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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow The Hunting Ground Blurs the Truth
The documentary is shaping the public debate around campus rape. But a closer look at one of its central cases suggests the filmmakers put advocacy ahead of accuracy.
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The recent documentary The Hunting Ground asserts that young women are in grave danger of sexual assault as soon as they arrive on college campuses. The film has been screened at the White House for staff and legislators. Senate Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, who makes a cameo appearance in the film, cites it as confirmation of the need for the punitive campus sexual assault legislation she has introduced. Gillibrands colleague Barbara Boxer, after the films premiere said, Believe me, there will be fallout. The film has received nearly universal acclaim from criticsthe Washington Post called it lucid, infuriating, and galvanizingand, months after its initial release, its influence continues to grow, as schools across the country host screenings. If you have a daughter going to any college in America, you need to see The Hunting Ground, the MSNBC host Joe Scarborough told his viewers in May. This fall, it will get a further boost when CNN, a co-producer, plans to broadcast the film, broadening its audience. The Hunting Ground is helping define the problem of campus sexual assault for policymakers, college administrators, students, and their parents.
The film has two major themes. One, stated by producer Amy Ziering during an appearance on The Daily Show, is that campus sexual assaults are not just a date gone bad, or a bad hook-up, or, you know, miscommunication. Instead, the filmmakers argue, campus rape is a highly calculated, premeditated crime, one typically committed by serial predators. (They give significant screen time to David Lisak, the retired psychology professor who originated this theory.) The second theme is that even when school administrators are informed of harm done to female students by these repeat offenders, schools typically do nothing in response. Director Kirby Dick has said that colleges are primarily concerned about their reputation and that if a rape happens, theyll do everything to distance themselves from it. In the film, a former assistant dean of students at the University of North Carolina, Melinda Manning, says schools make it difficult for students to report sexual assault in order to avoid federal reporting requirements and to artificially keep [their] numbers low.
One of the four key stories told in the film illustrates both of these points. It is the harrowing account of Kamilah Willingham, who describes what happened during the early morning hours of Jan. 15, 2011, while she was a student at Harvard Law School. She says a male classmate, a man she thought was her friend, drugged the drinks he bought at a bar for her and a female friend, then took the two women back to Willinghams apartment and sexually assaulted them. When she reported this to Harvard, she says university officials were indifferent and even hostile to her. Hes dangerous, she says in the film of her alleged attacker, as she tries to keep her composure. This is a rapist. This is a guy whos a sexual predator, who assaulted two girls in one night. The events continue to haunt her. Its still right up here, she says tearfully, placing a hand on her chest.
[center][/center]
The recent documentary The Hunting Ground asserts that young women are in grave danger of sexual assault as soon as they arrive on college campuses. The film has been screened at the White House for staff and legislators. Senate Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, who makes a cameo appearance in the film, cites it as confirmation of the need for the punitive campus sexual assault legislation she has introduced. Gillibrands colleague Barbara Boxer, after the films premiere said, Believe me, there will be fallout. The film has received nearly universal acclaim from criticsthe Washington Post called it lucid, infuriating, and galvanizingand, months after its initial release, its influence continues to grow, as schools across the country host screenings. If you have a daughter going to any college in America, you need to see The Hunting Ground, the MSNBC host Joe Scarborough told his viewers in May. This fall, it will get a further boost when CNN, a co-producer, plans to broadcast the film, broadening its audience. The Hunting Ground is helping define the problem of campus sexual assault for policymakers, college administrators, students, and their parents.
The film has two major themes. One, stated by producer Amy Ziering during an appearance on The Daily Show, is that campus sexual assaults are not just a date gone bad, or a bad hook-up, or, you know, miscommunication. Instead, the filmmakers argue, campus rape is a highly calculated, premeditated crime, one typically committed by serial predators. (They give significant screen time to David Lisak, the retired psychology professor who originated this theory.) The second theme is that even when school administrators are informed of harm done to female students by these repeat offenders, schools typically do nothing in response. Director Kirby Dick has said that colleges are primarily concerned about their reputation and that if a rape happens, theyll do everything to distance themselves from it. In the film, a former assistant dean of students at the University of North Carolina, Melinda Manning, says schools make it difficult for students to report sexual assault in order to avoid federal reporting requirements and to artificially keep [their] numbers low.
One of the four key stories told in the film illustrates both of these points. It is the harrowing account of Kamilah Willingham, who describes what happened during the early morning hours of Jan. 15, 2011, while she was a student at Harvard Law School. She says a male classmate, a man she thought was her friend, drugged the drinks he bought at a bar for her and a female friend, then took the two women back to Willinghams apartment and sexually assaulted them. When she reported this to Harvard, she says university officials were indifferent and even hostile to her. Hes dangerous, she says in the film of her alleged attacker, as she tries to keep her composure. This is a rapist. This is a guy whos a sexual predator, who assaulted two girls in one night. The events continue to haunt her. Its still right up here, she says tearfully, placing a hand on her chest.
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Fair warning parts of this article pissed me off.
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