4 - Tuesday, March 18, 2014 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com ., EtMichlioan 41atip Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com MEGAN MCDONALD PETER SHAHIN and DANIEL WANG KATIE BURKE EDITOR IN CHIEF EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS MANAGING EDITOR Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors. A punishment to fit the crime The 'U' needs to adopt stricter sanctions for forced sexual penetration artmouth College has proposed changes to its sexual assault policy, calling for expulsion in most cases where a student is found guilty of "penetration accomplished by force, threat or purposeful incapacitation or where an assault involving penetration is motivated bybias." Both Dartmouth and the University of Michigan are under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education due to accusations of mishandling sexual assault cases. While the University has made strides in improving its process for investigating and handling sexual assault cases, there remains room for improvement for the punishment for these offenses. The University's current policy leaves too much leeway in punishing determined offenders, leaving open the possibility of offenders slipping through the cracks or getting off too lightly. The University should consider strengthening the potential punishments for student sexual misconduct and reducing the discretion of the Office of Student Conflict Resolution in assigning these penalties. How to be a girl t! nspired by Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl" They say: this is how you sew on a popped button; this is how you comb lemon into your hair to coax out the blonde; . this is how you bleach those fine1 mustache hairs; this is how you EMILY wield a razor PITTINOS without slicing your ankles. But porn stars and strippers are the only women who shave above the knee. Theysay: thisishowtostep ontoan escalator without catchingyour dress; this is the deodorant that smells like rain; slather your delicate chest with this sunscreen, even in winter. If you yawn too wide, your mouth will catch flies; if you sit with your legs open, things will get in. Don't stick your fingers down your pants; the waitress doesn't want to watch you fidget with your private parts. Don't say "vagina" at the dinner table. Call it your "front bottom," or your "floofy;" it's your "no-no square;" it's a frail flower; a fishy mystery; keep it clean, shaven. Wearing underwear with your pantyhose will prevent yeast infections. If you itch down there, slip this small egg of medicine inside your bajinga. Eat a little yogurt each day. Eat spinach when you're on your period. Use cold water to massage the bloodstains out of your panties. Tampons clog the toilet, and choke birds when they drain into the watershed; don't flush them. Instead, wrap your feminine products in toilet paper. Instead, bury them deep in the wastebasket where no one will see. Don't let boys kiss you on the bus. Don't do drugs in that parking lot by FARAH ERZOUKII According to a Centers for Disease Control study, 19 percent of college women reported experiencing attempted or completed sexual assault during their college career. With sexual violence averages on college campuses higher than the national average, University policy changes need to follow recognition of the problem and adopt stricter punishments similar to those outlined in Dartmouth's proposal. A mandatory expulsion policy for sexual assault in the case of sexual penetration ensures that committing a heinous crime means facingaserious punishment. Especially in light of the University's response to the public disclosure of former Michigan kicker Brendan Gibbons' permanent separation and resulting protest, it is important that the University send a strong signal that sexual assault will be taken seriously on campus. The current wording of the University's sexual assault policy, using phrases such as "reprimand" and "Potential Sanctions or Interventions," is too weak. While it is important that stricter policies be put in place, it is equally important to ensure that they are as supportive and beneficial to the survivor as possible. According to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network, about two-thirds of rapes were committed by someone the survivor knew. The University should keep the "Resolution by Agreement" portion of the sexual assault policy, which allows the Complainant and Respondent to either accept or reject a proposed agreement in regards to what the sanctions or interventions will be regarding their case. This process should be kept so the survivor has input with regards to the punishment the respondent the lake. Don't smoke cigarettes. Don't throw your life away with booze like ourneighborwiththecreditcard debt. Don't have sex; you would disappoint your father. Don't have sex; we're too young to be grandparents. Do you love him? Well that doesn't mean you have to offer him your virginity. You think you're in love, but you're too young to know how that feels. Don't have sex; the world is too dangerous and your mother would worry. You see, girls have to be more careful than boys. Don't walk hone alone in the dark. But if you must: carry mace, hold your keys like a weapon, pretend to talk on your cell phone, wear headphones. Are you listening? Do you want to inspire a story on SVU? Always check under your car for aggressors. Don't traipse around in mini-skirts, or drink more than one Cosmo atthe bar. But when you're old enough for consensual sex with a responsible partner, use a condom, pee afterward to prevent UTIs, and remember: don't trust men with facial hair; don't trust men with floppy handshakes; don't trust men who resent their mothers. Remember: boys don't like girls who beat them at arm wrestling; men don't like girls with hairy armpits; men don't like sarcastic women. A woman teaches a man how to treat her. If you don't keep him satisfied, he will leave you. Stop slouching. Stand with your back flat against the wall to practice good posture. Quit stomping around like a hunchback. Walk with your chest out and your tummy tucked in. Walk with rolling hips. Walk in a way that stops traffic. Make strangers hang from their windows and howl like cartoon coyotes. Trust the architecture of your high heels; they were built to bear your weight. Take smaller bites of your burger. If you eat too fast, you'll gain weight like ourneighbor with thecreditcarddebt. Just don'tbring idiotshome for dinner. Remember the knife always protects the spoon from the fork. This is how you make a chicken stock; this is how you salt a soup; this is how you getfree food in awhite-cloth restaurant. On laundry day, always separate your whites and bleach your pit stains, thegoldencrotchesofyourunderwear. Never clean your ears with anything smaller than your elbow. Leggings are not pants. Only streetwalkers wear that much eyeliner. Don't over-pluck your beautiful eyebrows. Beauty is pain. Beauty is a full-time job. You are a natural beauty; you're prettier than those tubby sluts at your old high school; you have the lips of an angel; you will have no trouble attracting a boyfriend in college. College is where women find their ideal nate. Did you hear your cousin is getting married? Are you seeing anyone? Why haven't you met someone by now? Find a kind man with a good job; marry someone with good genes; try not to marry a musician. But I don'twant toget married. You always say that, but just wait. Someday you will find a guy to take care of you. You'll settle down in a modest home and get pregnant. You will grow fat on corned beef and sour cream donuts. Your feet will swell. You will spend hours in the hospital screaming for morphine and sucking on ice chips. After giving birth, your daughter will rest in the crux of your elbow. You may be sad for weeks; you may regret forcing a little girl into this dangerous world. But for the rest of your life, you will be responsible. You will love. - Emily Pittinos can be reached at pittinos umich.edu. receives. This may include someone who does not wantto be responsible for ending someone's educationalcareerorwhowantstotake further steps to protect their identities and the identity of the assailant. However, there should be policies in place that to make certain survivor isn't intimidated or threatened by the assailant or anyone else while this process takes place. Furthermore, the University needs to refocus on education incoming freshmen about sexual assault. The Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center's Relationship Remix, the mandatory program for students living in dorms, should include information about steps to take if you are sexually assaulted. Knowing how to preserve DNA evidence on the body or clothes and knowing who to go to in order to report an assault could ultimately lead to a more successful investigation. Information about counseling and medical services for victims could be life saving. Furthermore, the consequences for being convicted by the courts or found responsible for sexual assault by the University should be presented. Furthermore, the University should call on organizations like SAPAC to help increase education for students on campus about sexual assault. Education will foster cultural awareness and reduce stigma associated with incidences of sexual assault. The University's sexual assault policy should be made stricter by incorporating mandatory expulsion for proven assailants. The wording of the policy reflects the severity of sexual assault, signaling appropriate respect for the trauma and long-lasting effects of sexual assault for survivors. Reflections of a 'person of color' EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Barry Belmont, Nivedita Karki, Jacob Karafa, Jordyn Kay, Kellie Halushka, Aarica Marsh, Megan McDonald, Victoria Noble, Michael Schramm, Matthew Seligman, Paul Sherman, Allison Raeck, Linh Vu, Daniel Wang, Derek Wolfe LE E I I sEND L In response to 'Leaving the savior mentality behind' ETTERS TO: TOTHEDA" school, ASB parti practical projects. reduce the weight serve a purpose. TI TO THE DAILY: rub elbows with pe What's the point? tive solutions to so Armchair criticism of an Alternative Spring rated part of my tri Break or Foundation for International Medical how easy it is to 1 Relief of Children trip is unfair (even if you did something that seer almost participate in one). Your concern for the Finally, though a cy oppressed is admirable, but I think the uptick in izations do arise ou Facebook cover photos that accompanies a trip, Discussing how less the ones with a student posing, the underprivi- post-ASB life is a va leged arranged neatly around them, has led you backed up by data. to a hasty conclusion. I'd like to ease your worry return from ASB mm about the mindset of the hundreds of students ing to dedicate their that set out this Spring Break. There is a discu The emphasis on education is what sets ASB pitfalls of'help' and apart. Prior to leaving, ASB groups meet to tality. Ideally, evet learn, reflect, discuss and prepare. Site leaders the field, heads fu work to foster empathy, notsympathy - the trip the Oppressed." Bu is presented not as an opportunity to pity peo- service is that it's ple, but understand what they're going through. Luther King, Jr., no And, more importantly, what can be done. "everybody can be It's difficult to improve a community in can serve." That s a week, you're right, but meeting key social while mindset to m( needs is nothing to sneeze at. From pack- ing and delivering meals to AIDS victims, to Aditya Vedapudi spending a couple hours tutoring a kid after Business junior ILY@MICHIGANDAILY.COM cipants complete simple, These might not greatly of oppression, but they hey also allow students to ople who develop innova- ocial problems. An under- p was gaining insight into become an active citizen, med quite daunting before. nic might scoff, great real- it of the nightly reflections. ons can be transplanted to luable exercise, and this is Studies show that students ore engaged and more will- ' lives to service. ssion to be had about the d the troubling savior men- yone would venture into ll with the "Pedagogy of it the beautiful thing about not exclusionary. Martin stranger to activism, said, great ... because anybody eems like a more worth- ie. Earlier this year, an amazing, inspiring group of women created a new student group on campus: the Michigan Women of Color Col- lective. This collective has united women of color from every corner of the University and seeks to pro- vide a safe space for us to discuss the issues we face - from overt rac- ism to the microaggressions we face daily that often are neglected, dele- gitimized and trivialized. After attending the first few meetings, I felt a concoction of emnotions. I related to many of the women in the room, and their sto- ries and testimonies caused me to reflect on my own experiences in an attempt to identify instances of racism, bigotry and sexism that I hadn't previously considered. These women made me realize that, as an Arab American Muslim woman, I had often been tokenized both in and out of the classroom at a young age and forced to speak on behalf of an entire racial, ethnic and religious community. I learned that it wasn't my duty to educate, and the anxiety I felt having to be the spokesperson for Arabs and Muslims in all sorts of spaces was warranted and legiti- mate. How would I possibly be able to provide enough context and nuance when describing a religion practiced by billions, or an identity that hundreds of millions across the world shared? It simply didn't make sense, and this space provid- ed me with a sense of relief that this overwhelming feeling of stress and confusion wasn't exclusive to me. However, I also felt a certain level of discomfort in the space and at first couldn't understand why. This resulted in my reluctance to share as much and a greater inter- est in hearing the experiences of the other women in the room. I came to realize that there were oppressions and barriers I would never have to face because of my privileges (hav- ing fairer skin and being a part of the upper-middle class). I also real- ized that my privileges often came at the expense of other brown and Black bodies. I grew up in the bubble that is Bloomfield Hills. Bloomfield Hills is not only one of the wealthiest cit- ies in the state of Michigan, but in the entire nation. While I did face racism growing up, I belonged to a sizable Arab and Muslim commu- nity, not to mention that my socio- economic privilege, coupled with my skin color (which falls in some awkward place between light and medium when picking out makeup), gave me the opportunity to forego many of the oppressions that poor- er and darker Arabs and Muslims face, both nationally and beyond. I come from an Iraqi family; when I meet people, they are often sur- prised when I reveal my nationality in conversation. I've been told mul- tiple times that I am "too pretty" or "too light" to be Iraqi. This always confused me because the Iraqis who I interact with, the ones in my family, look like me. I realized soon enough that the same people who were mak- ing these harsh, racist generaliza- tions were typically interacting with the poor, darker-skinned refugee population of Iraqis both in the Unit- ed States and in countries I visited abroad, such as Jordan and Lebanon. My mother's skin is even lighter than mine. Combine her fair skin with her green eyes and light brown, almost dirtyblonde hair. When meet- ing some of her relatives for the first time this past summer, her cousin immediately asked me why I wasn't pretty like my mother, why I didn't inherit the green eyes or the fair skin that my mother claimed. I hadn't experienced anything like it before; the man looked at me disgustedly, as if I was subhuman simply because I had dark, thick hair, dark eyes and a slightly darker complexion than my mother. I was somehow a lesser ver- sion of her because of my color and my darker features. This was when I began to under- stand that while I am a person of color, there are many privileges I enjoy based on my color and my class. This is when I began to understand colorism on a deeper level, that I would be judged relative to the other people of color around me. This is when I began to understand that rac- ism is an issue of black and white; the whiter you are, even as a person of color, the less oppression you face and the easier it is for you to assimi- late into the ideals of whiteness. I struggle reconciling these inter- secting identities and privileges, and also struggle at times identifying as a person of color because of how different my experiences have been based on my lighter skin, as well as my privileges as an upper-middle- class, heterosexual, cisgendered, able-bodied person. While there are certain settings where I feel com- fortable claiming the "person of color" label to build political solidar- ity across non-white communities, there are probably more instances when the label can be deceitful in its implication of a monolithic experi- ence and narrative of what is actually an overwhelmingly nuanced, diverse group of people. This is particularly misleading when the label "people of color" includes non-Black POCs like myself, who indirectly reap the benefits of white supremacy and are complicit in a system that promotes anti-Black culture. Being aware of the privileges I hold and the role that I play as a non- Black woman of color has helped me become cognizant of the space I take up in settings with other women of color, namely Black women who are oftentimes the direct targets of any form of racism - even racism that is directed at me, and especially racism initiated or perpetuated by my com- munity and other non-Black commu- nities of color. So as a "person of color," I reflect on the ways I benefit from and am complacent in these systems of oppression. Because the term "per- son of color" isn't enough for me and it certainly isn't enough for those under the label whose oppression I am too privileged to know or ever claim as my own. Michigan in Color is the Daily's opinion section designated as a space for and by students of color at the University of Michigan. To contrib- ute your voice orfind out more about MiC, e-mail iichiganincolor@ umich.edu. Farah Erzouki isan LSA senior. INTERESTED IN CAMPUS ISSUES? POLITICS? SEX, DRUGS AND ROCK'N'ROLL? Check out The Michigan Daily's editorial board meetings. Every Monday and Thursday at 6pm, the Daily's opinion staff meets to discuss both Uni- versity and national affairs and write editorials. E-mail opinioneditors@ michigandaily.com to join in the debate. I ft I