Oklahoma State University alumna Heavin Taylor has been working tirelessly the last few years to help raise awareness for, to enact legislation against and to empower victims of revenge porn.
The summer before she transferred to OSU, Heavin discovered that her boyfriend had posted more than 50 images of her online to more than 100 online sites. Some were images she had shared privately with him. Others she didn’t even know he had taken. Even scarier was that her personal information was also being posted online
“I had been receiving messages from people responding to ads he had posted about me,” Heavin says. “The messages got weirder and weirder, and eventually it led me to Google. I found the images of me online.”
Revenge porn, or the act of posting images and video of a sexual nature of someone online without his or her consent, most often happens against young women under the age of 30, and it is NOT illegal in Oklahoma…yet.
Victims of revenge porn are susceptible to suicidal ideation as they are harassed, stalked and tormented not only by their ex-partners but also by those who encourage and seek out revenge porn.
Luckily for Heavin, she discovered the Women’s Mentorship Program with the OSU Office of Multicultural Affairs. Through WMP and OMA, she met a series of mentors who would change her life forever.
Two of her mentors, who Heavin calls Dr. P and Dr. A, were with the OSU psychology department. They exposed her to concepts of feminism, social justice, racism, politics and more. It influenced Heavin to pursue a psychology degree.
“Dr. A still invites me to speak at her current university about cyber stalking and sexual harassment,” Heavin says. “We are about to begin a study on cyber stalking.”
Four Facebook accounts later, and after several years of harassment and threats of blackmail and violence from her ex and strangers, Heavin is ready to take her life back.
Heavin and her lawyer and mentor, Elisa D’Amico, are working to propose and enact legal action through a nationwide movement called the Cyber Civil Rights Legal Project, led by K&L Gates, a Pittsburgh-based law firm.
Two national advocacy groups for revenge porn, the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative and Without My Consent, have referred many of the project’s clients.
Looking back, Heavin recognizes there were predictors for what her ex did to her. He had joined all the clubs she was in, forcing his way into her life. Other people thought it was cute. Now she realizes it was creepy. He and others made her feel guilty for not giving him a chance. Now she understands she had been manipulated to date him.
Heavin feels that talking about this issue is important because while revenge porn, cyber stalking and harassment are traumatizing and stigmatized, the more people are aware it is happening the more people will be able to recognize it and will be more likely to stop it. This is why she fights.
If you are an OSU student who is going through a similar situation to Heavin’s, she recommends reaching out to the OSU Student Conduct Office or the Office for Student Affairs.