"One night I was at a party with some friends, when I noticed this girl was way too drunk. She was laughing hysterically and kept falling down every time she tried to walk. Her makeup was smeared, her eyes were bloodshot and her skirt was completely twisted around. Whenever she fell down her skirt hiked up higher and higher until, at one point, her underwear was completely exposed. I looked around and noticed that nobody was with her except this guy who had a bottle of vodka in his hands. And then I noticed that he kept giving her the bottle and encouraged her to drink from it. And I remember thinking to myself 'that girl does not need more to drink'. And then a couple seconds later my friends told me we were going to a different room so I turned around and followed them, and I haven't ever seen the girl since." What's wrong with this story? Why is this story so scary? And not only that, but why is the ending of this story so unsettling?
Rape culture. It's a very real and a very serious thing. Not only is physically harming, it has an incredible psychological impact on the victim as well. It happens during the day, at night, and all of the hours in between. It's not always noticeable, it's not a band someone wears on their wrist or a scar they have on their leg. It's not always in the form of a guy throwing a girl into an ally way or locking her in a public bathroom. And most importantly it's not always the random stranger off the streets or the creepy employee at that one bar.
In 2008, the Obama administration began a movement called "It's On Us", a movement that highlighted rape and assault on college campuses, and how it's our job as a community to end this tragic and horrifying stigma that has had an impact on hundreds of thousands of college students world wide. While this movement has flooded through college campuses, and has made an impact on ending sexual assault, it is still something that is very real and very prominent in 2016.
Unfortunately, the statistics don't lie. One in four women are assaulted through out the course of their lifetime, and for college students, it's one in three. Not only are these statistics alarming, they are devastating. As a female in college, I am constantly told to "never walk home alone" or "to always be with someone at a party". Even at night when I'm walking home from the gym or library, I never put my headphones in and always make sure I am aware of my surroundings and the people I encounter. Although I have yet to have an issue while on campus with another individual, I have plenty of friend's who have. I have received multiple emails this year from my college chancellor notifying students about an attempted sexual assault that occurred on or directly off campus. And that's just the assaults that are reported. Roughly 344 out of 1,000 assaults are reported to police, which mean 65% are un-reported.
Date-rape drugs and roofline are also substances that are commonly used on college student's in order to assault the victim without them having the ability or memory to stop their attacker. This is something else that I am constantly warned about. "Never let a guy pour a drink for you" or "Make sure you watch the person open your beer" are two common phrases heard around college campuses. College parties and bars located in college towns are some of the most common places where reports of roofline have been used to take advantage of a college girl.
While all of these statistics and facts about sexual assault are scary and alarming, I am a firm believer that it is our job as college girls to band together in order to protect, assist, and stop college assault. Although it's very difficult to protect or assist someone who is walking home late at night, I think that college parties and bars are places where we can. Too often I hear of girls talking about how a girl was too drunk somewhere and was being super "slutty". But when asked if they did anything about it or asked the girl if she was okay they simply reply that they never said anything to her. Other times I have heard stories of a girl who was being dragged upstairs by some guy at a party but yet nobody did anything to make sure that she knew the guy or wanted to go upstairs in the first place.
Either way I believe that if someone is too drunk at a party or a bar, there should be someone there to help her out. It's sad to see that as young women we are so quick to judge and hate on other girls, or see them as competition when we are out on a Friday night or even sitting in class. Sexual assault is an issue. It's horrible and sickening and it yet it still continues to happen every single day. I'm not saying we should accept that it happens and move on at all, I'm saying that it's time girls stop judging one another and instead start helping one another out. If you witness something that seems off to you, simply go up to the girl and ask if you can help. You never know, you could save someone from being raped or assaulted, and potentially save a life.
