Here's Why "This Is What Rape Culture Looks Like" Flyers Are Being Posted Across UPenn's Campus
Another day, another act of sexism plaguing a college campus.
On Tuesday morning, the University of Pennsylvania campus was plastered with hundreds of flyers featuring a sexist email believed to have been sent by an off-campus organization to an undisclosed number of recipients, according to the Daily Pennsylvanian.
The email featured the subject line "Wild Wednesday" and was written as a poem addressed to "ladies." The poem invited the recipients to a party and asked women to "wear something tight" because "tonight is your first showing." "We're looking for the fun ones, and say fuck off to a tease," is another standout awful line - if only the bros behind the email had spent less time on their rhyme scheme and more time, you know, educating themselves on collegiate sexual assault.
Story to come from @dailypenn pic.twitter.com/RqWWZKtKMF
- Dan Spinelli (@dspin3) September 6, 2016
Amanda Silberling, a UPenn junior, was shown the email by a freshman and decided to post flyers across campus with the words "THIS IS WHAT RAPE CULTURE LOOKS LIKE" and "WE ARE WATCHING" written on top of the original email. She was joined by over 10 of her friends and ended up printing more than 600 copies of the email. "We want freshman girls to see the signs we put up and know they don't have to give into the culture they're thrown into," she explained, telling BuzzFeed that "the email wasn't an isolated incident... we want to try to keep printing more flyers with other instances that show how rape culture is normalized on campus." (Similar emails have been sent to freshman girls in previous years, the Daily Pennsylvania added.)
So grateful for the 5 friends who helped me flyer at the last minute tonight. We will not be silent. #wearewatching pic.twitter.com/ZIdysniJLI
- amanda silberling (@asilbwrites) September 7, 2016
UPenn has responded to the incident and released a statement Tuesday, saying:
The text of the email was offensive and has no place at Penn. As the University has made clear in its policies and protocols, sexual harassment and sexual assault are unacceptable and will not be tolerated on campus. Challenging offensive speech, as these students did, is important and wholly consistent with the University's ongoing efforts and the national conversation about preventing and responding to sexual misconduct.
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