Sexual Assault Awareness Month is here and movements are becoming more prominent in all areas of the world. The #MeToo movement that came before this year’s Sexual Assault Awareness Month has left so many people blown away and angered. The amount of assaults in the film, T.V., news, and general work industries have been shocking to see and to hear how many men have been outed for their wrongdoings. The great thing about this movement is that people are having their voices heard and this is why there’s a specific month to spread the awareness of this issue even further.
There isn’t a day that goes by when a woman doesn’t get verbally or physically assaulted. Speaking first hand on this problem, sometimes I’m walking down the street with a friend to get to our dorm, and there’s an older male that feels the need to catcall us. It’s both uncomfortable and annoying because all we want to do is peacefully walk back home without having a man comment on our looks or asking for our numbers.
When looking at the high statistics of sexual assault instances that happen on campus, and when looking into deeper cases, if there even is one, to only see nothing is really gets solved—that’s a huge problem. College campuses are supposed to be a safe place for students to go to school, learn, create, and not worry about their own safety or being harassed. Especially if the school is located right in the middle of a major city, the chances of someone being harassed are unfortunately higher.
Will this issue get solved some day? Coming from a sad, realistic point of view, I honestly can’t say that I believe there will ever be a day that there will be no sexual harassment. Though, I do believe that there are ways to avoid possible confrontations from harassers. Implementing the wrongdoing of harassment and assaults in schools and taking self-defense classes should be essential to be able to protect the individual in case there’s an instance of an attack. Having better security systems, drills, hotlines, and more officers on campuses would also be helpful. These are only some ways to help guide us towards the right direction in protecting individuals from terrible instances. Maybe there will be a day when we can all say “Wow, the stats on sexual assault have dramatically gone down!” Until that day comes, I will be optimistic in hopes for it to hopefully come true.