A bathroom sign at a local pizzeria that depicted a man lifting up a woman’s skirt has stirred up discussion about rape culture in the Durango community. Conversation about rape culture and sexual assault in Durango was further propelled when The Durango Herald reported on the sexual assault of a woman in town.

 

The local pizzeria sign opened up conversation about rape culture in Durango, Molly Wieser, Title IX Coordinator at FLC, said.

 

Maura Doherty Demko, executive director of the Sexual Assault Services Organization in Durango said her organization served 201 clients in 2016, and the news of this sexual assault was not a surprise to her.

 

“SASO has been serving victims in our community for 40 years,” Demko said. “So for us, that is what we work with every day.”

 

The local pizzeria sign is one example of the pervasiveness of rape culture, Wieser said.

 

Rape culture is the normalization of sexual assault, Merkin Karr, a senior FLC student and leader of the on-campus group for survivors of sexual assault known as LOTUS.

 

Karr said she was surprised to hear about the sign in local pizzeria and a little ashamed she had been there before and not noticed it.

 

Rape culture often appears to be benign and takes the form of inappropriate comments or sexist jokes, but those seemingly benign behaviors rationalize the perpetuation of sexual assault in society, Demko said.

 

Rape culture is a problem nationally, Wieser said. Both Demko and Wieser agree that the prevention of rape culture and sexual assault begins with education.

 

People need to examine their behaviors and biases moving forward in this discussion, Demko said.

 

“How are each of us contributing to this culture?” she asked. “What's our part in this? How can we do it differently?”

 

SASO offers several programs that community members can participate in to learn more about sexual assault and its prevention, Demko said.

 

SASO has programs on bystander intervention, family life and sexual health, child assault prevention and first responder training.

 

Changing the language used to discuss sexual assault also needs to be a part of the conversation about rape culture, Wieser said.

 

Predators and rapists need to be in the conversation when talking about sexual assault and prevention of sexaul assault, Wieser said.

 

Discussion of sexual assault tends to focus on victims and what they could’ve done to prevent the assault. Those who commit rape are often missing from the narrative, Wieser said.

 

Society can address this issue by changing how they talk about sexual assault, she said.

 

Instead of saying that every 93 seconds somebody is raped, people should say every 93 seconds somebody rapes somebody, Wieser said.

"We need to center predators and rapists in the narrative about rape,” Wieser said.

 

Wieser also stressed the importance of listening to and supporting victims of sexual assault.

 

“All of us can be learning to promise other people that if something happened to them, we’re the person who's going to say I believe you, and we’re the person who’s going to say it's not your fault, and we’re also going to say how can I support you,” Wieser said.

 

After news of the sexual assault of a Durangonian woman the community held a vigil for the survivor.

 

Karr believes that attitudes in Durango are shifting and people won’t tolerate this any longer, she said.

 

“I’m really amazed, as an agency we’re really amazed, with the support that this particular case has received from our community, and I feel like it's the perfect storm,” Demko said.

 

Demko hopes with this momentum, the community will be able to change, she said.

 

“This isn’t going to be looked over in a community like Durango,” she said.