Changing the culture

TUESDAY, Feb. 9 — Nearly 200 students packed into a lecture hall at MSU’s Wells Hall Wednesday night to attend Taking Down Rape Culture, an event that addressed sexual assault and what could be done to combat it. The event featured Laci Green, a well-known video blogger, sex educator, and feminist activist. Green’s YouTube channel, Sexkknd, has over 1.4 million subscribers

Green’s presentation covered four main sections: the definition of rape culture, forces that uphold rape culture, combating rape culture with consent culture and actions that can end rape culture.

“In rape culture, sexual violence is common and considered inevitable and fact of life and there’s nothing that we can really do about it, so it’s tolerated and excused,” said Green

YouTube star Laci Green addresses a packed lecture hall at MSU Wednesday night.

Naseim Omeish/City Pulse

The event was hosted by The Associated Students of Michigan State University, an undergraduate student government. The talk took an in-depth look at mainstream culture and how it responds to sexual violence. The presentation specifically addressed the widespread problem of sexual assault on college campuses. Statistic suggest that one in four female students and one in six male students are sexually assaulted while in college.

“According to the department of justice, sexual assault is the most underreported crime that there is, so the numbers are probably much higher,” said Green. “Statistically, all of us know someone who has been a victim to rape, if not yourself”

Felicia Jansen, a general assembly member and policy committee chair at ASMSU, thought the talk was timely, based on MSU’s recent mishandling of on-campus sexual assaults.

“It is important to talk about this. The university was being investigated on how they were handling things, and it’s a problem at every university around the whole country,” Jansen said. “We have been trying to bring awareness to it and have more discussions of positive consent culture. That’s the real reason I wanted to bring Laci here. She is popular on YouTube, and it would be a great way to bring in a large audience to come and hear about these things and keep the discussion going”