Being male, I haven’t had to think about it, but being disillusioned with the idea of masculinity and being introduced to the line… now any woman who wants me will have her pleasure as top priority. (Amen! Hunter 4/28/10)
Posts Tagged ‘screening’
Follow Up: Story Leads to Action!
April 15th, 2010 marked “Story Leads To Action” a monthly series sponsored by Working Films, Chicken and Egg Pictures and special co-sponsor The Fledgling Fund. The inimitable Judith Helfand moderated the panel and gave a very touching introduction. It was a great opportunity for THE LINE Campaign to pair the film with a stellar panel and set clear goals for how THE LINE can support the great work already being done in the movement. This discussion will help shape the next phase of our outreach campaign (including posting the video). Panel included:
- Director, Nancy Schwartzman
- Michelle J. Anderson, Dean and Professor of Law at CUNY School of Law
- Neil Irvin, Executive Director, Men Can Stop Rape (MCSR)
- Don McPherson, former NFL football player; current sports announcer and activist
- Meghan O’Connor, NYC Alliance Against Sexual Assault
This was our last event with *fantastic* outreach coordinator, Sheila Aminmadani. She brought her experience from the Educational Video Center and the NYC Grassroots Media Coalition to get THE LINE Campaign on everyone’s radar. She will spend the next few months at the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival and we will miss her!
My goals were to ask the panel and audience specific questions:
- How to make THE LINE usable for High School students (what clips are appropriate, study guide)
- How to make THE LINE part of Sexual Violence Prevention Programs: Fall 2010 and Sexual Assault Awareness Month 2011 – emphasizing sex-positive education and prevention.
- How to make THE LINE part of Freshman Orientation Programs on College Campuses (Dept of Justice grant? strategic pairings with other programs?)
- How to make THE LINE part of Law School/Criminal Justice Education
Marilla Li took precise notes of the panelists’ unique perspective and here they are in their bullet-pointed glory. I’m going to intercut them with photographs, to keep you entertained. Panelists from left: Don McPherson, Michelle Anderson, Meghan O’ Connor, Neil Irvin & my hands.
Dean Michelle Anderson discusses the problems with rape law as it stands:
- “Consent”: assumes male initiation and female acquiescence, (this idea that women are the gatekeepers to men’s desires) it is not egalitarian
- “Proof of consent” for a penetrative act means failure to fight back physically ignores non verbal signals, cues and communication
- Doesn’t account for peritraumatic dissociation: paralysis, silence
- Heterosexual men over-interpret what is nonverbal behavior (a smile) to mean consent which is reinforced in the media
- Work on the agreement & desire
- Massive exposure from images creates idea of *automatic* agreement
- Sexual Education in school doesn’t teach negotiation, just plumbing. Think beyond boundaries of what we’re taught -> what is our language for ethical sexuality?
- In law schools, we can use THE LINE as a case study to see how the law would respond, case sets up the idea that vaginal penetration means loss of autonomy
Meghan O’Connor, NYC Alliance Against Sexual Assault:
- Alliance works to care for survivors and access to justice
- How to address root causes of violence (comprehensive violence prevention education!)
- How can we use THE LINE with people who are in field – advocates, social workers, nurses, examiners so that they can address their own biases, regarding victim blaming, prostitution, etc.
- Break apart the “perfect victim” stereotype
- Address stigma and silence of sexual violence, stranger rape v. acquaintance rape
- Who are the victims/ who are the perpetrators? -> Anyone. You know them.
- Victim blaming – external, from peers and community and internal, victim’s own inner voice “did I perceive this wrong way?”
- So: first step is prevention, use film to start dialogue, pick apart judgments, untangle desire versus boundaries, investigate individual v. societal boundaries
(Male student calls out “KB” or “Kobe Bryant”)
Neil Irvin, Men Can Stop Rape:
- MCSR works to challenge “Masculinity”: Heterosexism, Classism, Racism make up the foundations of masculinity
- MCSR works primarily with men – programs include: media messaging, youth training and professional training
- Challenging the performance of masculinity in middle school, high school and college chapters
- His audiences will relate to the honesty of the film – these are themes that play out everyday and the facilitator can help give youth language to critique
- Show to parents and PTAs
- For MCSR, working with affluent white males & communities is the most challenging
- Working with men who are survivors, through stigma and victimization. A common myth “If a woman is doing it to you, you should like it” (see below)
Don McPherson, NFL Quarterback, Educator and Activist:
- Negotiating beyond a no “Baby it’s cold outside” song as example
- Challenging narrow masculinity (working in tandem with MCSR)
- Giving a voice to women, refusing to sit on male privilege and be silent
- Having the convenience to sit outside the work and not be consumed by it (versus subject in THE LINE, “my whole reality changed”)
- NFL Athlete, but critiquing Sports culture and “warrior mentality” and “army of one” -> Reinforces Power/Control
- Examining masculinity vs. race
- Insults: “you throw like a girl” and training men not to be women – but that’s it
- Living in a world that perpetuates social narrative of culture
- Madonna is empowered by doing what we want her to do (be sexual) and how “empowerment” becomes commercialized
- How do we make men understand that rape happens everyday? Not stranger in the bushes
General conversation from the panel and the audience:
- Making sure all participants/audience members respond to the study guide
- We must work at multiple levels: move beyond the one-time workshop using both top down and grassroots approaches
- Connect THE LINE to Department of Education, Policymakers, Parents-in-Action, social workers, administrators, guidance counselors, etc. (panelists can help facilitate)
- Michelle Anderson discusses Bureau of Erotic Discourse (B.E.D.), workshops for clarity and consent at Burning Man
- Don’t forget PLEASURE! Emphasizing the collective stake we have in pleasure and healthy sexual relationships
- High school students create PSA (film the dialogue and creative process, then post)
- Make sure these issues are made relevant to queer community (follow up for screenings at LGBTQ Center with the YES program and film)
- Experiment with game-based networking, using web like 11th Hour or The Yes Men
- Don’t forget faith-based youth, where abstinence is a reality
THE LINE Campaign Ideas and Takeaway (my homework!):
- Host screening and then film audience dialogue with:
LGBTQ Center & Men Can Stop Rape constituents
Post and distribute to show facilitators how the film can be used
- Map out 2010-11 plans with Men Can Stop Rape about using THE LINE in their yearly violence prevention programming
- Work with NYC-Alliance to facilitate a “Train the Trainers” screening for advocates, social workers and policy folks city-wide
- Work with Michelle Anderson about getting THE LINE used in Law School classes as “case study” for criminal law and rape law.
- Continue to cross-promote with Don McPherson and pair up for screenings next year.
- Ensure that the Facilitator’s Study Guide, which we co-write with Media Education Foundation is inclusive, comprehensive and usable!
from: “The Love That is Strong”
This is where I semi-obligatorily* but still 100% actively gather my thoughts about an event I went to last night: a screening of Nancy Schwartzman’s film The Line followed by an audience discussion and a very awesome and engaging panel, including:
- Director Nancy Schwartzman
- Michelle J. Anderson, Dean and Professor of Law at CUNY School of Law
- Neil Irvin, Men Can Stop Rape (MCSR)
- Don McPherson, former football player; current sports announcer and activist
- Meghan O’Connor, NYC Alliance Against Sexual Assault
Schwartzman is very much interested in using her own experience of sexual assault to raise awareness, promote dialogue about sexual consent (both desire and personal boundaries), and educate others (especially youth) about expressing their desires and respecting one another’s. In doing so, she’s also started the “Where is your line?” campaign:
I want to reflect on two things: (1) the film and (2) the larger discussion, which informed my own takeaways.
The Film
A one night stand far from home goes terribly wrong. As the filmmaker unravels her experience, she decides to confront her attacker.
Told through a “sex-positive” lens, THE LINE is a 24 minute documentary about a young woman – the filmmaker- who is raped, but her story isn’t cut and dry. Not a “perfect victim,” the filmmaker confronts her attacker, recording the conversation with a hidden camera. Sex workers, survivors and activists discuss justice, accountability and today’s “rape culture.” The film asks the question: where is the line defining consent? THE LINE was completed in July 2009.
What I think is really great about The Line is that Schwartzman is “not the perfect victim.” The film also follows Schwartzman’s friend (a more “perfect victim”) who experienced stranger rape and was able to find legal justice. Schwartzman, at once, is sharing an experience that is very common but is also incredibly brave for sharing this common experience because she sets herself up to be attacked by victim-blaming.
For me, one of the most interesting parts of the film was the montage of reactions from friends and personal questions of doubt. You hear most of her friends telling her that it wasn’t rape and even one female friend basically saying “that’s happened to me a bunch of times but I never thought it was rape.” And you also hear Schwartman’s own self-questioning, which I found very relateable as someone who’s also been the victim of date rape.
My second favorite thing about the film is that she interviewed sex workers at the Bunny Ranch to have a discussion about defining consent. That scene is ripe for analysis! For the sake of brevity, maybe that’s another entry, but that was fantastic.
My Takeaways
First, I appreciate that the theme of the screening was “Story Leads to Action!” The guest speakers (experts in the field) were absolutely amazing. I attended with my friends Kristen and Gillian so I was fortunate enough to have a “debriefing” with them after the event. We agreed that Michelle J. Anderson was amazing! Dr. Anderson specializes in rape law and feminist legal theory. She brought an important voice to the table in which she clearly defined that there is a spectrum of rape and that the legal system currently ignores the vast majority of sexual assaults in its definition of consent, which is based on very defined gender roles with men being sexual initiators and women agreeing to sexual consent. Furthermore, the current model draws its own line in which once a woman agrees to one sexual act, she agrees to the entire variety of sexual acts. I wish I could keep Dr. Anderson in my pocket or on speed dial when I have to deal with talking to people about sexual assault.
I also found that Neil Irvin and Don McPherson brought amazing perspective. I was very impressed by both of their work as well as their absolute respect for women’s voices. Their models are to teach men and young boys about a positive masculinity that resists patriarchy and respects women. I also very much respected the way in which they allowed themselves to learn from women (and never speak for women). While their work is necessary and important to ending rape/dismantling rape culture (putting this responsibility in the hands of men as the major perpetrators of sexual violence), they made it very clear that they didn’t necessarily want to get pats on the back for promoting a respect for humanity among males; citing the path that women activists paved for them. And Don McPherson often weaved in important relevant issues, including the role of consumer culture. If this was Sassy Magazine I would write a “crush alert” profile on his mind. Read complete post and comments
NYC Screening + Community
Last week, over 100 New Yorkers (and a few strays from New Jersey) crowded into Gallery Bar to watch THE LINE and hear from a kick-ass group of panelists, including: Erin Burrows of SAFER, Joe Samalin of Men Can Stop Rape, and Ignacio Rivera, trans artist, poet and educator. Thanks to everyone that came out and gave their voice and support!
Folks crowded up to the bar and sat along the wall for cushy seats. We give extra love to those who sat on the concrete barroom floor. Julia Weis and Meredith Villano, of Paradigm Shift hosted the event and got us the Time Out critic’s pick for the night. I was extra nervous to present the film to the home-town crowd, but was rewarded by watching the story work as a catalyst to bring folks together to talk about consent, accountability, and creating a real change in our communities and bedrooms.
After the film, I answered questions – and to my delight – fielded one from the bartender, proving that everyone has a stake in the conversation. He wanted to discuss the socialization of men, and how we applaud male promiscuity, and judge the same behavior in females. I bounced his question to Joe, who could address the work being done by men to challenge male assumptions and socialization.
Joe mentioned that even doing this work personally and professionally, his gut when watching the film, still ran to victim blaming and doubting it ‘was rape’ first.
Even as I KNEW that wasn’t the case, and knew it was socialization, I couldn’t help but go to that place of questioning (you) and getting defensive.
I asked him later about using the film in his work as an educator:
The film helps us frame sexual violence not ONLY as a women’s issue but men’s issue, and it helps us address the nuances of mens responsibility as a whole/group for the violence committed by a not so small small minority of men. My dad (bless him) actually pointed out that I should have also mentioned that we don’t want to ‘other’ violent men, that we are ALL educated/socialized to be violent, and all have that potential.
Erin Burrows explained her work as an activist with SAFER and their unique campus-based perspective:
We can prevent sexual assault through a strong communally shared and agreed upon definition of consent that accounts for a wide range of sexualities, and that a definition of consent must put the onus of obtaining consent on the initiator, and insist that silence, a previous or current relationship or consent to a previous sexual act is NOT consent.
She emphasized that a strong sexual assault policy for a contained community, such as a college campus, must hold people who violate consent accountable through a fair disciplinary process.
Ignacio Rivera really called out the idea of privilege and reminded me that the personal is political. They discussed the importance of harm-reduction, non biased and non judgmental approaches to assessing risk, communication and best practice for sexual health. The concept and practice of Risk Aware Consensual Kink (RACK) and Safe, Sane & Consensual (SSC) were cited as examples, and were new terms for a lot of folks in the room, myself included. Ignacio made clear that we can all learn from the queer, kink and BDSM communities when we talk about consent and sexual behavior.
Melissa Gira Grant asked the question about how we could respond to the topics raised in the film and during the panel that address the needs of the queer community. Erin responded that a movement for sexual assault policy reform must come from a broad coalition of students that is sex-positive, trans and genderqueer inclusive, and accounts for the intersectionality of multiple identities and how that impacts a person’s experience as a survivor of sexual assault. Ignacio underscored their point about taking cues and lessons from the complexities of consent from within the kink and BDSM communities. I chimed in that we’re planning on shooting some short videos to accompany the educational package of THE LINE that will include these discussions and perspectives.
Audience member Kalimah Priforce spoke up:
I am a victim of rape. When I was two years old, my mother was giving me a bath. I slipped and fell, and was bleeding. My father punished her, and raped her. My brother was born of this rape, and I buried him 18 years later. Men need to stop this violence, because we are all effected by it.
After a bleak political week, including an escelation of the war in Afghanistan and the voting down of marraige equality in New York State, hosting and provoking dialogue about creating more sex-positive education, conversations and communities, was a big, bright spot. What are some other ways you’d like to continue this dialogue?






