Turmoil in the literary community

"May the next season of workshops see zero incidents of actions that belittle, hurt, and traumatize."

 

Sexual assault at a literary workshop?

One workshop fellow’s claim of being raped while at a workshop down south elicited mixed reactions from the small and deeply connected writers’ community.

While some defended the other person in the affair, saying he is incapable of such behavior, others were distressed to read the woman’s anguished recounting of her intimate encounter with the event’s speaker whom she described as being twice her age.

She says that they were both drunk at the time, she had blacked out and was not in control of her actions, and after reviewing the incident, she says she now does not feel comfortable with what happened.

The accuser has named and shamed the accused through Facebook posts. The latter posted a reply and refused to comment further pending legal action by his counsel.

But to understand this story, we first need to know what a writing workshop is and how it is conducted.

Most, if not all, of the writing workshops in the Philippines are organized by the creative writing programs of universities. Participants, called ‘fellows,’ mostly range from older college-age to mature writers, depending on the type of workshop offered. For many aspiring writers, it is an honor and a rite of passage to be selected as a fellow from among other applicants nationwide.

What happens at a workshop? The organizing university convenes a panel of writing experts from their institution and sometimes from outside. These experts critique the fellows’ submitted works, and offer advice on how to improve them. Fellows are also part of the discussion.

Done right, a workshop is an enlightening and transformative experience. The best takeaways are the friendships made with the panelists and fellows. The literary ‘gods’ one was once in awe of turn out to be human beings after all.

And because of shared interests (love of writing) and experiences (the workshop), it’s easy, and given the circumstances, inevitable, to develop friendships with co-fellows. I am still in touch with my female co-fellows and a few of the mentors from a national writing workshop I attended in 2013.           

Because there are some 10 to 12 fellows and discussions are nuanced and in depth, writing workshops can never take place in just a day or two. They usually last five days to a week and are held out of town, and are thus ‘live-in’ in nature.

Sometimes included in the itinerary of these workshops is a tour of the venue city’s art spots and bookshops, and fellowship activities such as pub crawls and similar do’s that involve alcohol. It’s at the latter, and at the workshop residence, that opportunities for intimate connections between participants might arise, as happened in this case.

Going back to the incident, both sides have lawyered up, and perhaps the matter will go to court. It’s between the two parties now, and we’ll leave it there.

From a broader perspective, though, what disturbed the writing community are the issues of consent, ‘name and shame,’ and victim-blaming.

First, consent. Can an intoxicated person give their consent for a sexual encounter? Dartmouth College and the University of Tulsa have detailed guidelines.

“Alcohol and other drugs complicate sex,” says Dartmouth, “because they impair our judgment…affect our capacity to communicate… [and] impact our ability to read and interpret others’ communication.”

Dartmouth adds, “With their consent, you can have sex with someone who is intoxicated, but it may be worth thinking about why you want to be intoxicated or why you want to be with someone who is intoxicated when choosing to have sex.

“If your partner is showing signs of incapacitation, STOP.”

They define incapacitation as a “state beyond intoxication,” and add that “consent cannot be given by anyone who is incapacitated.”

U of T says intoxication itself is enough to cast doubt on the ability to give consent. “Drugs and alcohol impact decision-making and blur consent. When drugs and alcohol are involved, clear consent cannot be obtained. An intoxicated person cannot give consent.”

They add, “Regardless of how drunk or incapacitated a person may be, it is never their fault that they were assaulted.”

Second, many took exception to the woman’s calling out the other party by name in her public social media posts. “Innocent until proven guilty,” they said. There are two sides to every story, and the other side has not been heard.

Third, victim-blaming ensued. The woman was painted as an attention-seeker.  A friend of the accused commented on Facebook that that false rape claims are sometimes made. Who’s to say, he noted, whether this woman might have tweaked the facts to make herself the victim in this encounter?

Regardless of where one stands on the matter, some points should be considered going forward. One, that workshop organizers ban intimate fraternizing between panelists and fellows. Panelists are there as teachers, and should conduct themselves as such, enforcing the necessary professional distance.

Two, that alcohol be banned— it’s not worth it, it causes too much trouble. This will be very difficult to enforce, though.

Three, that organizers create a detailed guideline for personal conduct and behavior by all parties concerned, just to ensure everyone’s safety.

Four, that a culture of respect be instilled so that anyone with a legitimate grievance will feel safe enough to report it. This incident emboldened a number of female writers to attest that they too, had been raped at a workshop while drunk or drugged, and that their reports were swept under the rug and dismissed by the powers-that-be in a patriarchally-dominated community. Others said they were too afraid to come forward.

As a female writer myself, I call out rape culture wherever it may be found. Women in general need to be believed, because they are so marginalized that even the violations committed upon them are made out to be their fault. “She was asking for it because she was drunk/her clothes were provocative,” are among the justifications men make for their crimes against women.

At the same time, I caution against public shaming without very strong proof because people’s personal and professional reputations are at stake. Many lives have been shattered by false claims, which, though rare, do happen.

The literary community has turned inward on itself, looking for answers, trying to set things right. May the next season of workshops see zero incidents of actions that belittle, hurt, and traumatize. *** FB and Twitter: @DrJennyO