One night of her freshman year, Alex went out to a party with her freshman floor mates. Caught up in the bustle of the party, her friends left to get drinks and never came back. A guy she barely knew began dancing with her, eventually walked her back to her dorm and forcefully raped her on the floor. She cried the entire time. He noticed and kissed the tears off her cheeks. She says "he left right afterwards" and she "laughed it off, downplayed it from the start, it wasn't so bad, I told myself ... After all, I was drinking, and I never said no" (Arnold 1). Fortunately, she received counselling and is now an advocate for speaking out against sexual violence. 

This traumatizing story is only one of thousands that have plagued college campuses for many years. The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey agreed that sexual violence is a major problem in the United States (1). Not only is sexual assault and rape an issue for all men, women and children in the United States, but women in college are specifically targeted. In the National Institute of Justice's research on the sexual victimization of college women, they found that women on college campuses "are at greater risk for rape and other forms of sexual assault than women in the general population or in a comparable age group" (Fisher, Cullen, Turner 1). In a study from years 1995-2013 by the Bureau of Justice named Rape and Sexual Assault Victimization Among College-Age Females, "females ages 18 to 25 had the highest rate of rape and sexual assault victimization compared to females in all other age groups" (1). Based on these statistics, women enrolled in a university have the highest chance at being sexually assaulted or raped. Therefore; I will be focusing on the cause of these atrocious actions on women during their college years and why sexual violence has become more prevalent in our society. The roots of sexual assault began with the birth control pill. With this pill came the overall lowering of morality, including the dissolution of families and the tasteless view of women in society, as argued through Pope Paul VI's Humanae Vitae and Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body. 

Sexual assault, sexual violence, and rape are able to be defined in various ways. Many organizations, police units, courts and victims also interpret these crimes differently and this therefore could lead to misinterpretation. Generally, rape could be defined as "any unwanted sexual encounter" including kissing or groping or exclusively only include "forced penetration." For this discrepancy, it is important to define these terms. A reliable source, The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence, employs the system of using a sampling survey of Americans throughout the country. Based on their research of American victim's point of view, rape has been defined as "any completed or attempted unwanted vaginal (for women), oral, or anal penetration through the use of physical force (such as being pinned or held down, or by the use of violence) or threats to physically harm and includes times when the victim was drunk, high, drugged, or passed out and unable to consent. Rape is separated into three types, completed forced penetration, attempted forced penetration, and completed alcohol or drug facilitated penetration" (The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey 17). This definition is straightforward but graphic, which is needed to inform people about these unjustifiable and repugnant situations women are forced into. Beginning from the mid 1960's, statistics concerning rape and sexual assault have been increasing. According to the Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics, 17, 190 forcible rapes occurred in the year 1960, 37,990 occurred in 1970, and 84,376 rapes occurred in 2012 (Federal Bureau of Investigation 1). Obviously the rise in these statistics could be attributed to the fact that women have felt more comfortable reporting their stories to the police, which has therefore raised the figures. But in the 1997 National Crime Victimization Survey, "which includes both reported and unreported crimes," they discovered that "rape and sexual assault did not decline," even though there was a "decline of 7% in the nation's crime rate" (National Crime Victimization Survey). Why the continuous rise in rapes over the last 60 years?

According to the Uniform Crime Report, from the first to the last day of the year 1950, rapes had steadily risen by 1.2%, beginning at 16,380 victims and rising to 16,580 (Uniform Crime Reports 74). At the start of 1960, rapes continued to slightly rise, but still hover in the 17,000's. Then the sexual revolution exploded in America with the birth of "the pill." Between the years 1963 and 1964, rapes all the sudden jumped from 17,650 victims to 21,420 victims. This 3,770 victim difference had never been seen before in America. The correlation between rape rates and the use of "the pill" could not be more perfect. Rapes began to be more prevalent after "the pill" came out. The first rape crisis centers were established in 1972 in Berkeley, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. (Sniffen 2). They were "breaking the silence" of "their experience of rape" as well as "seeing the broader political nature of rape" as well as combating all the effects that arose from rape: "physical injury, mental health consequences such as depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and suicide attempts, and other health consequences such as gastrointestinal disorders, substance abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, and gynecological or pregnancy complications" (The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey 7). These negative consequences of rape examine the need for sexual violence to end. The United States had seen twelve years go by since the widespread use of "the pill", the rapidly ascending rape statistics and the aftermaths of rape. Rapes had now claimed 46,850 victims in the year 1972. Women began to find their voices and seek out help for themselves and for other victims. Clearly, rapes were rising even though rape crisis centers had not been established in the 1960's. So the rape and sexual assault rates were rising even when women weren't coming forward to speak about their traumatic rape experiences.  

I believe this continuous increase in sexual assault and rape rates can be traced back to the year 1960. This was the year that the first birth control pill was released by the FDA to the public. After years of fighting for women's sexuality and freedom from being viewed by men as property: "The pill made it finally possible for American women to separate sexuality and childbearing" (U.S. History). This was the start of what is now known as the "Sexual Revolution." The pill spread rapidly throughout the U.S. and premarital sex dramatically rose (U.S. History).

I believe that this is the root of the rape culture. Making a pill that allows for women to erase children out of the picture during sex, allows for men to exploit women even more than before the birth control pill. They know that women have a much less chance of becoming pregnant using "the pill" so even less commitment to a woman is necessary. The birth control pill which led to unhealthy relationships has led to the rise in rapes.  

In the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey of 2010, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention surprisingly gets to the root of the problem: the importance of family relationships and values. They argue that early in a child's life, prevention efforts should promote "healthy, respectful relationships in families by fostering healthy parent-child relationships and developing positive family dynamics and emotionally supportive environments" (The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey). This argument gets to the root of the sexual abuse that is plaguing our nation. Creating this type of healthy environment where relationships are healthy, respectful, and filled with trust teaches children to create strong and positive relationships. These types of respectful relationships, which begin within the home, are hard to find in today's world. They continue on to say "It is equally important to continue addressing the beliefs, attitudes and messages that are deeply embedded in our social structures and that create a climate that condones sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence" (The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey 4). Acknowledging our societies messages within the family is important to the well-being of the family and for the individuals within the family who face situations within this rape culture. On the Center for Disease and Control's website, victims who reported rape prior to 18 years of age had a higher prevalence of subsequent victimization of rape as an adult" (83). This statement is saddening because of previous statements said by the CDC about the importance of family relationships when young. Children in families need to be taught early on about healthy and respectful relationships in order that they may never be put in a rape situation. 

Virginia Ironside was a young girl in the 1960's and experienced the "sexual revolution" from the perspective of a teenager. In an article from Mail Online named "We Paid the Price for Free Love: the Flip Side of the Sexual Revolution," she reveals an honest viewpoint of the 1960's during the peak of the "sexual revolution." Being trailblazers for a new decade of defining sex through birth-control, she describes the rapid change in attitude from the 1950s to the 1960s as "horribly uncomfortable" in an "endless round of miserable promiscuity" as all teenagers were "ill-prepared" to be the first to deal with sex before marriage. She says, "Men now knew that you were armed with the pill" so "pregnancy was no longer a reason to say 'no' to sex." Her parent's morally sound generation did not have the phrase "one night stand" because married couples in the 1950s considered sex and love to be connected. She concluded by saying that:

the result was that lots of us girls spent the entire 60s in tears, because however one tried to separate sex from love, we'd been brought up to associate the two; so every time we went to bed with someone, we'd hope it would lead to something more permanent ... and each time it never did."

 It is interesting that she realizes "how damaging our sexual behavior was both to our self-esteem and our souls" after she experimented with "the pill" (Ironside, Virginia). During this time in America, rapes and sexual assaults were just beginning to take root. Also around this time, many religious organizations were pressured to take a stance either for or against the birth control pill. Many Catholics were awaiting the decision from the head of the Catholic Church at the time, Pope Paul VI. In 1968, his Humanae Vitae encyclical was released. 

The Catholic Church's teaching on the true meaning of love, marriage, and sexuality is encapsulated in Pope Paul VI's Humanae Vitae. Humanae Vitae's main controversial message rejects the birth control pill in the late 1960's as well as stating the responsibilities of parenthood and the joy of love in marriage. In Section 17, Pope Paul VI lists the future consequences of birth control in our society including "conjugal infidelity and the general lowering of morality." He fears that in the future, men may lose respect for women by "considering her as a mere instrument of selfish enjoyment" instead of a "beloved companion" in life. In the year 2016, this wise prediction of a decrease in morality most certainly has come true in our society. By 1995, the probability of a divorce after one year of marriage was 54% (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). In Bearak's research he developed this argument with the sentence: "As early as the 1930s, sociologists addressed undergraduate sexual behavior, when Waller (1937) expressed the concern that a thrill-seeking college sexual culture would lead to the end of marriage as we knew it" ( Casual Contraception in Casual Sex). Women's bodies are used for pleasure through the selling of media products. In the documentary "MissRepresentation," the Ph.D. Caroline Heldman, an Associate Professor of Political Science at Occidental University said that, "Throughout any type of mass media there is, we see the widespread acceptance of women as sex objects". (28:00 minutes) With one quick glance at the media, women's bodies are used to sell cars, beer, and food, just to name a few. Pornography, the exploitation of men, women, and children's bodies, especially women's, is on the rise. On an Internet Safety website, their findings demonstrate that "A Google Trends analysis indicates that searches for "Teen Porn" have more than tripled between 2005-2013 " (http://www.internetsafety101.org/pornographystatistics.htm)  

He invited married couples into a total love, "it is a very special form of personal friendship ...  without undue reservations or selfish calculations" (Section 9). Sex is not just about gaining pleasure from another person but about loving who they are as a person, their entire being. Just as Virginia Ironside said in her article that sex with random men felt empty and hedonistic, does the Catholic Church attempt to offer a different kind of "love." Pope Paul VI says "Marriage and conjugal love are by their nature ordained toward the begetting and educating of children. Children are really the supreme gift of marriage and contribute very substantially to the welfare of their parents'" (Section 9). If the purpose of sex is both "unitive and procreative", to untie the couple and give life, then it "preserves in its fullness the sense of true mutual love and its ordination towards man's most high calling to parenthood" (Section 12). A majority of people in the world desire to have a family; it is an innate desire within us. The respect of each other's bodies that a couple has for one another in faithful marriage "bestows upon family life fruits of serenity and peace ... it favors attention for one's partner, helps both parties to drive out selfishness, the enemy of true love; and deepens their sense of responsibility" (Section 21). "The pill" turned women into bodies to be used for pleasure rather than a whole person to be respected. 

Overall, the "sexual revolution" from "the pill" led to an overall decline in morality just as Humane Vitae predicted. Sexual assault escalated with the birth of "the pill" as well as a lack of respect for women's bodies. In conclusion, just as the sexual assault victim Alex Arnold said, "We may not be able to completely eradicate sexual violence  --  there will always be bad actors  --  but we can reduce it significantly and we can refrain from making it worse ...  We just have to want to" (Arnold 10). 

