By Katie Wilson
The University of Maryland’s Campus Advocates Respond and Educate to Stop Violence hosted a conversation on stalking dynamics on Dec. 7 in the University Health Center.
This was CARE’s final event for the fall semester. The program provided conversation sessions throughout the semester with topics surrounding power dynamics. Power-based violence has been a major focus of CARE events, which stalking is just one part of.
The Dec. 7 event was called “Stalking on Campus: Recognizing the Dynamics” and was hosted by Charlotte Sheffield. Sheffield is the assistant coordinator for the CARE outreach team.
“I think stalking is one of the forms of power-based violence that isn’t talked about as much but is common on college campuses. Like we talked about a lot today, stalking behaviors have been so normalized through our media and through our language and through increased access to people on the internet,” Sheffield said.
Students were encouraged to drop in and out of the event based on when they were available. The Health Center provided snacks, refreshments and coloring pages to students in attendance.
Sheffield led the conversation by first discussing how movies and TV shows romanticize stalking behaviors. Some examples brought up were the show “You” and the movie “10 Things I Hate About You.” The group determined these programs worked to frame behaviors such as obsession and grand romantic gestures as romantic and desirable, when in reality they can force individuals into agreeing to romantic advancements they may not be comfortable with.
The conversation then moved to discussing how stalking is frequently carried out by non-strangers, which may prevent targets and bystanders from recognizing obsessive behaviors.
A frequently-mentioned topic during this session was the way that people on social media use the word “stalking.” Often, it is used to reference looking someone up on the internet, which some argue has trivialized the severity of the word.
“I really liked the conversation about normalizing stalking through social media and media because I think it’s so important in our generation — updating what we think about stalking and teaching it that way in order to prevent it and also make victims more aware of it and more comfortable in reporting,” said CARE outreach volunteer and junior government and politics major Amelia Kumer.
Another point brought up in the conversation was student safety concerns across campus. Some students were worried about the new purple line construction, which could cause more non-students and staff members to be on campus.
“So having these conversations about recognizing those behaviors will hopefully help us start to prevent stalking and intervene in these instances and to also support people who have been impacted,” said Sheffeild.
Featured image: CARE to Stop Violence hosted a discussion on stalking dynamics on Dec. 7. The conversation was CARE’s final event of the semester. Photo by Katie Wilson.