Reasearch Question: Are men ignorant to sexual assault and how common/serious it is?

This question is posed to find out if men really do see the reality of the problem women
face everyday, aka sexual assault and harrasment. Not many guys I talk to realize how rare it is
for a woman not to experience some kind of sexaul harrasement. Now is it just these few men
that I’ve spoken to that don’t understand the severity of the females predicament? Or is it, in
reality, an epidemic problem within our society that ignores and dismisses the issue women face
throughout their whole lives?

Geller, J., Geller, M., Blumenthal, E., Barstein, L. (2017, October 31). Recognize pattern

of male ignorance toward sexual assault. Retrieved from

https://www.thejustice.org/article/2017/10/recognize-pattern-of-male-ignorance-t

oward-sexual-assault.

This article, ​Recognize Pattern of Male Ignorance Toward Sexual Assault​ by the authors
Blumenthal, E., Bartein, L., Geller, J., and Geller, M. from The Justice newspaper (2017) mostly
talks about the critically acclaimed director Harvey Weinstein as an example of how men have
gotten far too comfortable with the idea that they can use their power and authority to manipulate
women into having sexual affairs with them. The article talks about how the world of film is
polluted with stories of sexual assault and a lot of stories in the tabloids have come from actors
speaking out against their oppressors who would have destroyed their career if they didn’t sleep
with them.

However, this article used that example to show that this doesn’t just happen in Holly
Wood, so many men use their advantages in their career to get what they want from women. The
authors talk about how the #metoo movement was created so females from every corner of the
world could speak out and share their story of sexaul assault. That could be from cat calls to rape
to all the things that happen in-between. The sad thing is most men just thinks this happens in
magazines and news articles, but it happens to their friends and their colleagues. In the article,
Blumenthal et al., says that some men wouldn’t even imagine that something like that would
happen so close to home and to “people they wouldn’t even suspect” (Recognize Pattern of Male
Ignorance Toward Sexual Assault).” The authors Blumenthal et al., goes on to talk about how
our society is okay with the fact that people joke about sexaul assault, but we need to become
more “socially consious” (Recognize Pattern of Male Ignorance Toward Sexual Assault), when it
comes to the “actions of men against women” (Recognize Pattern of Male Ignorance Toward
Sexual Assault).
 This article believes that men are ignorant to sexaul assault because most don’t even
know that it’s happening to the women all around them. That every 98 seconds an American gets
sexaully assaulted (found in the article above). She uses a lot of ethos using peoples experiences
of sexaul assault to show that my question is based in reality, which sort of ties with her use of
logos but she also uses more facts and statistics about sexaul assault as well like the one I stated
above. Then she uses pathos when she talks the empowerment of women and how we need to
make a better change. She uses anger to stir the want of justice within you and she does a good
job of it too.

Drexler, P. (2017, December 11). Are men really clueless about sexual harassment?

Retrieved From

https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/22/opinions/what-part-of-sexual-harassment-dont-

men-understand-drexler/index.html.

The article ​Are Men Really Clueless About Sexual Harassment ​by Peggy Drexler from
CNN (2017) starts the same way as the previous one because it gives examples of men in power
who have had women claim they sexaully assaulted them. However the author goes more in
depth with the facts and the sources backing that men just don’t understand how serious is it to
sexaully assault women. In fact lots of men don’t even know what constitutes as sexually
harassing a woman. She talks about how men can’t tell the difference between courting vs
harassing and all the “grey areas in-between” (Drexler 2017).

Drexler then goes on to talk about that misunderstanding is not an excuse for mens
behavior and shouldn’t be the simple get-away-with-it card so men can be off the hook from
their actions. Saying you didn’t mean it or you didn’t know it was sexual harassment doesn’t
justify how you made that women feel. She gives a couple of examples of men using this excuse
and then just getting away with it. Now while these men know that sexual harrasement is a thing
because they are the ones forcing toungues down women’s throats, there are men who just think
that it’s what the “dominant sex does (Drexler 2017).” That they’re even supposed to cat-call
women as they walk down the street and they’re supposed to keep pushing even though she
rejects them, it’s just women flirting.

This a strong source to back the fact that men are ignorant to sexual assault, they don’t
even know what it is! They don’t know what they are and aren’t supposed to do when trying to
find a significant other. She uses a lot of logos to persuade the reader that this isn’t just people
saying stuff, it's a biological fact. Men will cat-call and comment on women’s appearances just
like how a male monkey will scream at female mokey to get their attention. However even
though it is biological, it doesn’t make it okay for anybody to go and violate another humans
personal space. I think she’s writing this to everybody, not just women. I mean her whole point is
that we need to have more conversations about sexal assault so that men can’t get away with the
excuse of, well I didn’t know that she wasn’t going to like it, or something dumb like that. It’s
really effective.

Board, The Editorial. “Sexual Abuse Isn't Partisan.” ​The New York Times​, The New

York Times, (19 Sept. 2018),

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/18/opinion/editorials/kavanaugh-trump-republi

can-sexual-abuse-.html.

The article ​Sexual Assault Isn’t Partisan ​by The Editorial Board from the New York
Times written on September 19, 2018 is a hard hitting expose` on men in our government who
have taken part in the sexaul harrassment epidemic. That includes one of our own senators from
Utah Orrin Hatch. Their point is to show that men will go to great lengths to “prove” victims
wrong and how other men will readily agree with them just because they’re men and they don’t
think that sexault assault is real. The article is about men who don’t respect women and instantly
write off every woman as overdramatic or a liar.

Another one of these men is Donal Trump himself. The authors quote Trump supporting
one of these men, Representative Jim Jordan saying, “he is not a man that deserves this” (Sexaul
Abuse Isn’t Partisan, 2018). This meaning the “attacks” he received for overlooking incidents of
sexaul assault that he was supposed to bring to justice. Donald Trump went even further to say
that he doesn’t believe the accusers, “I don’t believe them at all” (Sexaul Abuse Isn’t Partisan,
2018). She uses many other examples of politicians who support offenders and who are an
offender themselves.

This mostly fits into my argument because it shows that other men will be ignorant to
sexaul assault for other men. Even some reporters won’t write about these cases because they
worry for their job. Now the accused may pretend that they are ignorant and innocent, but they
now that there’s an epidemic, they are the epidemic. They use a lot of logos and ethos by getting
quotes from reliable newspapers that got politicians statements. This helps the reader believe
them when they say that men don’t take sexual assault seriously. They’re literally using the
politicians words against them. You can’t deny what they said. The authors are speaking to
adults but mostly men I think, men who don’t believe that other men assault women. A lot of
boys are friends with guys who harass women and they don’t even know it, or they don’t want to
believe it. Even worse if they know it but continue to be friends with them or let them continue
their behavior.

Blodgett, Eliza G.C. Collins Timothy B. Blodgett “Sexual Harassment...Some See

It...Some Won't.” ​Harvard Business Review​, 1 Aug. 2014,

https://hbr.org/1981/03/sexual-harassmentsome-see-itsome-wont.

The article ​Sexaul Harassment...Some See It...Some Won’t​ by Eliza Collins and Timothy
Blodgett from the Harvard Business Review written on August 1, 2014 is chuck-full of research
proving exactly what I questioned in my research question; that men are more ignorant and don’t
agree that sexaul harassment is a real issue and that it happens so often and to almost every
woman. The article is truly astonishing, Eliza Collins and Timothy Blodgett did amazing work in
turning their research into a clear and organized argument that women are being assaulted daily
and men turn their heads.

They got most of their information from their own readers in a survey, over a thousand
people responded. The responses they received are kind of terrifying. So many men said that
they didn’t think sexaul harassment wasn’t an issue and so many women shared their own stories
where they were assaulted at work and then had to find a new job is was so bad. They also give a
lot of facts and statistics, one being “42% of women have experienced some sort of harassment”
(Colings, Blodgett, 2014).

The article is quite long and has so much information but the author uses all three
rhetorical strategies in convincing the reader. They use pathos the least and use ethos and logos
heavily. They quote several of the responders to the survey as well as others they interviewed,
then they gave other statistics found by their survey and other researchers. This is very strong,
and reliable support to my question and I can use lots of their research and quotes when making
my argument.

Duncan, Pamela, and Alexandra Topping. “Men Underestimate Level of Sexual

Harassment against Women – Survey.” ​The Guardian,​ Guardian News

and Media, 6 Dec. 2018,

 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/06/men-underestimate-level

-of-sexual-harassment-against-women-survey.

The article ​Men Underestimate Level of Sexual Harassment​ by Pamela Duncan and
Alexandra Topping from The Guardian written on December 6, 2018 is about a multi-poll survey
that people from all around the world responded to. Most of the questions given were something
like: out of every 100 women in your country, how many do you think have experienced sexaul
assault age 15 and up? Most men responded with guesses lower than 50% when in most cases it
was above 50%, in every case they thought it was much smaller than the reality of the situation.
The article is mostly more elaboration on the data and explains what it means.

The article is all logos but they tie in pathos with the logos. It helps humanize the
research almost. The did a good job about giving the statistics without forgetting that every
number was a human and every fact was a woman who’s faced sexaul assault. The article was
well informed and gave a lot of information I’m able to use in my project.

I can use this information because it gives specific information that proves men do not
realize how major sexaul assault is. They guessed that maybe only 38% of women had, but really
73% of women had. It also had a lot of statistics about sexual assault that I was able to use. Plus,
the poll was taken around the world so I can prove that this isn’t just my opinion, it’s a
world-wide epidemic.

“Victims of Sexual Violence: Statistics.” ​RAINN,​

https://www.rainn.org/statistics/victims-sexual-violence.

The ​Victims of Sexual Violence: Statistics i​ nformative web page by RAINN, a program
specifically made to educate people and help those who have been sexaully abused, is simply a
page made just to give the statistics of sexaul harassment and rape. The whole thing is Logos,
simply just stating the facts, and they’re honestly very informative. They gave information on
everything: Males, Females, Transgenders, Native Americans, long-term effects, pregnancy,
military, etc.

I can use this because while I do just want to prove that men don’t understand the
severity and reality women face with sexual assault, I also want to inform them about it so they
are educated and I can actually do something about what I’m trying to prove. I also need to give
statistics to prove to my audience (men) that they don’t know enough about sexaul abuse.