MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. -- “I really didn’t rape that girl.”
That was the line that opened the central skit in “Sex Signals,” an interactive, two-person play staged twice at Marine Corps Base Quantico last week. The performance by Catharsis Productions is an unorthodox, sometimes humorous examination of gender roles and how miscommunication can lead to sexual assault.
By the time “David,” a Marine played by actor Chris Beier, finished laying out his account of the events that led to him being accused of raping a Marine in his platoon, a handful of the 260 or so personnel of The Basic School who attended the March 5 performance at Heywood Hall gave a show of hands that they were convinced he had raped the girl. Several others said he definitely had not. Most weren’t sure.
Audience members agreed that the situation, which began with heavy, mutual flirtation, did not fit their usual notion of rape.
Courtney Abbott, the show’s other performer, said the idea of rape as a violent crime is not all that realistic because most sexual assaults occur between people who know each other. She said what happened between David and his fellow Marine was more clear-cut than some in the audience may have thought.
“Rape is sex without consent,” Beier said. “It’s the initiator’s responsibility to ask for consent.”
“That’s how we know that the fault is entirely with David,” said Abbott.
Adding to the seriousness of the scenario was the fact that both David and the girl had been drinking before the encounter, Beier said. “You cannot get consent from someone who’s drunk.”
“What they depicted in their performance was spot-on, and that’s why we like to use that presentation,” said Cherrone Hester, Quantico’s sexual assault prevention and response coordinator. “In most of the sexual assaults I deal with, usually there’s a lot of alcohol involved, and it’s people who know each other.”
Marines are involved in about 300 cases of sexual assault each year, as suspect, victim or both, Hester said. For all active duty Department of Defense service members, that number is about 3,000.
According to the Department of Defense Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military for fiscal year 2011, at least 56 percent of the 3,192 cases reported throughout the services that year were listed as service member-on-service member assaults, with another 12 percent having unidentified perpetrators.
“We teach Marines how to fight enemy combatants, but we don’t teach Marines what to do when a brother in arms is about to do us harm,” Hester said.
This is one reason all Marines are required to attend annual sexual assault awareness training. “Sex Signals” is only an augment to that training, but Hester said the program helps teach the concept of gaining “explicit consent,” and not just “implied consent.”
“These are discussions we don’t have in the workplace because it’s somewhat uncomfortable,” she said, noting that the humor used in the play diffuses some of that awkwardness and tends to get a positive response, especially from young Marines. “It’s interactive and uses levity, comedy to present a very sensitive topic.”
Catharsis has performed the show throughout the military in recent years, including performances at Quantico two years ago. Three performances that were planned for March 6 at Quantico were snowed out and have been rescheduled for June 26 at Little Hall.
— Writer: mdicicco@quanticosentryonline.com