The Victims Of Stalking
Imagine walking to class, afraid of a certain someone. Someone who has your schedule memorized and knows all of the paths you take in order to get to class. Someone who will not take “no,” for an answer. Someone who will not leave you alone, despite you begging them to stop. Stalking is an unfortunate reality many college students face on college campuses, an environment that is supposedly a so-called safe place. The general public tends to play stalking off as not being that bad, and that the victim deep down really loves the attention their perpetrator shows them. But how do the victims of stalking feel about their experiences? Do they feel like they have been violated in some way? Research conducted by Dr. McNamara and Dr. Marsil indicate
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169). In Western cultures, men are typically expected to pursue the woman that interests them the most, and if she denies you, then she is just playing hard to get. However, this concept of masculinity in Western cultures is dangerous not just for women, but also for men. In Dr. McNamara’s and Dr. Marsil’s study, 35.7% of people who identify as male experienced stalking-type behaviors according to the operational definition of stalking the researchers used. While people who identify as female had a ten percent increase of coming into contact with stalking behavior, 35.7% is still quite a a large percentage, and out of that percentage, only 22% will self-identify as victims of stalking (pg. 168). Due to Western concepts of gender roles, men supposedly should always be accepting of any attention from females, and men who do not want the attention from a female obviously has something wrong with them. This phenomenon can drastically skew data stemming from survey type questions as well because men may not want to disclose, even anonymously, that they were stalked at all. They could very well believe that something is wrong with them for not wanting and enjoying the attention, which just leads the victim to blame themselves instead of the perpetrator. By placing the blame upon themselves, they would not be willing to identify as a victim because they still want to be a part of the social
169). In Western cultures, men are typically expected to pursue the woman that interests them the most, and if she denies you, then she is just playing hard to get. However, this concept of masculinity in Western cultures is dangerous not just for women, but also for men. In Dr. McNamara’s and Dr. Marsil’s study, 35.7% of people who identify as male experienced stalking-type behaviors according to the operational definition of stalking the researchers used. While people who identify as female had a ten percent increase of coming into contact with stalking behavior, 35.7% is still quite a a large percentage, and out of that percentage, only 22% will self-identify as victims of stalking (pg. 168). Due to Western concepts of gender roles, men supposedly should always be accepting of any attention from females, and men who do not want the attention from a female obviously has something wrong with them. This phenomenon can drastically skew data stemming from survey type questions as well because men may not want to disclose, even anonymously, that they were stalked at all. They could very well believe that something is wrong with them for not wanting and enjoying the attention, which just leads the victim to blame themselves instead of the perpetrator. By placing the blame upon themselves, they would not be willing to identify as a victim because they still want to be a part of the social