1. Changing perspectives on
sexual assault
Dr. Leanna Wolfe
Los Angeles Sexology Associates
March 2, 2018

2. Overview
• Anthropological Perspectives on Gender and Violence
• Yanomamo
• Inuit
• Sexual Violence in India and Pakistan Today
• Rape in India
• Turbulent Protests and Conversations
• US Media Conversations
• Brock Turner, Stanford student convicted for rape
• Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly
• Donald Trump’s Groping Exposed
• The Hunting Ground
• Harvey Weinstein
• Uncovering my Family Story of Sexual Violence
• Deciding to Join a Conversation I’d spent my Professional Life Avoiding
• Sexual Assault Research
• Current Findings
• Political Action
• Protests in India
• Women’s March
• Denim Day
• Me Too Movement
• Re-Thinking Gender Dynamics

3. Traditional Inuit
women would live in
a quiet and sleepy
way with little self-
direction. Only
when their hunting
husbands returned
home to the family
igloo, would they
spring into action to
make tea and cook
full meals.

4. Yanomami women live
in a patriarchal and
violent Amazonian
jungle culture. If they
attempt to run away
from their home
villages they typically
are raped when seeking
refuge in neighboring
villages.

5. Winner of 2016 Oscar
for best documentary
short follows the
survivor of a Pakistani
Honor Killing. The
subject ultimately
forgives her father
and his brothers for
attempting to murder
her.

6. 2015 Documentary film
exposes the frequency of
rape on US college campuses.
A nationwide conversation is
triggered as the complicity of
school administrators is
revealed who defend their
dismissal of charges
contending, “Boys will be
Boys.”

7. Brock Turner, a Stanford
student and athlete, is
given a very short jail
sentence for raping an
intoxicated unconscious
woman at a frat party in
Jan. 2015. During the
Spring 2016 trial, the
victim’s statement goes
viral while Turner’s father
refers to the rape as “20
minutes of action.” Turner
serves just 3 months in
jail.

8. • Fox News Executives Create a Culture of
Misogyny, Corruption and Hush Money
• Women’s Complaints traditionally
Dismissed/Ignored
• Women Feared Public Shaming
• 24+ Women Bring Down Roger Ailes
• Gretchen Carlson Surveillance nets $20 M
• Bill O’Reilly Personally Pays $32 M to News
Analyst Lis Wiehl
• 50+ Advertisers Abandon his News Show
Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly

9. Sexual Assault becomes part of the
national conversation in Fall 2016
when Presidential Candidate
Donald Trump is shown in a 2005
news clip bragging about groping
attractive women.
15+ Women Claim Sexual
Misconduct Allegations since 1980s

10. Bill Cosby
• Accusations between
1965 and 2008
• Sexual Assault and
Sexual Misconduct
• Rape (including
drugging victims)
• Pedophilia
• Many Cases Beyond
Statute of
Limitations
• Three Felony Cases
Resulted in a Mistrial
in June 2017

11. My family story
My
Mother
at 11
Perpetrator,
her older
brother

12. My mother at 14 with her two
sisters (who were not
molested) and her mother.

13. My Mother
ultimately
emerged as a
beautiful woman
who did all she
could to stuff
away her
childhood abuse.

14. I was first raped
when I was 22 as a
young anthropologist
exploring Mexico’s
gender divide.

15. Survey: What is sexual assault?
• Voluntary Internet Survey
• In Progress – Launched October 2016
• 296 Respondents
• 69% female; 31% male
• Average completion time: 8 minutes

16. Beliefs: males vs females

17. Beliefs: Millennials vs boomers

18. Activities Considered Sexual harassment

19. Incidence of Sexual Harassment

20. Incidence of sexual assault

21. Rape definitions

22. Incidence of rape

23. Those Raped 3+ Times
100% Female
76% White
12% Mixed
8% Asian
4% Hispanic
Baby Boomers
Gen X
Millennials

24. Changing views on consent
• Seduction requires converting a “No” into a “Maybe” and then into a
“Yes” (150+ moves, Warren Farrell, Why Men are the Way They Are
(1986)
• Rape Myths
• Women who Dress Provocatively
• Leave a Party with a Guy
• False Accusations Are Common
• Consent Training
• “No Means No” shifts to “Yes Means Yes”
• Presumes Immediate Interest in full on sex…
• Must all consent be verbal?

25. What “no means no” means

26. What “yes means yes” implies

27. Ever Asked to end a sexual encounter

28. Response to being asked to end a sexual encounter

29. THOSE WHO WOULD “FINISH UP QUICKLY”
• Male (2/3)
• Hispanic
• 18-25
• Never Raped

30. POLITCAL ACTION:
TAKING IT TO THE STREETS

31. Protestors in India
seek justice
following the
December 2012
gang rape and
subsequent death
of a young woman
on a bus.

32. On January 21,
2017, the day
following the Trump
inauguration, 2.7
million marchers
across the globe
asserted that
women’s rights are
not up for grabs!

33. MY BODY—MY CHOICE!

34. Denim Day – April 26, 2017
Commemorates the
Italian Supreme Court’s
reversal of a 1992 rape
exoneration where the
defense claimed the
victim who was wearing
tight denim jeans must
have cooperated in
removing them thus
making the rape
consensual.

36. • The New York Times publishes an exposé
of women who have been subjected to
sexual misconduct by producer Harvey
Weinstein
• October 5, 2017—story first published
• To date 80+ Women Have Come Public with
Stories from Sexual Harassment to Rape
• Behaviors Documented beginnings in the 70s
• Weinstein had a History of Pressuring
Young Women
• Many were Paid Off and then Forced to Sign
Non-Disclosure Agreements
• Used Private Investigators to Blackmail
Victims into Silence
• Maria Contreras Sweet Makes an Offer to Buy
the Remains of the Weinstein Company
Harvey Weinstein

37. • Via Social Media an International “Me Too” Movement
Emerges
• 85 countries
• More than 12 Million Facebook Posts
• 1.7 Million Twitter Posts with the Hashtag #MeToo

38. The celebrity witch hunt continues
Kevin Spacey Accusations
• 15 accusations of male-male groping
• Production on House of Cards
Suspended
• Seeking “Evaluation and Treatment”
Louis CK Accusations
• Sexual Misconduct
• 5 accusations from 10+ years ago
• Release of “I Love You, Daddy” Delayed
• Issues Statement of Apology

39. Sports physician Larry Nassar Convicted
• “Treated” Female Gymnasts over two
decades
• Treatment was in fact sexual abuse with Nassar
inserting his ungloved fingers into the vulvas of
his young patients
• Sentenced to 175 years in prison
• More than 150 victims testified
• Prior to the #Meetoo Movement women’s
reports dismissed
• Scott Blackmun, CEO of the US Olympic
Committee, resigns

40. Steven wynn resigns
• Transformed Las Vegas into a world class
entertainment center
• Accused by female employees of decades of sexual
harassment and sexual coercion
• Paid $7.5 million in 2005 to settle a sexual
coercion claim
• Stepped down from his position as CEO of the
Wynn Resorts Empire to avert an “avalanche of
negative publicity”
• Resigned as Finance Chair of Republican
National Committee
• University of PA severs all ties

41. ROB PORTER, WHITE HOUSE TOP AID, RESIGNS
• Accused by his two ex-wives of domestic violence
• Well-documented Assaults
• Chief of Staff John Kelly aware of accusations before they
went public
• Offers his own resignation
• Porter was considered a “Rising Star”
• Rhodes Scholar
• BA and JD from Harvard University
• Porter’s Mormon Church cited as a bastion of patriarchal
violence against women
• White House Speechwriter David Sorenson resigns over his
own history of domestic violence accusations

42. A culture in turmoil…as “the List” expands to 51
accusations of men in power

43. “Bad sex” deconstructed
Aziz Ansari
• Bad Sex date with comedian Aziz Ansari ignites a
new social media conversation
• Report published anonymously in Babe.net
• The disconnect between how men and women can
experience dating and sex exposed
• 30% of women experience pain with vaginal
intercourse (and 70% with anal penetration)
• Large numbers of women do not tell their
partners when it hurts…
• Males think of “Bad Sex” as simply an
unexciting or passive partner
• Media Pundits (re: Andrew Sullivan) question
whether #MeToo has gone too far

44. A WOMAN IS ACCUSED
LA State Assembly Woman Cristina Garcia
• A Silence Breaker who revealed her own story of sexual
harassment while serving in the CA State Assembly
• Activist for Women’s Rights
• Accused of inappropriate sexual conduct
• Groped two males at a 2014 legislative softball game
• Stroked their buttocks and reached for the groin
• Agrees to take an unpaid leave of absence during the
investigation

45. “Cat Person” & the Self Deception of Dating
Kristen Roupenian
• New Yorker Fiction Story Goes Viral
• 20-year old female college student and 34-year old guy
meet, text a lot and generate expectations
• Girl feels guilty that she has participated in arousing her
date when she is no longer interested
• She can’t say “No” though part of her wants to
• He has no access to her inner dialogue
• The two truly habit separate gender and cultural worlds

46. TAKE THE SURVEY!
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WhatisSexualAssault

47. Contact information
Leanna Wolfe, PhD
LeannaPhD@outlook.com
www.wisewomansexandrelationshipconsulting.com