I’ll Smile When My Name Is Nothing Other Than My Name
By: Jacqueline Roberts –Kpan
The initiative that Point Park’s Her Campus chapter has taken to support Sexual Violence Awareness has educated students and peers on the prevalence and severity of the matter. It is our responsibility to be cognizant of the issues that affect students directly because they can happen to anyone anywhere. This will only minimize such occurrences and enable ourselves to have common knowledge of how to avoid assault-prone situations and what to do in case it does occur. Sexual Violence Awareness is not only physical, but its emotional and verbal as well. Knowing all the facets of sexual violence, especially on campuses and in communities around us, will inhabit the control we have over the situations.
The Stop Telling Women To Smile art series has encompassed the realities of gender based street harassment and its prevalence as verbal abuse. Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, the artist and creator of the campaign, has made it easier to make the public more aware of this issue as her portraits of victims and their quotes have been placed in public areas around the country in major cities and now internationally in cities like Mexico City. This epidemic has affected all genders from all walks of life and it is our responsibility to put an end to it. Women should be aware of the difference between a compliment and a more menacing comment, just as men should be aware of the difference between yes and no. Our names are not baby, shorty, sexy, sweetie, honey, pretty, boo, sweetheart, ma or anything similar. If we say no, then that’s what we mean and nothing else.
Who gives you the right to harass? It is not right and it must stop. For more information on Stop Telling Women To Smile visit stoptellingwomentosmile.com. And for help or more information on Sexual Violence please check out the Her Campus article as there is a list (include link)