Rape Culture on College Campuses

Last week, feminist author, blogger, and speaker, Jessica Valenti visited Penn State to give a talk on the importance of feminism for addressing problems of sexual violence. To those of you who aren’t familiar with her work, Jessica Valenti is an outspoken advocate for women’s health and reproductive rights, she has written several books on issues concerning today’s women, she founded Feministing.com, and was named one of the Top 100 Inspiring Women by The Guardian, who also described here as “a pioneering blogger whose online activism dragged feminism into the 21st century”.

I first became aware of her work in 2007, when she appeared on the Colbert Report to talk about her book Full Frontal Feminism, so when I found out that I had the opportunity to meet her and to do an interview with her for our Speak Up blog, I was, well, terrified. Fortunately for me and, even more so, for you, it turns out that she doesn’t need a polished and professional interviewer in order to provide clear and insightful comments on the problems we face on college campuses and on the ways we can go about addressing them.