April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month and its a great way to simultaneously educate and prevent sexual assault.
Sexual assault is a horrible, and arguably the worst, thing someone can do to another person. We as a collective society should make it a priority to educate and aim to completely end sexual violence.
Having a month for highlighting this monstrous act is the perfect step to growing education and properly eradicating sexual assault. The National Sexual Violence Resource Center describes Sexual Assault Awareness Month as a way to look at the history to end sexual violence, and promote the ways to end an issue that some people might not know about.
We can only stop an issue if we are properly informed about it, and awareness is the best step towards fixing a problem. Having this kind of awareness being pushed to the forefront of our minds during the month of April also allows us to start removing the taboo around talking about sexual violence and assault.
Survivors of sexual assault are often told to keep their stories hushed, and when situations are reported; they are ignored or swept under the rug. This dangerous practice will only further enable sexual violence to continue.
If we are going to fully embrace Sexual Assault Awareness Month, we need to bring conversations and stories of sexual assault into a safe and loving enviornment that is going to embrace the survivor’s truth without question or taboo.
Hearing other people’s stories about sexual assault is incredibly heart breaking but equally empowering in a way that only those who have experienced it will know. I have been blessed to hear the stories of those resilient survivors and how they continuously fight to make sure what happens in their lives doesn’t happen to others.
There is a beautiful community of love and support amongst survivors and their allies, but we as a modern society need to come together to make sure that this disgusting violence is stopped.
Abby Provencal can be contacted at
aprovencal@kscequinox.com
