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7 Ideas for Sexual Assault Awareness Month 2016

April 1, 2016 By HKearl

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM)! In addition to taking part in International Anti-Street Harassment Week (April 10-16), here are 7 ideas for action in 2016.

1. Believe/help survivors. Believe survivors when they confide in you. Visit the website of the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network to find information to help you help the survivor. And to find information to help yourself.

2. Find help. If you are a survivor who isn’t sure where to turn to or how to get help, I highly recommend visiting the RAINN website. I volunteered with them for 2.5 years and applaud their work. You can find information about a phone or online hotline and information about recovery.

* Do you identify as male? Visit the website 1 in 6 for resources specifically for you.

* Are you in the military? RAINN has a helpline called Safe Helpline specifically for survivors in the military.

3. Raise awareness on social media. The National Sexual Violence Resource Center provides a variety of resources each year for SAAM, including free reports and manuals and campaign materials. They also are running daily Instagram contests (#30DaysofSAAM) and have images you can post on your other social media accounts. April 5 is the SAAM Day of Action! Use tweets, posts, and status updates to share the word about #SAAM. Download their social media guide for specifics.

4. Wear jeans. Make a social statement by wearing jeans on April 27 as part of Denim Day in LA & USA. The day is a visible way to protest against misconceptions that surround sexual assault. Register today and raise awareness at your workplace, neighborhood, or community. Encourage each person who participates to donate one dollar to Denim Day to fund prevention programming.

5. Watch The Hunting Ground. This important Oscar-nominated documentary about campus sexual assault is now available for streaming on Netflix. Invite others to watch it (and schedule in some self-care time afterward as it’s an important but also upsetting film).

6. Order We Believe You. Annie C. Clark and Andrea L. Pino, the main subjects of The Hunting Ground film and founders of End Rape on Campus, have a new book coming out April 12, We Believe You: Survivors of Campus Sexual Assault Speak Out. It includes stories from “students from every kind of college and university―large and small, public and private, highly selective and less so―[who] share experiences of trauma, healing, and everyday activism, representing a diversity of races, economic and family backgrounds, gender identities, immigration statuses, interests, capacities, and loves. Theirs is a bold, irrefutable sampling of voices and stories that should speak to all.”

7. Use the arts or march. Take part or organize arts-based initiatives or a march to raise awareness about sexual assault. Examples of initiatives include:

* Organize or participate in a Take Back the Night March in your community or on campus and make a statement that women have the right to be in public and to go about their lives without the risk of sexual violence. Order a kit with resources for the event.

* The Clothesline Project, an initiative to bear witness to violence against women. Women affected by violence decorate a shirt and hang the shirt on a clothesline to be viewed by others as testimony to the problem of men’s violence against women.

* V-Day event offers several performance and film screening options for groups to implement in their community in February, March, and April. The purpose of these events is to raise awareness about violence against women and girls as well as raise money for local beneficiaries that are working to end violence. There is no theater or producing experience necessary. Visit the V-Day website to learn how to organize a V-Day event.

* Story of a Rape Survivor (SOARS) is an award winning multimedia performance from A Long Walk Home you can bring to your community that entertains as well as educates the audience about sexual assault prevention. Featuring the music of Nina Simone, Maxwell, and Sade, SOARS tells one woman’s story about how she reclaimed her body, sexuality, and self-esteem after being sexually assaulted in college. SOARS is a cutting-edge theatrical experience that stars a diverse cast of women, combining photographs, dance, spoken-word poetry and music as a way to educate about healing from sexual violence.

* By wearing a white ribbon, White Ribbon Campaign members make a personal pledge to “never commit, condone or remain silent about violence against women and girls.” You can order materials to help challenge the community to speak out on the issue, learn about sexual violence, and raise public awareness.

(And if you’re unsure about the connection between street harassment and sexual assault, listen to a CALCASA Prevention podcast or watch a video where I talk about the connections. Briefly, some of the connections are that both behaviors fall on the same spectrum of gender violence; street harassment sometimes escalates into sexual violence; and street harassment can be re-triggering for survivors of sexual abuse.)

USA: Believing Kesha and Other Survivors

February 24, 2016 By Correspondent

Rupande Mehta, New Jersey, USA SSH Blog Correspondent

If there was any doubt how hard it is to prove rape, assault or any other violence against women just look at Kesha. The singer filed a lawsuit against her producer, Dr. Luke, who she claims “sexually, physically, verbally, and emotionally abused Ms. Sebert to the point where Ms. Sebert nearly lost her life.”

Unfortunately despite 10 years of rigorous abuse, the court dismissed her complaint ruling she has to continue to work with her abuser and the record company (Sony) who allowed and tolerated the abuse. (Don’t kid me that they did not know).

Am I surprised? Nope. Saddened? Incredibly.

I am sad because there is yet another victim of abuse who has to live through the travesties of the legal system who has sided against her and with the guys in the fancy suits who claim to have spent a lot of money on her career and rightfully deserve their share of returns. Heartbroken that yet again a corporation is put ahead of human lives that endure incredible pain and anguish to have to continue to survive with such a dismal reality. Distraught that despite her tribulation, Kesha failed to get the approval of the justice system and has to continue working with the man who vehemently abused her.

Such injustice, though, happens every day, everywhere. Every day an abuser walks free and the victim is put through the ringer. Every day a victim sobs uncontrollably as the judge delivers a verdict that makes her worst nightmares come true. Every day another victim repeats her story millions of times and no one believes her.

Courts need evidence and when victims fail to provide any proof, they are deemed erratic. When victims change their narrative they are described unreliable or unworthy of stating the truth. But tell me, after you’ve been raped are you thinking about gathering evidence? Are you thinking about being so glib that your narrative never changes? Or are you dealing with the trauma that someone just handed down to you? Ask those who have been raped and they will tell you they never get their story straight the first time because their memory is not linear and comes back only in patches.

So what can we do?

Well for once, the justice system needs to realize the trauma resulting from rape and other assaults and consider it. In Kesha’s case, the judge saw it simply as a contract dispute and ruled in favor of Sony but the truth is more than that. Sony’s lawyers must have done an exceptional job of ruining Kesha’s reputation in the court room and making her sound like a vindictive woman out for blood. Her previous testimony denying that Dr. Luke never put a hand on her, I am sure, was wittingly used against her. For many this may raise the question whether Kesha was lying then or now. Unfortunately only Kesha knows the answer but having been through trauma and assault, I will stand by her side.

Kesha lost a big battle with the Supreme Court. Thankfully she had the means to do so and garner incredible support afterwards from the public who are demanding Sony #FreeKesha.

Celebrities like Taylor Swift are contributing money so Sony would let Kesha out of her contract. Although my heart goes out to her and her suffering, I cannot help but wonder how many don’t have what Kesha does. How many women, on a daily basis, are unable to access services or support with their story untold or not believed?

How many of us are harassed on a daily basis be at work or home or even in the streets? I often look at women passing me and wonder what, if any, trauma do they suffer from and why? Who called them unjustified names and put labels on them that forced them to have weight issues or eating disorders or anger or rage?

Why do the courts not look past this and understand that the issues of the psyche stem from the issues of harassment and if someone is experiencing them it is likely due to a deeper, more profound reason?

We live in a society where those who tell their story are not believed. Is it a surprise then that most of these cases go unreported? And how do you think cases like Kesha’s impact those abused women? The Supreme Court may have ruled for Sony but in the process it did an immense disservice to millions of women out there who were contemplating speaking up.

Rupande grew up in Mumbai, India, and now resides in the U.S. She has an MBA and is currently working towards her MPA, looking to specialize in Non Profit Management. You can find her writing on her blog at Rupande-mehta.tumblr.com or follow her on Twitter @rupandemehta.

Street harassment is a trigger for rape survivors

July 6, 2010 By Contributor

Street harassment from the perspective of a rape survivor:

Sometimes when I express my anger at street harassment, at my inability to move through public spaces freely, I feel as if I am dismissed. Other people, both men and women alike, tend to minimize it, saying, “Why let it bother you? It’s not that big of a deal.”

But I am a rape survivor, and for me, it is a big deal.

Every time I am harassed by men on the street, I am re-victimized. From leering, catcalls, and comments about my body, to stalking and groping — they all reduce me to an object. Not a person, but a thing. Something to have power over. All of these forms of harassment are triggers for me. They all induce the same sense of powerlessness, the feeling of invasion – they all take me back to when I was raped.

I know I am not the only one. There are so many other survivors, like me, who every day are forced to relive the experiences of their rapes by men on the street. Street harassment IS a big deal. It perpetuates the society which allows men to treat women as objects, to have power over them, to assault them, to rape them. Street harassment is sexual assault, it is sexual violence, and we must work to end it now.

I am not an object, and I will not be silent.

– AH

Location: Everywhere

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem. Include your location and it will be added to the Street Harassment Map.

Asking for it? As if

June 30, 2010 By HKearl

With funding from the Scottish Government, Rape Crisis Scotland has launched a television advertisement and online campaign called Not Ever, focused on ending the prevalent attitude that rape victims are to blame for their perpetrator’s crime because of what they were wearing.

In the ad, men at a pub look at a woman’s skirt and decide that she is “asking for it.” The ad then shows earlier in the day when the woman in shopping for the skirt and says she is looking for one that will make men want to rape her. Then she turns to the camera and says, “As if.”

From the campaign page:

“No woman asks to be raped – ever. It’s a simple as that. Women should not be held responsible for the behaviour of rapists or expected to base their decisions on dress around the possibility that these might lead to an attack.” …

The prevalence of these ideas and the prejudicial attitudes they underpin seriously damage the chances of women who have been raped of receiving justice. With the conviction rate in Scotland in 2010 having fallen to 3% – its lowest ever, the need to change attitudes which blame women is more urgent than ever.

We need to stop victim-blaming and assign responsibility to those whose decisions do lead to rape – perpetrators and the apologists whose woman-blaming views have assigned rape its current status as a low-risk crime. For as long the notion that women can “ask for it” or invite attack through their dress or behaviour are allowed to persist, rapists will continue to act with impunity, confident in the knowledge that their actions will receive far less scrutiny than those of the women they assault.”

I applaud the Scottish government and Rape Crisis Scotland for tackling this issue. The television ads are running during the World Cup, so they are definitely being seen by men (too often women are the focus of campaigns around gender violence when we men to be targeted, too). The website contains resources for survivors, information on the current rape law, quiz questions, and discussion threads.

A few weeks ago the government of Wales launched a television and online ad campaign called One Step Too Far showing how slippery the slope is between sexist and harassing behavior and sexual assault. Their television ads also are airing during the World Cup.

I applaud both governments for actually taking this issue seriously. Victim blaming in cases of gender violence is pervasive, from Egypt to Australia to India to Brazil to the UK and the US. Imagine if every government invested resources in combating these attitudes, thereby helping to prevent harassment and assault and making it easier for victims to come forward and charge the perpetrators! This is how change happens.