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One of the most exciting things about going to college is the independence students have when it comes to their social life. Money permitting, they can go out seven nights a week if they want to. However, widespread in Irish nightlife today – be it at teenage discos, or in nightclubs – is the issue of groping.
Very often this is done to people as they walk through the club or by those dancing beside them on the dance floor. And, unfortunately, it is something that has become accepted as a normal facet of the social scene today – by both the perpetrators and the victims. Irish Country Living spoke to the Rape Crisis Network of Ireland about this.
“It has become normalised in certain settings,” says strategic and programmes executive with the RCNI Clíona Saidléar.
“It’s a major issue and it actually is sexual assault. We’re looking at the normalisation of low-level sexual assault. You can report an incident of groping. The gardaí are obliged to investigate it fully and if there’s sufficient evidence then the perpetrator can be charged. There is an understanding that it is the gateway to more serious sexual offence. If this is tackled, it should bring down levels of sexual assault crimes.”
While there is a crossover, Clíona says that the majority of sexual assaults are perpetrated by males on females.
Union of Students of Ireland president (USI) Annie Hoey says: “It’s something that isn’t called out as much as it should be. When it happens, it isn’t called out by those people around, by those people who are aware of it or even by the victim themselves – and therefore it is allowed to be seen as the norm.
“If you’ve witnessed it, there’s an innate response ... or a sense that this isn’t right, that it shouldn’t be happening – but the fact that it does happen is almost something that has become expected of a night out.”
Recent phenomenon?
However, is this a recent phenomenon or has it been going on for years?
Clíona Saidléar says: “I was going to clubs since before 1990 and I would say this is a recent phenomenon. The odd incident in my time was greeted with outrage, it would have been very much commented upon.
“There is the normalisation of this type of sexual offence. There is a sexualisation and pornification of our culture. The normalisation of the permissions some men think they have over women’s bodies is new. Sexualisation and porn has become so mainstream in popular culture. Women are being valued to a very heightened degree on their sexual performance. Women’s sexual objectification is not new but the extent of groping, public judging and shaming of women’s bodies is new.”
Clíona says rape victims are educated by a culture of groping which can silence them and they blame themselves. Low-level sexual violence, such as groping, facilitates sexual violence as victims and perpetrators are being educated in tolerance of this.
“Perpetrators will think this isn’t really a crime,” says Clíona. “Because groping is hardly ever followed up, it’s become normal. The line has become blurred. It’s your body and no one has a right to touch it without your consent. We really have to assert that again.”
The USI has been running a consent campaign over the past year.
“It’s very simple – it’s the hashtag ask consent. We take quite a clear line or a clear stance in that you ask consent and there’s no ifs, buts or maybes about that. You need to get an affirmative yes with someone and you should always try to get an affirmative yes from someone before engaging in any sort of sexual contact. If you don’t get a yes then perhaps their answer was a no.
“It’s a positive thing to do ... I think there’s something great about someone saying a really enthusiastic ‘yes’ about wanting to get down and dirty or whatever it is they want to do – like that is a good thing and that’s something we should be encouraging.”
Say Something survey
The motivation for the campaign stemmed from the Say Something survey, a survey which was carried out by the USI (with the support of Cosc) three years ago and in which 2,750 students participated. It is the biggest and most recent body of data on the experience of third-level students around sexual assault, sexual harassment and sexual violence.
According to this survey, 16% of respondents experienced some form of unwanted sexual contact while at their current educational institution. Just 3% of respondents who had an unwanted sexual experience reported it to the gardaí.
“One of the main reasons was either that they were embarrassed, they were ashamed, or that they felt people wouldn’t believe them,” says USI president Annie Hoey.
“So there’s this whole stigma around being the victim of sexual violence and how it’s your fault that your family will disown you, your friends won’t believe you – that’s really worrying.”
The largest proportion of victims of unwanted sexual experiences identified the perpetrators as being acquaintances. The survey data suggests that LGBT students were more likely to have experienced the behaviours experienced in the study than non-LGBT students. Annie Hoey says it became very obvious from the results of the survey that a victim-blaming approach needs to be avoided at all costs.
“It’s not ever the victim’s fault and we really try to steer away from those campaigns that lay the blame at the victim’s hands rather than the perpetrators.”
Nights out
Irish Country Living also spoke to security staff in a big Dublin nightclub on the matter. While those who are very drunk may be more at risk of sexual assault, this nightclub’s policy is to look after those people.
“We take care of anyone we see leaving. We’ve a medic room – we’ve a paramedic here all the time. A lot of the big places do. We get very few complaints on groping and we take every complaint very seriously, and we’ve loads of cameras.”
This establishment tends to remove those who are too drunk from their premises but says: “If we bring a drunk girl out, we won’t let her go out until we get in contact with her friends.”
And if they can’t find the friends they will ring the parents.
“I have rung parents a handful of times,” says one security man. “It’s a last resort but the parents are delighted. They’re very thankful you do. We do our best. I wouldn’t like to be left alone in that situation. Nine times out of 10, however, we get the name of the friend called out over the DJ and find them that way.”
The security staff we met were keen to stress, however, that the positives outweigh the negatives.
“99.9% of people who go out have a good time and go home. We’ve thousands and thousands of people through the doors.”
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