Activity #8

The first statistic I started my interviews with was, “Every two and a half minutes, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted”. The general consensus to this statement was that I was exaggerating. Sexual assault, battery, and other crimes against women were not unheard of occurrences to the people I interviewed, but the frequency of these crimes was overwhelming. The other statistic I used was “one out of every six American women have been the victims of an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime”. This fact also proved to have a bit of a shocking impact. It became apparent that while the population is being educated on abuse towards women, they are not being informed about the severity of the situation.

The numbers are seemingly proven correct when I discover that one of the very people I interview has been affected by sexual assault. I found an available hall-mate for this activity and found that she was very open to discussing the subject matter. To make her summarize her story for her own personal sake, while on vacation one summer she and two of her best friends were invited by a group of older teenagers to a party. Being only fourteen, she was eager to attend and experience the nightlife that must be customary to the popular older crowd. This party was not a fun, social event, but rather an scheme to get the girls drunk, first experience with alcohol for all three, and then to sexually assault them. During the incident none of the girls questioned the actions of the boys; all were at least nineteen according to my hall-mate’s memory, because they assumed that this was deemed a normal event. It wasn’t until the next day that my hall-mate realized that not only had she been raped, but that the boy had stolen something from her that no lawsuit or amount of money could justify. It took her months to realize what truly had happened and to confine in her mother. By this time it was too late to do any significant legal action; she didn’t even remember his name. I was shocked to find out that this has happened to those that I am acquaintances with. I think that a very common misconception is that these types of assaults only happen to women who place themselves in certain situations. There was nothing about my hall-mates outward appearance or expressions that would have ever led me to suspect that she had been a rape victim. It really hit home that anyone can be a victim; we all need to be aware of our safety and take proper action to secure it.

The males I interviewed admitted that assaults were likely to occur on women, but there was a disconnection between the problem and their actions. While neither actively engage in assaults on women, there are some actions and ideas everyone does that contributes to the entire problem. There are certain beliefs in culture that promote domestic and physical violence towards women. The basic of these beliefs is that simple males are dominant. Also the typical feminine role as a submissive and weak person has a part in while women are targeted. The only real way to stop violence is through education. Without proper education through the schools and media, society remains ignorant to the problems that occur all around them. Just the simple decrease of apathy through education and understand would start to bring about a change. There also need to be more support groups for women so that they feel they are safe in proclaiming the violence that has occurred to them. It is absurd that society has created a community in which people feel like it would be better to hide something as horrific as rape, instead of seeking help from the police or a local women’s shelter.