The Role of an Advocate: Zoe Miller and Cheniece Wilson on Challenging Rape Culture on Campus
Interview by Emma Segrest. Photography by Chelsie Walter.
Trigger Warning: This article/interview contains references to sexual assault, rape, and gender-based violence.
I’m going into my fourth year as a journalism and creative writing major at the University of Cincinnati. Last semester, I was able to take on a story in my investigative journalism class exposing the faults in the university’s protocols for alerting students about sexual assaults that happened on our campus. My co-writers and I found that over a five-year period, the University of Cincinnati only told students about one in every five rapes that happened on campus.
The revelation was discouraging and left me feeling frustrated and disappointed. Even more so when I talked to former Women of Cincy interviewee Grace Cunningham, who further confirmed the lack of care her story received from the university. It left me wondering what was available to students who go through these types of traumatic experiences, where can they turn to on a campus that carries these troubling trends?
When researching what resources were available and were genuinely helpful to students, I found the Women Helping Women (W.H.W) Campus Advocates Zoe Miller and Cheniece Wilson. Zoe and Cheniece’s presence when I first had the opportunity to talk to them over Zoom can be described as a warm hug. They radiated compassion, professionalism, and care for the work they do. After my previous experiences of trying to contact people at U.C. about how the university handles sexual assault reports on campus, talking to Zoe and Cheniece showed me what this experience should be like for students every time.
As the official Campus Advocates for the University of Cincinnati, Zoe and Cheniece are responsible for creating awareness and education around gender-based violence. The pair focus on connecting students who have experienced gender-based violence to appropriate resources, being a confidential support system for survivors, and more. These women do it all and do it with the utmost love for their work and the students they help every day.
Both women have local roots; Zoe received her master’s degree from U.C. in 2018 for social work and Cheniece graduated from Xavier in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in social work and a minor in gender and diversity studies. They have worked in courts, police departments, schools, shelters, and more. Their dedication to their advocacy is nothing short of awe-inspiring and gives me more restored hope in how U.C.’s community can continue to tackle these issues of gender-based violence on our campus.
The following Q&A is based on the interviewee’s firsthand account of their experiences and opinions alone.
As campus advocates, the general premise of your role is to provide resources to students who are impacted by gender-based violence and create awareness for this. Could you tell me what some more specifics of this role are?
Cheniece: As a campus advocate, our primary role is to serve students, staff, and faculty members of U.C.’s community. So some of the things we do are one-on-one appointments in crisis interventions, court advocacy, hospital accompaniments for survivors of gender-based violence (G. B. V.), assistance with Title IX hearings and academic accommodations with this, any referrals to outside resources, and we host a weekly support group.
I think on a college campus there are a lot of instances of rape culture that go unchecked every day. Would you be able to provide some examples of what rape culture can look like or how to identify it?
Zoe: Rape culture, I feel like right now has become sort of a buzzword in a way.
Cheniece: I agree.
Zoe: I think sometimes people don’t know what it means. Rape culture is this sociological theory of a setting in which rape is pervasive and normalized due to societal attitudes about gender and sexuality.
So when we’re talking about rape culture, we are talking about dismantling that idea. To break it down with what we do on campus, we discuss what it is in a lot of our prevention programming. We have a program called bystander training which is where we discuss this spectrum of violence and recognize the frequency of this behavior.
When society can recognize things such as catcalling and rape jokes as harmful is when we can really begin to start dismantling rape culture from the bottom up.
You know, there’s a scale of what rape culture can look like. A lot of times these “less harmful” words or behaviors can be more frequently used and accepted as normal by people.
I’m guessing this is a dangerous viewpoint?
Cheniece: Absolutely, because this means that rape culture is still happening, gender-based violence is still happening, but on the lower end of this scale. It paves the way towards increasing violence and tolerance of this behavior.
Zoe: When society can recognize things such as catcalling and rape jokes as harmful is when we can really begin to start dismantling rape culture from the bottom up. When I say the bottom up, usually when we talk about this we are looking at the spectrum or like a pyramid of things, and at the bottom is kind of where that catcalling and rape jokes live.
So for example with our programming, we do a thing called “In Reel Life” where we have a conversation and identify examples of what rape culture behavior can look like on film, and point out where society is accepting pervasive attitudes and behaviors.
Cheniece: We did one about “Twilight” that went really well.
Zoe: It did, it started off our series.
Cheniece: The whole time we talked about how much of a stalker Edward was.
Zoe: Yes, I remember when I watched it when I was younger we were told that everything he’s doing is romantic. So there’s a point in the movie where Edward is in Bella’s bedroom, but Bella never gave consent for him to enter, and she’s sleeping. He’s just standing over her watching. This is not only an example of him stalking but his behaviors escalating as well. Had Edward been represented as his true 104-year-old self the audience would have had a completely different reaction to this.
Cheniece: Beyond this, we have training for jobs, bars, and more. Rape culture can be perceived in totally different ways for all these locations. We have to be able to have different conversations in different settings to be able to educate on all levels.
Why do we need a focus on gender-based violence on a college campus specifically? Why have all these tailored resources just for college students?
Zoe: On a college campus, college students might be, and typically are, more vulnerable to gender-based violence because of a potential lack of exposure or understanding of healthy relationship dynamics.
Cheniece: We work to try and educate students on healthy relationship habits, what this gender-based violence can look like, and offer them a safe place to go should they experience it.
Using the term survivor can empower the individual and allow them to see themselves as a true survivor to what they have experienced. It really gives them back that control over their autonomy.
Zoe: So on a college campus there is something called a “red zone” and what that is, is a period of time typically in the fall semester where the majority of sexual assaults will happen on campus. This influx of new students, in a new environment, leaves a lot of people open to being potentially harmed.
What do you hope is people’s biggest takeaway upon learning about the work you two do?
Cheniece: As campus advocates, we are available to everybody a part of the U.C. community. So that includes the main campus, the branch campuses, virtual school, and faculty and staff. If you are part of the community we are here for you.
Zoe: We work with all survivors regardless of racial, sexual, gender, or religious identity. Our name says Women Helping Women, which oftentimes might deter somebody, but we are here to help everyone who may need it.
When we talk about gender-based violence, there is a big push to use the word survivor instead of the word victim. Do you wanna talk about that?
Cheniece: For some people, being referred to as a victim has a very negative connotation. Using the term survivor can empower the individual and allow them to see themselves as a true survivor to what they have experienced. It really gives them back that control over their autonomy. On the flip side of that, some survivors do prefer to be called victims. We do try to reflect what terms and verbiage our clients are using, whatever they feel connected to is the right choice for them. But it is personal.
Can you walk me through an average day on the job?
Cheniece: Yeah! I would say for both of us, every day is kind of new. I love when we get asked this question, you know our day can get filled up with things like one-on-one interventions or collaborations with other offices on campus, training, support groups, the list goes on! All of that being said, when doing this crisis work, all of that can change in an instant. Sometimes we have to push away that to-do list until the next day because at the end of the day my number one priority is really making sure our survivors are being served properly.
Zoe: I would agree with Cheniece on that. Advocacy work is a lot of flexibility in what you do. You never know when your services are going to be needed, and how they’ll be needed. Helping our survivors is always the end goal though.
I noticed that a lot of the campus events you had this year, whether on campus or virtual, were tailored to specific groups on our campus. I noticed a ton of great work that came after the Atlanta Spa Shooting, creating programs that explained specific gender-based violence in the A.A.P.I community, so why is it important to have these tailored events for specific communities of people versus a general awareness type thing?
Cheniece: The number one thing to note is that there are a lot of cultural and identity intersectionalities that intertwine with gender-based violence. This ends up putting some individuals at higher risk for gender-based violence. About 45 percent of our clients are Black P.O.C. identifying, and about 27 percent are a part of the L.G.B.T.Q.+ community.
I had never heard those statistics before, hearing statistics like that always takes you aback just a little bit. Going further into this, what steps do you take to tailor your programs to students of various gender identities and sexualities?
Zoe: We do a lot of outreach on differing identities on our social media page. We use social media in every aspect of the work that we do. Some examples of things we’ve posted on there we provided different stats regarding gender-based violence in the L.G.B.T.Q. community like the one we just shared with you; we created a spotlight of different gender-based violence advocates both local and around the world of all types of identities, we made posts highlighting the stats of B.I.P.O.C. and gender-based violence, we collaborate a lot with the L.G.B.T.Q. Center and the Gender Equity and Inclusion office, too.
I think that’s awesome how much care you both put into making your programs a place where everyone can feel safe and heard. I saw that another way you do this is with your peer advocacy program, can you tell me about that?
Cheniece: Absolutely! Our program is called Peers Helping Peers or P.H.P for short. It’s really just a volunteer program where students are able to provide education to their peers about the things we work on here. They also promote a campus culture that really believes in empowering survivors, they do great work for that.
You know, our volunteers usually do advocacy training where they learn about our ethics and more about what gender-based violence looks like. Then on top of that, they get to become super immersed in what Women Helping Women is. They care a lot about the work they do and it shows, it really does.
If you could say anything to those who volunteer with you right now what would it be?
Zoe: We love our P.H.P. members. We need to give huge props to all the work they do on campus. From social media posts to service presentations they really do the most. With all the work Cheniece and I do, we wouldn't be able to do everything and reach as many people as we do, without them by our side.
It’s encouraging to know that even when they leave the U.C. community, they’ll take the information that they learned and be pioneers in their future spaces.
Can you please explain what gender-based violence is? I feel like we hear the term a lot but there’s rarely a definition given to it.
Cheniece: We can really describe it as a thing that jeopardizes a woman's life, mind, body, psychological integrity, and freedom. Using the term gender-based is to highlight the fact that violence against women is an expression of power and control, and the inequalities between men and women.
Zoe: Absolutely we recognize that gender-based violence can happen to all genders, but women are disproportionately affected by this issue. At Women Helping Women our job is to support and serve all survivors regardless of gender identity.
I imagine it can get difficult sometimes to have to talk about these events and witness these things often. Does it ever get hard to continuously talk about these heavy subjects?
Zoe: Honestly talking about these topics can come pretty easy to us because we are so passionate about our work. I would say that what does become difficult is turning off our brains and shifting into that self-care mode. Luckily W.H.W. is super supportive and understands that need for self-care. So, recently they’ve implemented self-care days for us which we can take any time we need.
If I need to take a self-care day tomorrow, if it’s good to go then I can kind of take that time to rest and take care of myself. I feel we are truly lucky to have those.
What are some of your guys’ favorite self-care rituals?
Cheniece: It can be difficult to take care of myself sometimes. While this work is super rewarding, as advocates we have to be aware of vicarious trauma. A definition for that is just receiving trauma by listening to survivors' trauma. I would say I really try hard to be in tune with my body and mind and spirit, just because of this.
Like everybody else, of course, I do bubble baths or paint my nails or do my makeup to make my physical self feel good. But when thinking about my mind and spirit I like to do things like painting while listening to podcasts, writing poems, scheduling appointments like therapy or other doctor appointments. I’m a big believer in therapy. And exercising too is another thing I do. I feel like oftentimes as advocates we emphasize to survivors how important it is to use different kinds of grounding techniques and coping mechanisms. So I just try hard to do the same.
Zoe: For me, my normal go-to is talking through things. I am a talker in regard to debriefing. I also hike, I have two dogs so I like going on walks with them and my husband. Also, binge-watching my favorite shows really help me disconnect from the work I came from and taking that time to relax.
Recently I have been more intentional about disconnecting myself from things and my phone in particular. Instead, I try to focus on my health and well-being, making sure I’m eating right and doing more movement. Honestly, I started doing it over quarantine like a lot of other people.
I noticed a huge difference in my mood and my energy and I realized, truly, the stuff that we preach works. Small lifestyle changes can impact us on a larger scale over time. It’s funny because we are always telling our clients about coping mechanisms and the importance of self-care.
In this line of work, we as providers often don’t listen to our own advice because we are on such a mission. We can’t really help others unless we take care of ourselves, take a step back and be like ‘You know I told my client to sit down and relax and disconnect and I need to do the same.’
If you could say anything to survivors who are out there right now who are struggling, not sure how to get help, or even really where to start, what would you say to them?
Cheniece: I don’t like to give advice, but I will offer suggestions. But I know what I would say; ‘What has happened to you is real, it is valid and no matter what anyone tells you, including yourself, you are not crazy. It is not all in your head. Reach out to supportive friends, family, or W.H.W.’
Zoe: My words to a survivor would be ‘You are incredibly strong and resilient, and so much more. No matter how you decide to move forward in your life, please know that W.H.W. is here to listen and support you.’