Wednesday, Jeff Bucholtz gave a lecture called “Together, We can: Sexual Violence, Gender, and Responsibility.” In which, he challenged concepts of what consent looks like, what double standards are, and how we all shape our culture.  Bucholtz presented somber material in a comfortable and involved way with humor and respect in equal amounts.

“Everyone should be more aware of sexual violence,” said Gwendolyn Broughton, sophomore marketing and management major. “He made it all very comfortable for us to be there and listen to it.”

Bucholtz opened by defining five types of sex. Good, sloppy, bad, regretful, and sexualized violence were the categories. Even a step further, he questioned where we developed our concepts of sexuality. He asked if anyone had learned what good sex is from any one person. Bucholtz asked the audience if they had discovered what it was from friends, family, or a teacher. He concluded, if we didn’t learn it from any other person, we would have had to learn it by ourselves through media. The conversation then veered to question what flaws that means for young adults in their sexuality.

Bucholtz also tried to explain sex using music references. He brought up lyrics of “Animals” by Maroon 5 and “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke, highlighting the words “Hunt you down eat you alive” and “I know you want it”. He stated that people should think of themselves as more than animals and that individuals are responsible for their actions. Bucholtz then proceeded to compare the quotes to convicted rapists and the way they justify their actions with statements like “I could not control myself” or “she wanted it.”

In Bucholtz third point, he discussed how our culture receives different sexual behavior. No one in the audience struggled to think of negative terms for women of either promiscuous behavior or non-promiscuous behavior. The argument he made was that women cannot win, no matter how they behave. Bucholtz even highlighted a personal encounter he had with a nun where he asked her if she had been called a slut as well. She told him “Of course.” Bucholtz claims that no woman was safe from it.

Bucholtz argued that people often use words to try to dehumanize other people to justify treating them poorly. His statement was that for the behavior of culture to change, people must refuse to refer to each other as less valuable.

Lastly, he veered towards personal action. Bucholtz called all attendees to speak up once in a while. He asked everyone to stop using the word slut.

When asked why he started speaking on the matter Bucholtz explained, “The fact it could be changed, that if I did something, we could actually change this.”