College Athletics Breeding Criminals?

Male college athletes are wrongly being labelled as sexual assaulters following the recent rape conviction of Stanford swimmer, Brock Turner, and false rape allegations against members of the Duke lacrosse team (Kalili, 2016). Male college athletes are wrongly stereotyped as sexist and egocentric because of how some male athletes treat women. While some male athletes are disrespectful to women, there are also some female athletes who are disrespectful towards men. It is wrong to stereotype male athletes as sexist and more likely to commit sexual assault because stereotypes do not represent every person in a group. I think it is important to consider the actions of all male athletes, and not the select few who are sexist and egocentric.

In honour of the 9/11 tragedy, the positive actions of male college athlete, Welles Crowther, should be remembered as he epitomized honour and team effort. Welles Crowther was a former Boston College lacrosse player. He was working on the 104th floor of the south Twin Tower when two hijacked planes hit the Towers (Noonan, 2016). Welles found the only open stairwell and could have escaped the crumbling tower, but rather selflessly ran into the danger to find others and show them the way to safety. He ultimately lost his life saving his colleagues. Athletes value the importance of teamwork, and many athletes live by the principle of “no teammate is left behind.” Welles saw his colleagues in danger and would not leave his co-workers to die while he found safety, just as he would likely not let one of his teammates from his lacrosse brotherhood suffer by doing extra suicide sprints alone. 

In order to reduce the number of sexual assaults on college campuses, it is important to engage male college athletes in the conversation to prevent them. Male college athletes often feel pressured to show their masculinity because they are supposed to be the, “big man on campus.” The masculinity of a college male is determined by how much beer they can drink and how many girls they can get with. College males try to outdo each other to appear the most masculine. The attitude to try to “one-up” each other results in more alcohol being drank and more poor decisions involving women to occur, which can lead to sexual assault. In fact, the following graph created by the Department of Community Medicine from Wayne State University states over eighty percent of sexual assaults are influenced by alcohol. The positive conversation about educating male college athletes of the criminality of sexual assault starts with emphasizing the teamwork aspect of sports and not the need to appear masculine.

(Department of Community Medicine, Wayne State University. National Statistics on Alcohol and Sexual Assault. Digital image. Niche. N.p., 2014. Web. 26 Sept. 2016.)

For more information regarding the need to engage male college athletes in the prevention of sexual assault, watch this Ted Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t7_xHszKws 

Sources:

Kalili, Candice. "10 Other Top College Athletes You Forgot Were Also Accused Of Rape." Elite Daily Comments. Elite Daily, 08 June 2016. Web. 12 Sept. 2016.

Noonan, Peggy. "Remembering a Hero, 15 Years After 9/11." WSJ. Wsj.com, 08 Sept. 2016. Web. 12 Sept. 2016.