Some book titles can hide or confuse. Other titles, though, truthfully convey a book’s essence.
Vanessa Grigoriadis, an editor for the New York Times Magazine and Vanity Fair, has written thoughtfully about sexual assault at colleges. It is a difficult topic, emotionally charged and painful. It is a politicized issue – from the right and the left – and is surrounded by much debate. Sexual mores, roles, responsibilities, and protections are changing. Attitudes, rules, processes and laws are also changing. While the data and scholarship on sexual assault in colleges is far from definitive, we know that it is an extremely serious and widespread problem. There is awful trauma and harm going on at our colleges and universities, and to Grigoriadis’s credit, she addresses it head on. She tells the stories of victims, giving them voice and agency. Grigoriadis’s 2018 book on the topic, based on extensive research, is provocative, difficult, informative, and without simple conclusions. She named it Blurred Lines: Rethinking Sex, Power and Consent on Campuses.
The title accurately captures the work and the way that it addresses this complex and evolving issue. Grigoriadis initially wanted to call it “Sex Ed: Hedonism, Evil, and the Paramaters of Consent.” After working on the book for three years, talking with survivors, students, advocates, parents, educators and others involved with the problem, she found herself engaged in a deeper process of trying to make sense of confusion, contention and conflict. She altered the book’s title because she could not identify clear demons (though there are predators) or claim definitive answers (though she does have good recommendations). The study is both narrower and deeper than #MeToo.
Aware that the problems of sexual assault and violence are greater than only what takes place at colleges, Grigoriadis focuses her work on residential four-year institutions of higher education and males assaulting females. Within those strictures, she writes mainly about élite colleges and universities. The story of Emma Sulkowicz, the Columbia University student who carried a mattress through her college years to protest the university’s lack of action against the student she claimed raped her, threads throughout the book. Syracuse University, Wesleyan University (Grigoriadis’s alma mater), and Yale figure prominently, as does Greek culture and life. She emphasizes that the battle for élite college culture is, in many ways, the battle for society’s future. Most of the leaders involved in the debate are aware of this, too, and that ratchets up the stakes further.
Part One of the book examines college life, or as Grigoriadis calls it, “Planet College.” It is both a familiar and alien world for those that are older or have not experienced the hothouse of residential college life. She contrasts Wesleyan with Syracuse – and talks with a boy student about his perspective on gender, sex and college life. The choice of “boy” is purposeful. Maturity is a work in process for many students.
The general overview of college life paves the way for Part Two, which examines nonconsensual sexual activities. Grigoriadis looks closely at the different ways that students and their institutions wrestle with gender roles and consent. The impact of social media and technology are investigated, along with the explosion of pornography. She explores how external changes, such as Title IX, impact the definitions and understanding of assaults that involved college students and the efforts to address wrongs.
It is complicated and messy. However, there is a clear key takeaway – which should not come as a surprise to anyone who has worked with college students – the key drivers of many sexual assaults are alcohol and misogyny. Greek life can institutionalize both. Toxic masculinity is just that – toxic. It is impossible to read about the injustices in Grigoriadis’s book and not be enraged. More should have been done and more must be done in the future to protect women from assault.
Part Three of Blurred Lines looks at the ways that institutions are and are not addressing this massive problem. Grigoriadis tries to cover a tremendous amount of content here, and as a result, her narrative is somewhat less assured. Different institutions do different things – and cases of sexual assault are not necessarily the most reliable window into broader societal, policy or programmatic changes. The book works to contextualize Title IX, but volumes could be written on the law’s impact over the years.
Grigoriadis closes the book with some very reasonable suggestions for students, parents, and colleges.
Blurred Lines offers a carefully researched and considered overview of a national problem, sexual assault at colleges. It locates that problem within a larger narrative of sexism, violence against women, societal changes and a growing call for justice. More long-form journalism than systematic study, the book is stronger on timeliness and immediacy than on making arguments or policy recommendations. Nevertheless, this is an important book, worthy of time and consideration. Importantly, it can help inform, empower and inspire action. Higher education has a vital role providing safe and inclusive environments. Colleges and universities have neither effectively nor consistently made this happen. Grigoriadis’s book makes it clear that much more needs to be done and done immediately.
David Potash