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The 1 is 2 Many Campaign

Her Campus Placeholder Avatar Lexi Bollis
Her Campus Placeholder Avatar Ally Bruschi
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Kenyon chapter.

**Trigger warning: this article contains a discussion of rape and sexual assault**

On April 29th, Vice President Joe Biden launched a campaign against sexual assault on college campuses entitled “1 is 2 Many.” As part of the campaign, a PSA video was released online that featured several male celebrities, including VP Biden and President Obama, who address the issue of sexual assault and how it needs to be stopped. If this campaign is received well by the American public, it has the potential to go a long way in eliminating rape culture.

Watch the video here:

Before I begin to talk about how excited I am about this campaign, I have to acknowledge a few of its faults:

  1. It’s heteronormative, only speaking about cases between a man and a woman.

  2. It perpetuates the idea that rape and sexual assault only occurs between a male aggressor and a female victim.

  3. This one specific line in the PSA that irks me: “It’s happening to our sisters and our daughters, our wives and our friends.” Why can’t the PSA say “Don’t rape women because women are people” instead of labeling women based on their relationships to men? In a way, I understand how it makes the problem more immediate, because most likely every guy has a woman in his life with whom he has one of these relationships. But, the fact that women have to be, in a way, “claimed” in order for men to listen up and care is upsetting.

Now, onto the many positives I see in the 1 is 2 Many PSA:

  1. It is lead by a high-profile politician, which means it has the potential to reach a wide audience and make a great change. And, judging by the number of times I’ve seen this video posted on Facebook, it already has!

  2. As part of the campaign, a website called Not Alone was launched. This site is meant to monitor school-enforcement policies, give information to students and schools, and provide resources for victims.

  3. Despite being headed by a politician, the campaign doesn’t talk about rape and sexual assault as a political issue, but rather as a social one.

  4. It includes cases in which the victim was unable to give consent.

  5. While the message is specifically targeted at college students, I think it has the potential to reach a much larger audience and hopefully begin a change in deconstructing the current rape culture that plagues America.

  6. The campaign has already sparked some change. Soon after it was launched, this list of the college campuses under investigation for sexual assault cases was released. The reasoning behind this was to create transparency in the enforcement process, as well as create dialogue amongst the general public.

  7. This campaign also has the potential to expand to address cases of rape and sexual assault that are not between a male aggressor and a female victim.

  8. The PSA shows that rape and sexual assault are problems affecting everyone—not just those who are or have been victims.

  9. It calls people to action—to not stand by if they see someone who may be in danger.

  10. Most importantly, the PSA is addressed to the aggressors. No victim blaming here! Victim blaming has been one of the biggest issues in rape culture, so I’m ecstatic to see the PSA send the overall message of “don’t rape” instead of “don’t be raped.” Furthermore, the video explicitly has a line delivered by Daniel Craig that says “I’d never blame her, I’d help her.” That is how it should be.

So, despite some issues, I think this campaign has the potential to make a great positive change in America. Let’s hope that soon, everyone realizes that 1 is 2 Many.

 
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Class of 2017 at Kenyon College. English major, Music and Math double minor. Hobbies: Reading, Writing, Accidentally singing in public, Eating avocados, Adventure, and Star Wars.
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Ally Bruschi is a senior political science major at Kenyon College. She spent this past summer interning as a writer with both The Daily Meal, a digital media group  dedicated to "all things food and drink" and The Borgen Project, a non-profit organization that partners with U.S. policymakers to alleviate global poverty. Before entering the "real world" of jobs, however, Ally spent many summers as a counselor at an all-girls summer camp in Vermont, aka the most wonderful place on earth. A good book, a jar of peanut butter, a well-crafted Spotify playlist, and a lazy dog could get her through even the worst of days.