“Till it happens to you, you won't know, it won't be real, no, it won't be real, won't know how it feels.”
-Lady Gaga, "Till It Happens to You"
It’s so easy for us to tell others stuff such as, “Things will get better,” “Pull yourself together,” “Hold your head up,” “Be strong,” “Get back up” or “Move on” when we have never been in their shoes. When we haven’t been through what they have gone through and felt what they felt, we won’t ever know how they feel.
Recently, Lady Gaga and Diane Warren wrote a song entitled “Til it Happens to You.” This song was produced for a documentary called “The Hunting Ground.” The documentary is an eye-opening revelation of the sexual assault that happens on college campuses in the United States. The making of this song hit very close to home for Gaga due to the fact that she was raped when she was 19 years old. Despite the emotional rollercoaster it put her through, Gaga sang her heart out and created a beautiful and stirring ballad that has brought so much awareness to the appalling happenings that occur around the country and the world today.
“Sexual violence is a broad term and includes rape, incest, child sexual abuse, intimate partner violence, sexual exploitation, human trafficking, unwanted sexual contact, sexual harassment, exposure and voyeurism.”
According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, one in five women and one in 16 men are sexually assaulted while in college and more than 90 percent of those victims don’t report the assault.
“Sexual violence is a social justice issue that occurs because of abuse, misuse and exploitation of vulnerabilities.”
The victims are never at fault in cases of sexual assault. The violators tend to assault people they know through manipulation.
“Societal conditions that allow sexual violence to continue include tolerance of sexual harassment, restrictive ideas about gender, believing that women should be responsible for keeping themselves safe, rape jokes, violent pornography, the belief that alcohol will make sexual encounters better, and beliefs that certain groups are better than others.”
Sexual assault is not a victimless crime in the slightest sense. Those who are assaulted are never the same after the act. The after effects of sexual assault are numerous and some can be very harmful to the health, both physically and mentally, of the victim. These include depression, nightmares and/or flashbacks, difficulty concentrating, anxiety and/or phobias, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), eating disorders and substance use and/or abuse.
So where does this leave us? It leaves us with a mission, a hope and a purpose. We cannot sit idly by as our peers are subjected to these heinous crimes. Prevention doesn’t have to involve long, drawn out or overly-involved processes. Prevention starts with awareness. Be a role model for healthy relationships built on respect. Speak up when you hear negative and harmful comments and stand up when you see acts of disrespect or violence. It’s one thing to have the government say that they are for you in situations such as these. However, knowing that someone who knows you and cares about you is standing up in your defense, that is a deeper level consisting of love.
Here are some extra resources to aid you in your further research:
National Sexual Violence Resource Center: www.nsvrc.org
Clery Center for Security on Campus: www.clerycenter.org
It’s On Us: www.itsonus.org
Not Alone: www.notalone.gov
Know Your IX: www.knowyourix.org
SAFER (Students Active For Ending Rape): www.safercampus.org
American College Health Association: www.acha.org
Victim Rights Law Center: www.victimrights.org
