Today I began class looking forward to a fresh beginning of classes and faces. I love the challenge of a new class in the sense that I am forced to stretch the knowledge that I already have and learn new things in unique ways. However, shortly into the class hour I realized that the course may be harder for some than others. What I mean by this is that the topic of rape may be sensitive to some students who have experienced an assault or know someone else who has. This could be a family member, friend, or even an acquaintance.
Our professor gave a sincere trigger warning at the beginning of the class in order for students to decide if they wanted to stay in the class or not due to the sensitive material being taught. Growing up, I thought of sexual assault as something distant and something that would never happen to me or any of my close friends. This is probably due to the protection my family provided for me and the sense that sexual assault is mainly seen on the news or in television series such as Law and Order: SVU which makes it seem like something far from home. However, my view changed after one of my close hometown friends accused another friend of raping her. This was hard for everyone in the friend group to handle because it was so traumatizing for the girl and we all felt so hurt for her. It was even more difficult to view some people within the friend group feel the need to choose sides. Some people even tried to make the victim feel like she had given consent—or even worse was trying to cover up the fact that she cheated on her boyfriend by making the incident up.
The character Kelsey Belnap in Missoula by Jon Krakauer reminded me of this instance because she had to deal with a very similar scenario in which her friend tried to downplay what had happened and convince Belnap not to contact the police. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to experience what the women in this book have gone through because I am not a survivor of rape. However, I hope that this class helps me to understand the severity of this issue in our world and helps me have a voice to stand up against rape culture.
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