Facing Sexual Assault

Being assaulted could happen anywhere, anytime. Even at work. Being sexual assaulted ins’t just being touched or raped, there’s so much more of sexual assault that you probably didn’t know was assault. It’s best to know what is sexual assault so you know when to protect yourself. This could happen to both men and women, but why don’t we look the percentages shall we. 32% of employees didn’t know jokes could be sexual harassment, and 15% of female educators and 6% of male educators experienced sexual harassment or assault.

More than 25% of women experience sexual harassment in the workplace, and 37% of harassed women reported harassment negatively influenced their career advancement. As you can see by the percentages on (https://goremotely.net/blog/sexual-harassment-in-the-workplace-statistics/), women are more assaulted. But it is important to acknowledge the assault against men too. We all need to protect ourselves, but women have to even more than men. I’m sure you’ve heard of the saying, “What were you wearing?” Well, I have something to completely debunk that. There is an art exhibit that is a perfect imagery to show people who say things like that, that that doesn’t matter at all. It doesn’t matter what the person was wearing, that does not give you permission to touch or rape them. When you watch this 1 minute video (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/powerful-art-exhibit-powerfully-answers-the-question-what-were-you-wearing_n_59baddd2e4b02da0e1405d2a) and analyze the clothes, you even see baby’s clothes up. That just goes to show you that it doesn’t matter what you wear, the problem is with the people doing the raping. People also say “why didn’t they just fight back?” Kids can’t fight off someone so much bigger than them. And women do fight back. There are so many examples I can show, but I’ll just show one.

This man’s name is Kirk Taylor. He held a woman who was unnamed and raped her. She managed to get away and tell the police, but look at him. You can clearly see that she fought with everything in her. But he was too strong. So I’m saying this again, it’s never the victim’s fault. Sexual assault against women is a big issue. Men and women both could be abused, but it is mostly women being abused and assaulted by men. You can see by this on (https://www.webmd.com/sexual-conditions/guide/sexual-abuse-and-assault).

As a woman myself, I even experienced sexual assault, and I’m only 15. Says a lot huh. Some women don’t know the different ways of how they could be assaulted. And that’s important to know so if God forbids someone ever tries something, you could defend yourself or know that you have a right to fight back. The different kinds of sexual assault are inappropriate touching, vaginal, anal, or oral penetration, sexual intercourse that you say no to, rape, attempted rape, and child molestation. There are ways to try to avoid being sexually assaulted, like never leaving your drink anywhere at a party because someone could slip in a pill, and to bring your own drink to the party since the punch could be spiked. You should also always have some type of weapon with you. But sadly, sometimes even after doing all these things, something could still happen. If you were to ever be raped, don’t shower or anything. Go straight to the hospital and they will use a rape kit on you to get any DNA and proof. As I said before, there are ways that women protect themselves. But I didn’t say any. So here are some ways to protect yourself. You can see more here: (https://health.allwomenstalk.com/ways-for-women-to-protect-themselves-against-danger/). Besides using bear spray and your keys or pocket knife, you should study self defense and also be in a group of three or more people. It’s dangerous to be alone. It would also be harder for someone to kidnap you if you aren’t alone. Another thing you need to do is not be too helpful. A lot of people will take advantage of your kindness and could lure you somewhere without you realizing it. You should always check underneath your car to make sure no one is under there. Also, look in the back of your car before getting in. Always be very careful and always watch your surroundings.

If you are living alone, especially if you are a woman, you should make sure your home is safe and to be aware of your home. A couple ways you could stay safe at home is by having a motion sensor outdoor light, securing your garage, using smart locks, and to have a security camera. There are more things you could do listed here: (https://www.safewise.com/blog/9-safety-guidelines-for-living-alone/#:~:text=%209%20Ways%20to%20). It’s always good to have something like theses just to be safe. Sexual assault happens to women between the ages of 14 and 20. They are three times more susceptible than adult females and younger ones in other age brackets to be assaulted or raped. Fifty percent of rape survivors were doing other things or asleep at home when the crime happened. Almost thirty percent were on their way to work or school, doing errands, or shopping. Twelve percent of females were working when they were assaulted, seven percent were attending school, and five percent were doing some other activity. It could happen anywhere, which is horrifying. There is much more to read about these percentages in this article (https://thewebaddicted.com/resources/sexual-assault-statistics-in-the-us/), but here are a few more things I want to mention. 1 out of every 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her life time.

Males ages 18-24 who are college students are approximately 4 times more likely than non-students of the same age to be a victim of rape or sexual assault. 52.4% of male victims report being raped by an acquaintance and 15.1% by a stranger, and in eight out of ten rape cases, the victim knew the aggressor.

Now, I want to talk about 1 of many experiences with some type of assault. I won’t go into too much detail, but in 7th grade, a guy who liked me lifted up my skirt and tried to look underneath it. Luckily I had shorts on underneath, but he had done that when school was out, and after he had done that, he ran out of the room and I couldn’t go after him because I didn’t have all my things together. I couldn’t do anything to defend myself, and that really messed with me for the rest of the day. I felt disgusted and dirty. Even if it was something “minor”. The next day I confronted him and made sure he knew I didn’t like what he did if he thought I did. He never tried something like that on me again. He apologized to me later on that day, and even though he did change and isn’t like that anymore, it still bothers me. It’s no fun to experience things like this. It makes victims feel dirty, and wish that they could wash it off, but can’t. Sexual assault is a horrible thing, it’s a shame we have to always be looking over our shoulders just to feel safe.

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