozens of women in the film industry.

The hashtag has since become a movement, with women and men everywhere stepping forward and breaking what, for many, had been years of silence. From actresses to college students, from factory workers to entrepreneurs, thousands of survivors have come forward to tell their stories.

For many college-aged students, the #MeToo movement became a national representation of the quiet, insidious nature of rape and harassment culture. That culture is the reason college campuses hold annual events like Chapman’s Clothesline Project, where people who have been victims of sexual violence or harassment are encouraged to decorate shirts that bear their stories.

But an April 2018 Pew Research Study released the wake of the #MeToo movement found that 51 percent of respondents said the increased awareness resulting from the movement wouldn’t make much of a difference in opportunities for women in the workplace.

Much of the #MeToo movement centers around sexual assault – and rightly so, as every 98 seconds, someone in the U.S. is sexually assaulted, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network.

However, in a 2018 survey by Growth From Knowledge, a research company, 77 percent of respondents said they had experienced sexual harassment, compared to 27 percent who had experienced sexual assault. That’s a significant percentage of the population, but despite the national attention, sexual harassment is often glossed over in the college environment.

Because much of the focus of the #MeToo movement has been on traditional post-college workplaces, it’s often forgetten that college can be a workplace, too. Experiencing harassment can be degrading enough on its own, and no one, from art students painting murals to education professors, should have to face the detrimental effects of speaking out – in any work environment.

One of the students who accused Vasquez of sexual harassment said the lack of solutions the university presented her with left her upset and feeling like she needed to protest.

But survivors of assault and harassment shouldn’t have to protest or make public outcries to have their voices heard – they should feel protected by the processes already in place. It’s time to stop the silence.