The Obama administration is taking sexual assault on college campuses very seriously. And actually doing something about it.

President Obama signs the Campus Sexual Assault Presidential Memorandum

Courtesy of Feminspire:  

As the perfect cap to Sexual Assault Awareness Month, the task force President Barack Obama created in January to work toward ending sexual assault on college campuses released its first report this week. 

The 20-page document echoes many of the concerns women’s rights advocates have pressed the importance of for years. The horror stories from victims who are forced to see their attackers on campus on a daily basis, who were told by administrators they were to blame for the actions of their rapist because they were drinking or because of what they were wearing, aren’t exceptional. And while the words might never be written in an executive decision, Obama made it clear that it’s time for higher education to get its shit together, and fast. 

For a 90-day project, the report is surprisingly thorough. For once, our government shut up and listened, and if the path outlined in the report is to be followed, there could be significant results on college campuses’ conduct within the next school year.

Here is a sampling of what the report lays out:

The task force will work to provide colleges with materials for effective trauma response, training for college conduct systems to investigate and properly sanction offenders, and guidelines for local law enforcement and campus police to work together for better security and prosecution.

Colleges WILL be held accountable:

Student’s rights need to be at the forefront of any college conduct process, and the way colleges treat their students will be monitored. 

If students suffer, so will schools, in the form of federal funding. It’s No More Mr. Nice Government, and if anything kicks schools into gear, it’s the threat of budget cuts. 

And schools will have trained staff to specifically deal with sexual assault:

The report makes it clear that sexual assault perpetrators are no longer to be treated on the same grounds as students who plagiarize or drink underage. And reporting sexual assault is no longer to be on the same level as reporting a stolen laptop. 

Sexual assault victims need extensive aftercare to cope with the immediate and continuing effects of trauma. Schools will have to train responders and physical and mental health staff to be advocates and provide support systems. 

Then there is this PSA:

I have to say that when James Bond tells you that one sexual assault is too many, while sitting at a table with a face that looks like it just returned from beating the shit out of a room full of frat boys, that is something that a lot of young men are going to hear loud and clear.

I come from an era when snapping bra straps and slapping girls on the ass was considered playful flirting, but those days are long gone. And even at our most misogynistic it was NEVER considered okay to have sex with a girl too drunk to know any better or force ourselves on a girl pleading with us to stop.

That did happen once to a female friend of mine, and it got handled.

I won't screw up your day by describing what happened to that POS but I will tell you that in a just world that would be the fate of EVERY person who took advantage of a young woman, or man, just because they were unable to defend themselves.

I look forward to the day when this kind of task force is no longer necessary and parents universally teach their sons that nothing that you take from another person against their will has value.

Until that day I am very glad that we have the President that we have, and that he is responding the way that he is.

Certainly a hell of a lot better than a certain Governor of Alaska recently responded to a similar problem with the National Guard.

A MUST SEE Funny or Die PSA.

Gays Beware with Jesse Tyler Ferguson and George Takei from Jesse Tyler Ferguson

Courtesy of Mediaite:  

The video was created to support Tie The Knot, an advocacy organization founded by actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson, of Modern Family fame, who also stars in the PSA, and his fiancee Justin Mikita. The group is “advocating for a more stylish and equal America,” according to its slogan, by selling bow ties and donating the proceeds to other advocacy groups fighting for marriage equality. 

In the video, Takei warns of one person “whose orientation threatens to destroy society.” He “looks normal, but he gives off clues of his prejudice with buzzwords like ‘pro-family,’ ‘traditional marriage’ or ‘pole-smoker.’” The PSA highlights to hypocrisy of a character who has been divorced twice but wants to deny the right of other people to marry just because they happen to be the same sex.

I laughed so hard at the end of this that I almost choked. 

Very well done! And George Takei's completely deadpan voice-over is perfect!

What if Bristol Palin and the Candies Foundation practiced truth in advertising?

From Care2Care (talking about the Candies Foundation):

On their site, they claimed that in a recent "independent survey" of 1,000 teens, "twice as many teens (57% vs. 27%) said Bristol's PSA 'got my attention,' three times as many (41% vs. 11%) said it was 'powerful,' and more than twice as many (38% vs. 16%) said it was 'memorable.' Thus they are justified in spending all of their money on celebrity spokespeople rather than organizations that are actually giving teens the resources and education to prevent pregnancy.

The fact that teens found the PSAs memorable does not mean that they gained any useful knowledge from them or altered their behavior accordingly. A TV show illustrating the "devastating consequences" of teen pregnancy might be as "memorable" as Palin's PSA, but there's no reason for the Candie's Foundation to start handing out checks to the producers of The Secret Life of the American Teenager or Glee.

And frankly, if Bristol Palin is truly dedicated to "preventing even one girl from getting pregnant," she will personally redistribute her enormous paycheck from the Candie's Foundation. It's one thing for her to get paid for her speaking engagements - but it's absurd for the Candie's Foundation to spend seven times on their celebrity speakers than on actual teen pregnancy initiatives.

After all, Bristol Palin may be able to speak to the experience of teen motherhood, but as the daughter of a powerful political figure, she is certainly not typical, something that she admitted in a Candie's PSA last year. The money could be well spent on the other 750,000 American teenagers who get pregnant every year, many of whom rely on these clinics and health centers for counseling and prenatal care. It seems as though Candie's - and maybe Palin herself - are more interested in their public image than actually preventing teen pregnancy.

It looks like the author of this post has Bristol Palin, her mom, and the Candies Foundation figured out pretty well.

(H/T to The Nomadic View.)