Literacy Matters Winter 2022

inadvertently condone unhealthy behaviors. He felt that queer men, including himself, often got a pass for their toxic behaviors because women, as the primary drivers of rape culture discourse, were not the usual recipients or witnesses of said behaviors. Tim’s growing understanding of rape culture was, of course, informed by his collective experiences. That his thinking shifted so much in such a short period of time supports my belief that he would have continued to develop a more nuanced understanding of the complexities of rape culture and how it impacts and is impacted by intersecting LGBTQ+ experiences. Furthermore, I cannot say whether the rest of the participants would have made the conscious choice to focus on LGBTQ+ experiences of sexual violence if not for Tim. As often occurs with marginalized groups, Tim shouldered the emotional and intellectual burden of educating his more privileged peers. Reflecting back on what went well and what could have gone better, I regret that Tim did so much labor to educate his peers. Thus, I must consider what I could have and should have done differently. How can I broaden the conversation about rape culture and sexual assault for my students? How does the dominant heterosexual narrative accurately portray sexual violence while simultaneously inaccurately highlighting its scope? I wonder if I should have explicitly encouraged intersectional thinking earlier on in the study. As a critical educator, I continue to struggle with how to navigate gender in ways that challenge the social construct of gender and its associated norms while still affirming gender identity (particularly for my trans students). And while I am always striving to modify my language and behavior to create more inclusive environments for marginalized groups, it remains all too easy to fall into the heteronormative trap when discussing sexual violence and rape culture. This may be due to much of the historical research and critical thought on rape culture coming from women talking about patriarchal subjugation. Then media and pop culture reinforce this by positing sexual violence as dominantly a heterosexual issue, including in the stories that get told in YAL. Hubler (2017) argues the moral attention of YAL remains focused on white, cishet female survivors. Yet a 2019 national school climate survey reported that almost 60% of LGBTQ+ students were sexually harassed at school in the past year, and less than 10% of the assaults were appropriately handled by school staff (Kosciw et al., 2020). We, as individuals and as educators, cannot ignore the fact that the ability to report sexual violence in this current climate is often still only a reality to those with privileged identities. and draw from media and pop culture without centering the experiences of white, cishet women and girls. To begin, selecting texts that include queer experiences with sexual violence can shift learners’ orientation to the topic (Blackburn & Buckley, 2005). Diverse narrators can more effectively illuminate the “ways in which gender interacts with other social institutions to structure violence” (Hubler, 2017, p. 115). My challenge is to talk with my students about rape culture and take up the ideas of historical thinkers on the subject

Another challenge was that most of the participants identified as cishet women, who were processing the novel through their respective worldviews. Thus, hetero perspectives were often privileged in group discussions. Additionally, I was reluctant to impose my perspectives on the group and eager to prevent centering of my values during discussions. I perceived my main contributions to the study to be setting and monitoring the tone, valuing student ideas, and modeling critical ways of being. Though to be sure, my own identities and experiences with rape culture played a part, as even well-meaning teachers still tend to fall back on their own worldview (Lalik & Oliver, 2007). Regardless, the group got through most of the novel before they began to problematize the heteronormativity of discussions surrounding rape culture, and only because of Tim’s commentary. For example, toward the end of the study, he shared, “We’ve talked about men mostly in heterosexual contexts, but gay men can be just as entitled and disgusting as their straight counterparts. This week, I was begged by a 40-year-old on Grindr to have sex with him, and when I ignored his message, he said I was a ‘dud.’”When Tim’s peers responded in outrage, he added, “It happens all the time. I feel like older gay men are never called out for their hyper-sexualization of young gay men.” This resulted in a conversation about how not enough attention is paid to the impact of sexual harassment, assault, and relationship abuse on LGBTQ+ individuals and how they may not feel welcome to say #MeToo because of social stigma and discrimination. Yet on average, LGBTQ+ individuals experience sexual violence at rates comparable to cishet women, and certain groups, such as nonbinary and trans people, experience sexual violence at even greater rates (Walters et al., 2013). Because of Tim’s commentary, the rest of the group eventually began to see past the gendered dimensions of rape culture to consider how other social identities intersect and influence how individuals experience rape culture. After this breakthrough, additional discussions took place that considered race, class, ability, and other intersecting identities. At the last meeting, participants were asked to write down things they wanted to remember from the experience. Among other items, Tim wrote: “I want to remember that it’s not just about people who get drunk at parties. Rape is also committed by partners. And while the focus is often justifiably on women, men are also victims of sexual assault. And certain groups are at an even greater risk, like members of LGBTQ and people of color.” Lessons Learned Although he maintained a commitment to allyship and an understanding of sexual violence towards women as more prevalent, Tim’s experience in the book study broadened his conceptions of sexual violence to include its impact on LGBTQ+ individuals. He used many of his journal entries to unpack what he felt were unacceptable social norms in the LGBTQ+ community, considering the ways in which a collective commitment to normalizing and celebrating sexuality might

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