i know ohlone has the Grey Area: His Date \ Her Rape (the ntid produced film) i know i sent to Gally after the people magazine coverage as i thought it might be helpful but never heard back from anyone there

i believe CSUN has a copy of the program also

if anyone there knows that they want or need a copy – just holler

again thanks for covering this topic

peace

p

Deaf Anonymous, I do not claim to be an expert, though I do have some familiarity in this area. My knowledge was from research and interviews with the advocates of sexual assault survivors. From what I understand, the assaults on males from females do happen on a smaller scale, nothing like males on females. However, I am always learning new things. So if you have statistics, please do feel free to share with me and others here.

Patti, nice to see you. I will check that as I waasn’t aware of the culturally appropriate educational program. You are right. Most of the education on this sensitive topic tailored for hearing people is often not 100% appropriate for people of different cultures, including Deaf Culture. Thanks for bringing that up. By the way, did you ever had a chance to share this with Gallaudet and CSUN, too?

i typed: “That he had raped him.”

it should read “That he had raped HER.” pls feel free to edit \ correct if u can easily do so

if not – then post this

my apologies for any confusion

peace

p

several years ago RIT noticed a higher rate of reporting of sexual assault and sexual harassment on campus by Deaf victims vs. hearing victims so my dept was assigned to produce a video to help in the aiding of prevention of date and acquaintance rape

to view go to:
http://idea3.rit.edu/paddhd/miscvideos/main/SingleVideos/Videosfiles/TheGreyAreaHisDateHerRape.htm

u might have to copy and paste the link if it gets broken in this pasting

the video while dated in terms of clothing and fashion and a lack of diversity, it is still in use at many Deaf schools and continues to receive positive feedback. (over 300 programs ordered this video when it was first released)

when i would have to present the video and lead post film discussions i would see several women in the audience with blank faces – at first i didnt understand it but one by one folks would see me on campus and pull me aside and share their “bad experience” with me

it was heart breaking and especially difficult to imagine that these folks would be encountering this individual often through out their future lives – whereas in the hearing world a victim can usually distance themselves from their experience and their attacker

i also had the occasion of a male student coming nervously to see me. he was visibly upset and had abruptly left the screening of the film in a class but the teacher had excused it by saying he needed to catch a bus. When he met with me he was shaking and stuttering a bit in ASL. I was rapdily trying to figure out if he was a victim or knew someone personally who had been attacked – clealry the film had impacted him.

I waited…

He finally revealed that in watching the film he came to see what his ex-girlfriend had been telling her. That he had raped him. He would not accept this despite having watched other rape videos at her request, he had never seen a video in which the actors were all ASL users and Deaf cultural norms were incorporated into the film – this broke down the barriers and the ability to detach and rationalize so seeing it all Deaf made etc hit him so hard

he was crying in my office

he confessed that he did coerce his girl friend into having sex with him and as a result he has lost her forever.

he was remorseful and ashamed. he was regretful that he had never seen such a video when he was younger as it might have spared him and his girl friend

it was a very enlightening experience for me

actually the whole project really opened my eyes to my own sexism (i had a bias in thinking women who experienced Date rape should have taken better care of themselves and not put themselves into such positions) but being assigned to do a needs assessment before writing the script – i met woman and woman – Deaf smart bright “together” women who had had a “bad experience” some of our leaders some of our role models and it began to understand more of the dynamic of power and relationships

so my first draft script got revised from telling women how to protect themselves to also telling men what their responsibilities and liabilities are

i had so many really amazing conversations with male and female students after the screening of this film in the first year we were getting it out there and i still continue to get comments here and there from folks that it is still in use (which shocks me smile and prompted me to put it up on line so folks can still access it if desired)

there us much to examine and learn in the area of relationship violence

we have made a 2nd video re: hiv \ aids prevention which is very popular also (all Deaf cast and asl and other visual designs in it etc) and also a series of monologues giving a Deaf voice to various types of relationship violence from the Male sex addict, to the CODA in the middle of domestic violence situation of parents, to the male victim of sexual assault etc – this video is called ME TOO

if anyone would like hard copies of these films (VHS only sorry) and they are affiliated with a school or a program or a library – feel free to contact me to request a copy (specify which program u r interested)

mz – sorry if this is advertising – i dont intend to but i do think this topic is important and that education is crticial and seeing ourselves so we understand ourselves better is extremely effective – hence the power of media

if u rather i post it somewhere else – pls advise i understand completely

paddhd at rit.edu

peace

patti

Regardless, there’s lots of underlying reasons, such as the above, behind the powerful and often misleading term-rarity. I don’t use this term loosely.

It is hard though.

Yeah, I’m not surprised. It’s always been
under-reported. Most of the time the officers do not take these kinds of “rape” as serious as they do when it’s a “stranger.” Or, the victim might be embarrassed, thinking it was their fault because they got drunk or whatever other reasons there may be. Are Gallaudet’s security forces trained as far as following proper protocols when it comes to sensitive crimes? Were there improvements since that article came out in People’s magazine?

Comparing Gallaudet Univesity’s annual report with the observation made by Mishka Zena, it seems that the rapes at the university are greatly underreported.

Joseph Pietro Riolo
josephpietrojeungriolo@gmail.com

Public domain notice: I put all of my expressions in this post in the public domain.

Candy, that’s a good idea. I would be surprised if this isn’t mandatory in orientation class, seeing how rampant the sexual assaults are on the campus. Dianrez agrees, too.

Deaf Anonymous. well. Just like everything, there is abuses of the system. However it’s my understanding the abuses of the system is in a minority. Too often, the sexual assaults among the female students have occurred and too frequently these went unreported due to fears of second victimization of the police, campus staff, and the judicial courts. I’ve personally witnessed a campus judicial system victimizing a rape survivor, much to my astonished dismay. Too many rapes on males from the females? Again I think that’s rare, for two obvious reasons: the muscular strength of the males and their ability to control their bodies, though that did happen. However, there are sexual assaults performed on males by other males, which often goes unreported to profound shame.

Would you mind sharing why you felt this way?