As someone who believes in human rights for everyone, that evidence/facts trump belief/anecdotes, ethics (particularly in media atm), and the notion that anyone convicted of a crime is innocent until proven guilty, I am becoming increasingly worried (almost paranoid) about the current ideology war happening across many countries (much of it seemingly in America) and how it is beginning (or maybe continuing?) to affect Australia more than ever.
If you are someone who cares about these things I implore you to please continue reading and maybe share it with others, otherwise I will try my best to summarise it all in a TL;DR down below.
I'm a recent graduate from LTU and whilst I was trying to access my student email before it got deleted I spied this, and whilst I appreciate the VC's choice of words and the concern he has for safety on campus, the documentary in question has a number of issues that, when looked into, are extremely worrying considering how seriously the film is being taken.
For one thing, it demonstrates to me that we, as a society, have a clear bias towards always treating women as the victim and to never actually question or fact check the issue for fear of being labeled as a sexist. If something like this agenda-driven propaganda film, created by activists can be taken so seriously, to be nominated (by the Producers’ Guild of America) for “best documentary film” and have university's around the world promote and screen the film on campus despite the flawed statistics, misrepresentation of one of the central cases, that it is considered one of the CRAPPIEST films of 2015, and a whole lot of other problems not listed, I think my assumption is justified.
IMO, our society is being twisted by people pertaining to a regressive ideology that, in turn, is corrupting the things we take for granted (i.e. free speech, equal rights, and a fair trial) and I am absolutely sick and tired of it. I've seen what this cancer does...what it has done...to communities I consider myself to be apart of, and it just boils my blood. To now see it slowly taking ahold here is really upsetting, and we need to do something about it.
By the way, I'm not trying to argue that issues relating to the film should be ignored, far from it. I am just strongly of the belief that we should not be perverting them either. As Caroline Kitchens puts it
Sexual violence is an abiding problem and we need serious solutions. A balanced, well researched documentary would have been a valuable contribution to the national discussion on campus sexual assault. The Hunting Ground is not that documentary. Not only does it paint a false picture of campus life, and slander men who may well be innocent, but it fuels a moral panic that will ultimately get in the way of real solutions
Pushing an agenda over fundamental rights is simply wrong and unethical in every scenario possible. Yet when it comes to a the issues presented in this "documentary" it would seem that this rule is completely ignored.
Whilst I don't know what more I can do other than what I've tried to do here, I hope that enough people around the world, including those here in Australia, feel the same way that I do and will be able to add their voice and bring more awareness to this problem so that we don't end up with bigger issues down the road. I also wouldn't mind any criticism too, as it will help me (and others) better understand what we might have overlooked or even ignored.
Anyways, thanks for reading.
TL;DR: My former university posted this, and whilst I see the intent as trying to do good, I am worried about the issues in the "documentary" that are being ignored due to what I perceive (amongst so many other things) as society's bias towards treating women as always being the victim. I think we need to have a good hard look at ourselves and ask are we really helping the issue with unethical, agenda-driven propaganda like this film or are we infact making it worse.
[Disclaimer: I do not wish to cause any issues in regards to wrong subverse submissions or intentionally breaking rules. If there are problems of this nature with this post, I would appreciate any feedback/advice given, even if the post needs to be removed. I am intending on posting this thread on a number of subverses, but my hope is that it will reach out to enough people that their can be a fair evaluation of the issue at hand. I will probably delete this disclaimer after 24hrs only because it should have served its purpose by then and has no other use]
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[–] Sephrone [S] 1 point -1 points 0 points (+0|-1) ago
nope