Students talked about gender stereotypes and sexual consent Monday night at a Tempe campus interactive event called “Sex Signals.”
Sex Signals is a national performance by Catharsis Productions delivered by actors who travel to universities, colleges, and military bases around the country.
Catharsis actors Courtney Abbott and Pogi Sumangil used jokes and audience participation to convey the realities of dating and acquaintance rape.
The event was meant to enlighten students about the realities of rape, said Karen Moses, the director of ASU’s Wellness and Health Promotion, which sponsors the event.
“Their message is really vital,” Moses said. “[It] is really fundamental and thought provoking and speaks to students.”
Abbott said rape is not always the masked figure who attacks in an alley, but is often committed by someone the victim knows.
“What we’re trying to do is redefine rape and consent,” Abbott said. “It’s nothing less than vital for students to know how frequently [acquaintance rape] happens.”
At ASU, one in 25 female students and one in 100 male students are the victims of an attempted or completed rape, said Susan Lacke, coordinator of sexual violence prevention at ASU’s Wellness and Health Promotion.
Monday night’s performance was the first of two, with the second being held Tuesday at noon at the West campus.
An event scheduled at the Downtown campus on Monday was canceled due to lack of attendance.
Sumangil said not everyone who comes to the performances will be receptive of the content.
“Even on a very basic level, if people are not receptive to the content, it allows people to walk away with an idea of what a healthy relationship is,” he said. “If you can plant the seed in some people’s minds, maybe when they face it in their lives, they’ll become more aware.”
Communications junior Christina Massey said the event was educational.
“It’s important for people to understand what’s going on, especially since high schools don’t give much sex education,” Massey said.
Freshman Omar Gildeh attended the event with his fraternity Tau Kappa Epsilon, which made up the majority of the audience.
“It’s important to be better educated about sex and being safe,” Gildeh said.
The performers acted out a scene where a college student, played by Sumangil, was accused of rape.
“I did not rape that girl,” Sumangil said at the start of the scene, and Abbott acted as the moderator of a television show about people accused of rape.
Sumangil talked about how he and a girl he knew from class hung out at a party and met up a few days later to study, which ended in the two having sex. Sumangil’s character believed it to be consensual.
“Every time she said stop, she started things back up again,” Sumangil said in his role as the accused rapist.
In the scenario, the victim said stop several times, but would then start kissing and tickling again, which made Sumangil’s character unsure of when to actually stop.
The audience participated by asking questions about the situation, and at the end voted on whether it was actually rape, with most audience members voting that it was.
Others said maybe the accuser was lying, while others said kissing does not mean a person wants to have sex.
“Morally and ethically it was rape because she did say stop [during sex],” Abbott said when the skit was finished.
Abbott said there are resources on campus for people to talk about their own experiences with possible acquaintance rape, or the experiences of people they may know.
She referred people to the Wellness and Health Promotion staff and gave the number for a national hotline called RAINN, 1-800-656-HOPE.
“It’s important that people know someone is there to help,” Abbott said.
Reach the reporter at ymgonzal@asu.edu
