For many young women, college is a breeding ground for unexpected situations. New friends, new places, unannounced homework assignments—and unfortunately for countless collegiates, the reality of sexual harassment and assault. According to RAINN, the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization, about 11% of all college-aged students will experience sexual assault of some kind before they graduate. To put this into perspective, about 1 in 10 women will experience sexual violence in their college career. This problem is worsened by the fact that only about 5% of the victims ever consult law enforcement, though the majority do tell their siblings or close friends.
The truth about sexual assault has been an American tragedy for quite some time now, but with the recent events in the media, including the shocking cases by Hollywood director, Harvey Weinstein, strides have been made to reform the system as it currently is. One of these moves is the social media tag #MeToo, which has taken the internet by storm with compelling stories from real women about their own experiences with sexual violence.
In the week that the actress Alyssa Milano posted the tweet asking for people to tell their stories of nonconsensual sexual experiences using the hashtag “MeToo”, over half a million posts were made within the first 24 hours. The posts included incidents from women of all backgrounds and professions, including models, software developers, and businesswomen. Recently, the U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren came out with her own #MeToo story, explaining how she was chased around a table by one of her male colleagues.
So, what does this mean for us collegiates? It means that sexual violence victims are finally having their stories heard, along with the commonality of sexual assault being publicized and criticized. Now that the news is out in the open, it’s about time that we correct the system of injustice and embarrassment that has been left alone for far too long.