It was a sobering afternoon of hard truths following the screening of the documentary, The Hunting Ground at SF Cinema at CentralWorld on Saturday. The film tells the alarming story of sexual assault at many of US universities — including some of their most prestigious — as well as these universities’ appalling efforts in trying to keep these attacks hidden. The powerful and shocking film relies on on-camera testimonies of many young women and men who speak on how they were raped in colleges and how those colleges denied them justice.
At the Oscar ceremony on Feb 28, Lady Gaga performed Til It Happens To You on stage along with an array of sexual assault survivors. The stirring song, from The Hunting Ground, was nominated for Best Original Song (and lost to Writing’s On The Wall from Spectre).
Organised by the Women’s Well-being Program of Thailand and Documentary Club, the screening in Thailand was followed by the “Thai University Life: Is it really safe?” seminar, giving relevance to this universal problem as participants discuss common misconceptions regarding sexual harassment within Thai universities, as well as society as a whole. The seminar was attended by guest speakers from various humanitarian and gender-rights organisations, and was also opened to input from the attending crowd, as well.
“I think all Thai men are aware of the forms of sexual harassment being perpetuated in society,” said host Sirote Klampaiboon, a Humanitarian Studies professor from Thammasat University.
Joining him on stage at the seminar are students/activists Rawimon Jangwang and Nattanan Warintharawet, as well as representatives from gender-rights organisations Dr Waraporn Chamsanit and Jetsada Thamsombut.
“Thai society still has a tendency to blame the victims of these cases, most often women, questioning their garments and demeanour’s influence in the causation of the crime,” said Dr Waraporn, representative of the Women’s Well-being Program.
Statistics show that there were around 4,000 rape cases reported each year in Thailand between 2009-2014. Other numbers are often alarming; a study supported by Thai Health Promotion Foundation reported that 29 victims of rape crimes were killed in 2013. However, studies focusing on sexual crimes in schools and universities are absent.
In the US in 2014, the White House released guidelines on how campus rapes are to be addressed. It also released the names of schools that were under investigation then, including top names such as Harvard and University of California at Berkeley. In The Hunting Ground, a number of women talk openly about their harrowing experiences, including a tale of seduction, gang rape, and how some of the assailants are still walking around the school undisturbed.
According to Dr Waraporn, the issue of sexual harassment in universities is a serious issue, one that has been researched and highlighted repeatedly over the years in countries such as the US. In Thailand, there is an alarming lack of studies in this regard.
“I’ve only ever found one study relating to sexual harassment in universities conducted in Thailand,” she said. Citing the results of the study, which surveyed male students and professors within a Bangkok-based university on their attitudes towards cases of sexual harassment, Dr Waraporn said that many of those surveyed thought that the victims’ garments or demeanour was partially to blame in the causation of the crime.
A scene from The Hunting Ground, which discusses rapes in universities.
“Many Thai men tend to believe that just because a woman likes to drink or simply act outside of the traditional rules of female etiquette means that they are easy,” said Rawimon, a student speaker and survivor of sexual assault.
“There is very little support — both legal and emotional — for these women when they are victimised. Even when they have the courage to speak up about their experience, they are often stigmatised by those around them, saying it is their fault.”
The speakers eventually opened the floor to the audience’s questions and responses, with many sharing their own experiences dealing with sexual violence both against themselves and others. There was also a woman who shocked the audience when she began to relate her own experience as a victim of sexual assault in a university, and just like in The Hunting Ground, she was denied a due process of justice.
One particular comment from the audience managed to encapsulate the issue of sexual harassment in Thailand.
“It’s chilling to think that we live in a society that believes that drinking alcohol or wearing certain clothes is a pass for rape.”
The Hunting Ground opens at SF Cinema on Thursday.
