‘Me Too’ Means Sexual Assault is Everyone’s Cause

In her 36 years of public service, Elsa Granados has learned a lot about what it takes to end sexual assault. For starters, the executive director of Standing Together to End Sexual Assault (STESA) will tell you that sexual violence is a widespread problem riddled with persistent myths.

One of the worst myths, she says, is that women are the only victims. But men are also affected, as survivors themselves or as the significant others of female victims. Since the revelations of abuses by clergy members of the Catholic and Mormon churches and by scout leaders at the Boy Scouts of America, Granados says men have increasingly been more willing to disclose their experiences and confront their assailants. 

“We’re not looking closely enough at the experience of men,” Granados says. “Up until now many have too often seen men as perpetrators. I don’t; I see them as survivors, significant others, and as advocates to end sexual assault.”

That ability to broadly confront sexual assault as a society-wide issue is what has made STESA such a vital resource since it was established in 1974 as Santa Barbara Rape Crisis Center. STESA’s full-time staff of four hotline responders and case managers along with about 40 volunteers can support both women and men with services that include medical/legal advocacy, reporting options, mental health counseling, and information and referral.

“We need to have meaningful dialogue about each person’s role in ending sexual violence,” Granados says. “All of us regardless of demographics are at risk in some way. So then we all have a stake in ending sexual violence. To do that we have to challenge mindsets.”

The #MeToo movement, says Granados, was pivotal in thrusting the rampant problem of sexual assault into the international spotlight and changing misconceptions. But the work is far from over.

“#MeToo was a time and place in the history of our work,” Granados says. “We can’t continue to rely on that particular hashtag. We have to move forward with our work in whatever way comes up presently.”