Reflection on "The Hunting Ground"

1. Was there a specific scene that got to you? 

I would say that the entire documentary is very moving and overall filled with sadness and pain because I hurt for these young women. However, a scene that greatly impacted myself would have to be when the numbers of how many colleges report sexual assault appeared. In 2012, 45% of colleges do not report a single one sexual assault occurred. 88% of women sexually assaulted on campus do not report. Think about those statistics... pretty sad isn't it? The best years of your life can quickly turn into your worst nightmare with no support or concern from anyone. Claire Bond Potter, a former associate professor at Wesleyan University admits that it is not that an administrator wants a student to be harmed but their priority is to protect the university from being harmed. Melinda Manning, a former assistant dean of students from UNC- chapel hill, also admits that an administrator has to make it difficult for students to report so that the numbers of rape at the university do not keep adding up. Melinda then continues to add that they also discourage students from going to the police so that it does not turn into a public record. Colleges are supposed to report crimes to the federal government but Claire reports that the best thing for a college to do is to is forget and ignore that rape happens.

This scene made me feel angry, frustrated, and a bit thankful. It's pretty self-explanatory why this makes me angry just because universities claim that their campus is a safe and fun place for their students, yet they push them away when they report a violent crime. Colleges prefer crime stats to stay as low as they can so that it does not prevent future applicants from coming to the university. However, if that was the case why wouldn't the university just deal with the situation so that they could really claim to be the best of the best. It's very frustrating when all a victim wants is to ensure it won't happen to somebody else and their own school won't even back them up. The number of assaults at college universities is very high but if the perpetrator was actually given a punishment then I believe numbers would decrease as it would discourage perpetrators from committing such a crime. I felt a bit thankful because I truly believe that Lewis does a good job of announcing a crime to students as we get emails when a certain situation occurs such as car accidents, robberies, or sexual assaults, as well as offer self-defense classes and other programs. This at least gives students knowledge to be aware of dangerous people and protect themselves. However, I never been a victim at the school so I don't truly know what happens behind closed doors but this scene defiantly intrigued myself in how Lewis would respond to an outcome like this.  

2. What surprised you?

What came to a real shock is how far universities will go to protect their reputation. A specific segment that caused myself to be hopeless would be when the documentary showed little segments of different people working at universities simply saying that no matter what victims do, they will not win. This gives viewers doubts of themselves, because if there is no point of gaining justice for yourself and other victims around you, or changing policies and habits around school, should girls just accept that we will be sexual assaulted at some point and we have to okay with it? These shocking words are coming from teachers, advisors, and presidents of the school, people we are suppose to look up too and feel comfortable around, yet they give no encouragement. 

At the beginning of the film women from UNC and other universities are introduced and they each share their sexual assault experience. Annie Clark had gotten rape her freshman year at UNC before classes had even started. At first she did her regular school routine as nothing had happen but it's not something you can wish away. Annie decided to report the assault to an administrator and her response was comparing rape to football, if you can look back what would you do differently? Annie admitted that she was expecting resources and support. This was so shocking and disappointing because Annie was getting blame for being violently rape as if drinking or dressing a certain way makes it is okay to take advantage of somebody. This surprising factor did exactly what the documentary hopes to get out of viewers, anger. This film is from 2015 so frankly new, but here we are three years later fighting with the same issue, just as we have for years and years. Sexual assault I would say is the biggest issue in the media today with tons of women recently coming out about being harassed in their work element. School and work should be a place where women feel comfortable to attend everyday, yet they’re the ones who get blamed when a situation like this happens. 

3. What questions remain after the viewing? What feelings stayed with you after the film? Did they "pop up" in your life in unexpected ways? When? How? What was that like?

Questions that remain after the viewing would simply be WHY? What goes on in a perpetrators head that they can just take away a person's respect and dignity? Did their parents raise them this way? Would they want their future kids to go through the same situation as a victim and something even worse happen such as death? It just doesn't make sense to me.. I will never understand why crime happens and what goes on in these sick people’s heads. Feelings that stayed with me is admiration for the victims. These victims had to go up against the school and their own classmates when those people should be backing up the victims. It's very sad but the truth, not everyone is going to support the right way but one person can sure make a difference for others.

This film made myself reflect a lot, how victims had the strength to go on when their world was tumbling down. Universities have a bigger problem than just worrying about how high their numbers are during open house or how many applications they receive. They have their very own students practically begging them to do something about it. I cannot put all the blame on the university though, fraternities and sororities also have a huge impact on this problem, as they encourage their recruiters to engage in such a disgusting act in order to be apart of their organization. When did it become a proud accomplishment to take advantage of someone?

4. What problematic concepts do you see in the film, concepts you might research and write about? Try to come up with at least five. 

Problematic concepts that I saw in the film are;

1. How reliable are the resources provided at Universities

2. Safety of victims

3. Fraternities

4. Student athletes

5. Statistics

 The film shows the failure of how universities deal with the situation of rape, showing no real evidence of support and overall do not acknowledge the perpetrator. Looking into the resources claimed by universities and actual victims experience would be an interesting topic to research. The mental and physical state of victims is an important factor to incorporate while researching the safety of victims. Fraternities and student athletes are typically ones to be involved in these cases because they know they can get away with it. There are sadly a dozen cases that could be looked into concerning them. People look up to college athletes, especially ones from very successful teams, so when an alleged report of rape comes out with the favorite student athlete, mostly everyone is going to turn on the victim. Statistics I would say is the biggest problematic concept because it gives false advertisement to everyone.