This project is a chance for the public to engage in the uncomfortable topics of sexual assault and rape.  It is too often that people are raped or sexually assaulted.  The chances of this happening to a woman is greater than a man, but number of men being raped or assaulted is high as well. 

Both rape and sexual assault should not be a factor in anyone’s life.  Imagine if you can, that rape or sexual assault never happened again.  Now image what he consequences of that could mean. One would be that we could lose the need to use those words in the human language ever again. Suicide rates would go down.  Mental health issues would decrease. Child sexual abuse would end.  The benefits of no longer having sexual assault or rape feels like a dream that may never come true.  This is all the more reason we should make this dream a reality.

 

The first step to making a dream come true is being educated. Education is a key to power.  Knowing the statistics, what to do when you see something, knowing what is available to you if it should happen, and how you can make a difference are all ways in which knowledge can start to make a change.  

 

Even taking a stand in what we are subliminally subjected to every day can begin to make a difference. Did you know that every day we are subjected to images in advertisements that promote sexual assault and rape? The advertisements for the clothes we wear and the organizations we support glorify the objects or people in suggestive situations and they are so glamorized that we forget the acts that are being shown in these advertisements are horribly insensitive. 

 

To prove this, as part of this project, advertisements were placed all across a campus, with all ties to the advertisement being removed, leaving only the images.  Within hours almost all of the posters had been removed. What does this say about the images? The reaction created when people see the images alone without the accompaniment of the clothing line name or big name corporation shows that the images offends people.  Why then are we allowing the images to flood our life and influence our children?

 

Is it not possible that these images show the kind of beauty that states subliminally, that if you are wear the right clothing or wear the right perfume, you will become so valued that no one will be able to resist you and the word no will doesn’t even matter.  Because who could turn down that degree of perfection?  You can’t expect the opposite sex to not want to have relations with you when you wear American Apparel or Calvin Klein jeans.  In a way these ads suggest that if you use their product, you are asking to be sexually assaulted.

 

What does that tell our children? We are in constant discussion about the objectification of people in advertisement.  Across social media there is story after story being shoved down our throat that advertisers ideals of what men and women should look like is highly glorified and affecting the confidence and health of our youth. So is it then too big of a jump to say that when we are shown images of women looking drugged and raped, or images of an implied gang rape that we are telling our youth that these situations are ok as well?  We need to insist on beginning a conversations about not just what men and women look like in advertisements but also what they are depicted as doing in these advertisements.  It is morally wrong to say that we do not support rape or sexual assault, but we don’t mind that it is implied in our magazines and our commercials as long as the women and men look beautiful while it is happening.

 

Lets take a stand and make a difference in working together to make sure the voice of the people are heard by advertisement companies and we change the way society views and accepts images of men and women going through situations we wouldn’t wish on anyone.