They Never Learn

They Never Learn depicts a university campus where male professors disrespect their female colleagues and prey on female students, male students victimize their female classmates, and administrators ignore reports of on-campus sexual assault. This representation reflects reality in many ways and is especially relevant to the 2017 #metoo campaign. #metoo was a survivor-led publicity campaign to raise awareness surrounding the prevalence of sexual harassment and assault, an attempt to let survivors heal through open discussion of gender-based violence. Although not exclusive to academic settings, #metoo illuminated the oft-unacknowledged culture of gender-based violence on many college campuses. Though #metoo sought to draw attention to academic perpetrators of gender-based crimes, it also challenged administrative complicity in ignoring crime-related reports to preserve a school’s image. One of the most visible symbols of #metoo on campuses was “Carry that Weight,” a performance project by sexual assault survivor Emma Sulkowicz, a student at Columbia University: Sulkowicz carried the 50-pound mattress on which she had been assaulted around campus during her senior year to raise awareness about administrative complicity in student sexual assault—as her rapist walked free. They Never Learn is set during the years before #metoo, and seeks to illuminate the very culture of gender-based violence and administrative complicity that led to the creation of the movement. It is this climate of complicity which compels Carly/Scarlett to seek vigilante justice: Doctors, professors, and school officials all ignore sexual assault on campus, blame survivors instead of perpetrators, and suggest accountability will hinder male rapists’ future careers—rather than considering the lasting trauma of female survivors.