For my capstone, I wanted to make sure it’d be something I’d enjoy, which led me to the thought of having an art show. There are a lot of artistic students at our school, so I wanted my capstone to allow students in my school to show their creativity and thoughts through their work. Sort of like an outlet for others’ art. My process was difficult for me, especially in the beginning . I decided to collaborate with my art teacher, Ms. Angeles, to bring people’s attention to art done by others in SLA. I had to learn to put myself in front of people and advertise my show, something I’ve never done before till now. When it came to setting up the show in April, I had great help from some underclassmen. Having an art show is a great way to get people to connect and spark others’ minds. That is something that we need in the world, and I decided to start by doing here.

To see photos of the Art Show, click this link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1spqXeyU48u4uFCxwKK3BfdmzBas2tWw6bMui46NVuSA/edit?usp=sharing

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is written about women in this fictional dystopia and how they are treated, but while reading, I see many instances that remind me of my life. As a woman, I have experienced my share of harassment. It began at a very young age. I remember at elementary school, one guy in my class grabbed my chest and tried to play it off as an accident. I didn’t know what to do. At the young age of 10, I was afraid to speak up, scared I’d be told I’m overreacting simply because it was an “accident”. All I did was slap him and walk away. It was all I could get my body to do.

In our society, when a woman is assaulted, the question is always “what were you wearing? “Why didn’t you fight him off?” “Maybe you gave him a signal that you wanted it.” The blame is somehow always put upon the victim, and not the aggressor. The Handmaid’s Tale has the same thought process. When Aunt Lydia says “They can’t help it. God made them that way but he did not make you that way.” (45) When she says this, she is shifting the blame onto the women, saying that it is in man’s nature to behave this way. That it is on the women if they are raped or assaulted. This makes women afraid to speak out, like how I was.

As I got older, it only got worse for me. Being touched without my permission became a constant recurring thing in middle school. From the groping of my chest, to a guy flipping my skirt up and running away. I remember confronting that guy the next day with my friends around me. Once I was done speaking, I pushed him to leave. My friends clapped and encouraged me that I did the right thing. But at that moment I did not feel empowered. I felt weak, similar to how the women in this book feel.

Being raped is a fear I have that is always in my mind. When I am alone taking my train and bus home, I always have that thought in my head. “Is he coming over here?” I keep my head bowed to act like I’m on my phone as I glance up to see where he goes. “Why is he looking at me?” I move so I’m out of his line of sight. If there’s a group of guys, walk fast and don’t make eye contact. If he says hi to me, don’t respond. But then again, no reply could put me in just as much danger.

Countless women have been killed for simply saying no. No to giving out their names, their numbers, or for even not smiling back when spoken to. “Sometimes it’s dangerous not to speak” (29) is a quote I deeply relate to. When you live in a world where anything could set off a man and get you killed, it’s terrifying. When women are catcalled, we are expected to take that as a compliment. We have to hide how we actually feel just to get home safely. The ending scene in chapter 11 reminds me of this. “I must leave the impression that I am not offended.” (61) When I had to read chapter 11, I could not read it. Having to read a descriptive section of someone getting assaulted made me cringe. I can never read or watch a rape scene it just makes me sick. I do not like having to imagine that. I had to skip around that page.

The women in the Handmaid’s Tale society main role is carrying children. It is so important that if you are not able to have kids, you are now an Unwoman and get sent to an island. You are deemed useless. Being sent there is like a punishment. It’s something the women want to avoid. This is clear throughout the book, but is evident after Janine gives birth in chapter 21. Since she has proven herself still useful to this society, “she’ll never be sent to the Colonies, she’ll never be declared an Unwoman. That is her reward.” (127) And that is it.

The need for the woman to bring children into the world as the only thing that makes them useful reminded me a lot of how society in our world is. Although we live in a time where women have more choice of what they want to do with their lives, having kids is always expected. I hear this from my Mother often, as she continues hoping I’ll change my mind and want kids at some point in my life.

Life as a woman is like constantly walking on eggshells just to be safe, just like in The Handmaid’s Tale. The book is a mirror of reality. I see that very clearly.

In my previous writing, I talked about why I chose sexual assault. I also talked about ways to fight back against rapists and my own experiences. Sexual assault is a serious topic that should be talked about more. Which is one of the reasons why I picked it as my topic [(https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T0u44GPI2UcW2braunOC5nnbnWIyhx6xiPo0bmS8onQ/edit?usp=sharing)]. To raise awareness, I’ve made a instagram account called no_means_no.21 (no underscore means underscore no.21) where I will be posting ways to protect yourself from rape or/and sexual assault, what to do if you have been raped, how to comfort someone if they have been sexually assaulted or raped, and promoting skits and videos by other people. I will of course give credit to the people of the videos in the captions. My goal is to educate the people who already follow me, but to also educate their followers. That is why I have told my sisters and friends to re-post my account. That way, a lot more people would see it and hopefully read my posts.

For me to be posting information on my new page, I will have to do a lot more research before posting so I know that I’m not posting anything that isn’t true or actually helpful. A source that I find really helpful and reliable is Rainn.org [(https://www.rainn.org/after-sexual-assault)]. This site has a lot of useful information. One thing that was useful for me is the “After Sexual Assault” section. There are a lot of ways we could change the amount of sexual assault. Boys are usually taught at a young age that it’s ok for them to hit a girl’s butt if you like them and girls are often told that “boys will be boys” after they tell someone that they were touched inappropriately. We could start a change by raising sons right and telling them that it’s not ok to touch people without their permission. Also that touching someone inappropriately is not funny or a joke. There also needs to be long sentences for rapists who are caught. Both women and male rapists get let off too easy too often. It’s always “What were you wearing?” and victim blaming. Then male rape survivors are told “You should’ve enjoyed it” simply because they are men. That is something else that really needs to change.

But for men and women, rape takes away their sense of power, confidence, love for themselves. For men, it can take away their manliness. (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/16/male-rape-victims-sexual-abuse-support) The purpose of Agent of Change is to bring attention to rape and sexual assault. How normalized boys touching girls without consent is and how normalized it is that male rape survivors need to just “suck it up”. I want to educate the people I know on this issue, that way they could know how to protect themselves and to understand how horrible this issue is. I chose this topic because it felt like something that could come to me easily. I myself have had experiences of sexual assault, which is one of the main reasons why I picked this topic, to show myself ways I could protect myself and to always be careful.

I want my followers and people I know to be able to protect themselves just in case anything happens. Rape and sexual assault could happen anywhere, which is why it is important to know these things. I learned a lot of things which is what I wanted. This was a very important and educational experience for me, yet sad to know that this is the world we live in. Even if my instagram account doesn’t get a big following, I know that I am contributing to changing the world. This was a very deep project for me, since I had to look into my experiences that I had in order to write this. Although I already knew that some things I went through stuck with me, while doing this project I realized how many times I’ve been sexually assaulted. At such a young age too. I don’t want other people to go through these types of things. I want people to know as much as possible so they can protect themselves and others. I’m actually proud of the outcome of this project. I don’t know what I would want to change. Even if this project is over, I want to at least have 10 posts on my account before stopping, so I will continue to post on it. I have a bit of followers right now, but hopefully, it grows, and hopefully my account does help people.

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.

ARTIST POST- A way how Trevor’s book impacted my piece is how often he said “he didn’t know where he belonged”. It gave me the idea to talk about what I relate as being a black woman in society. Also on how a lot of black people are able to relate to each other based on how we are treated in life and experiences we’ve had. Something that I notice about Trevors writing style is that he has humor in it. Something else he did was explain different events that happened in his life. I’m not good at writing in a humorous way, so I used his way of explanations to fuel how I write. Going back to Trevor’s quote of never really knowing where he belongs, I relate to that. I don’t know what I am. I don’t know what I’m mixed with or what cultures I am a part of besides being black, so I often take comfort in at least knowing that. I wish I knew more of myself and my history though. Trevor had a lot of moments where he discovered who he was and what is important to him. One big thing that I find interesting is how he was able to connect the whole book to his mother. And how she was his rock throughout his whole life. That was a really cool way to dedicate his book to his mom. You can also see how much he loves his mom with the way he describes his relationship with her and describes her. Like in the beginning of the book on page 13 when he says “We had a very Tom and Jerry relationship” which implies that they play around with each other in a violent way. Trevor’s book showed me that it’s ok not to know your place, that it’s not just me, and that others have or do feel like that too.

Coming of Age in 2020 2020 has been a crazy year for all of us. Lots of bad things have happened, so I’ll be talking about my experiences from this year. A lot of events took place that stuck with me, so I decided to create an art piece to show my take on the events of the Black Lives Matter movement, The Election, and Covid. So I’ll be explaining that through my work.

In the upper right corner, there is Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd. Many black people have died this year due to police brutality, but that’s not new. Every year a lot of black people are killed by police. I’ve always been hurt by that but after George Floyd, it really struck a chord for me. For a lot of people actually. His death was the last straw for the black community and allies. Life as a black person in America is scary. I worry about my life whenever my family and I are pulled over because of the amount of deaths by police officers that happens. I shouldn’t feel that way, no one should, but that’s just how POCs are treated here. It needs to change, but no matter how many times we march for justice, we somehow rarely ever get it. It’s painful to know that. The red drops represent the blood of black Americans that are shed every day.

To the left is Donald Trump and Joe Biden. The elections were always important, but this is the first time that I’m paying attention to since I’m old enough. I’m worried about who will win. My rights are on the line during this election. If Donald Trump wins, woman will lose the right to safe abortions and Planned Parenthood. Not to mention, the LGBTQ+ rights are also on the line. Same sex couples would lose the right to adopt a child, the right to marry and more. Also, Trump is racist, sexist, and has 26 sexual assault/rape alllegations. We can’t have him in office anymore. He’s done so much damage to so many people and will continue to if he stays. It’s clear to say that I want Biden to win.

At the bottom is corona. I missed a lot because of it. I didn’t have my graduation or any of my 8th grade trips. I didn’t get to say a proper goodbye to anyone. I also didn’t get my yearbook and I most likely never will. But, I’m grateful I didn’t lose any loved ones to covid like so many people did. This year has sucked, but it’s almost over, so let’s keep our heads up.