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The student-athletes pictured are actors
in SCREAM Theater. They perform in skits
that challenge commonly held “rape
myths” – for example, the myth that “no”
doesn’t really mean “no.”
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The romantic scene between Zack and Dawn, track and field athletes at Rutgers, built up to a violent crescendo. The massage Zack gave Dawn turned into a rough rape scene with Zack cursing and Dawn kicking and crying.
The skit is chilling and convincing, but Zack and Dawn are not professional actors. They are SCREAM Athletes, featured live at student and athletic team programs and now on celluloid for students at other schools to benefit from their message.
SCREAM (Students Challenging Reality and Educating Against Myths) Theater began in 1991 at Rutgers as a way to communicate important issues about sexual assault on campus and dispel commonly held myths about rape. Ruth Anne Koenick, director of Sexual Assault Services and Crime Victim Assistance (SAS/CVA), figured that incoming first-year students and others would pay more attention to a skit by their peers than to another lecture.
She was right. SCREAM Athletes formed in 1994 as an
offshoot of the original program. And since then, SAS/CVA and the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics have worked together to feature student-athletes in the performances and to disseminate the video’s message to athletes on Rutgers’ 27 teams.
The video features Athletic Director Robert Mulcahy, football Head Coach Greg Schiano and women’s basketball Head Coach C. Vivian Stringer. “Bob Mulcahy has really been a partner and has made it clear to his staff that we are partners,” Koenick said. “It’s hard to get coaches like Stringer and Schiano. They are busy people, but they know this is important.”
Mulcahy realizes that dating violence and sexual assault issues affect athletes in a different way from the average student. “If they get themselves into a problem, they’re going to be on the front page of the paper. That’s hard to tell a college kid who thinks they’re invulnerable,” Mulcahy said. “I immediately was impressed with the potential this program had. It’s very necessary to sensitize students to these issues. We make it mandatory for our 800 athletes.”
In the years after SCREAM Athletes’ founding, schools across the country requested the performance at their events, but traveling was difficult. “They’re students first and athletes second. Their schedules are outrageous,” Koenick said. “It was impossible to do the kind of traveling we wanted to do. So we thought about doing a video that would be an alternative to doing a live performance.”
The SCREAM Athletes’ video debuted last April. SAS/CVA has sold about 15 copies so far. Next month, Koenick will take the video to a conference sponsored by the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault, where about 300 representatives of 70 colleges can view it.
Partially funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, the video is based on research conducted by Sarah McMahon, coordinator for research and evaluation at SAS/CVA. It seeks to dispel commonly held “rape myths” – for example, the notion that a young woman dressed provocatively is asking for sex or that “no” does not mean “no.”
McMahon spent a year studying the attitudes of student-athletes toward sexual violence. “We have always approached student-athletes as potential leaders on student values,” rather than potential perpetrators, McMahon said. “We found that much like student culture in general, there is a lack of awareness of some of the core issues of sexual assault.” Many of the student-athletes were unfamiliar with the definition or notion of consent and were not aware of how alcohol sets the stage for violence. Female athletes tended to believe they were unlikely victims of sexual assault compared with other women.
The competition, aggression and sometimes derogatory language involved in athletics tend to “create a culture that tolerates this behavior,” McMahon said. The video does not hold back on misogynistic slang, and the performance seems authentic – and resonates with students – because “this is not scripted,” Koenick said. “We were able to change things on a dime – that is one of the beautiful things of interactive improv theater.” Mulcahy’s own observations are a testament to that. “The reactions that I’ve seen from athletes are very positive, and they come away saying ‘This is real,’ ” Mulcahy said.
McMahon said that athletes have an advantage over other students in that they have a built-in support network that, for many, functions like a second family. “Athletes are willing to take a stand against sexual violence,” McMahon said. “We found that this unique network allows them to influence their peers. They describe each other as families. They also talked of the role of coaches and captains. They respect the messages they send.”
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