Sexual Assault Awareness Month

Whereas the month of October promotes the awareness of domestic violence, April is devoted to informing others and supporting victims of sexual assault.

According to the Sexual Assault Awareness Month website, the National Coalition Against Sexual Assault along with other sexual assault coalitions established a week in April to promote sexual assault issues. Soon this week turned into a month devoted to just sexual assault issues.

Organized protests of these issues began with the Take Back the Night march in Brussels, Belgium in the 1970s. Women of all shapes, sizes and ethnicities took back the night with a candlelight march.

As a woman, I am afraid to walk the streets at night. Coming from a small town, my fear was only accentuated when I decided to attend school in one of the biggest cities in the state. Being unfamiliar with the area and the people, I sometimes find myself holding back trying new things or visiting new places all because of fear. Fear should not run any person's life.

Why should women fear more than men? Why should women fear potential perpetrators at every corner or down every dark alley? There is a reason women have this fear. In many cases, women are not safe. Women are victims, and this month is for them.

This month is for saying, "You had nothing to do with this. It was this other person who felt he needed to have power and control over you." This month is also to remind others that sexual assault is not just something seen in a Primetime drama. It is real. It happens frequently. What are you going to do to help stop this? How can you contribute? Take back the night. Support those who have been victims, and spread the word that this is a real issue.

This year's SAAM campaign theme is sexual assault on college campuses. The site states that one in five college women will be victims of sexual assault.

Being a college student, this statistic shocks me. Sometimes I find myself sitting in class and counting out by fives, thinking: it is completely ridiculous that statistics say one of you will be a victim. It seems like such a high number. I consider my campus safe, and many sexual assault statistics show women are more likely to be sexually victimized by an acquaintance than by a stranger lurking in the bushes. Nonetheless, I still worry about that stranger.

Why is this?

I, as well as many other women, are susceptible inputs of media hysteria. What sexual assault cases are covered more than any other? Stranger assaults. It is every woman's worst nightmare to hear those footsteps when walking down the street late at night, but the same anxiety does not surface when a woman's significant other walks up the stairs.

The media's replication and consistently elevated reporting of stranger assaults outweigh acquaintance assaults, making women believe stranger rapes happen more frequently because they get the most amount of coverage.