Domestic violence is an important topic and it needs to be discussed openly, a sexual assault survivor said on Thursday Oct. 15.
“We have a choice, to be a part of the problem or to be a part of the solution,” Angela Rose said.
On Thursday Oct. 15, Angela Rose, founder and executive director of Promoting Awareness | Victim Empowerment (PAVE), spoke at Cabrini’s Domestic Violence Symposium.
Rose started off by assuring everyone in the room that it was a safe space and that they should feel comfortable to open up. She then asked everyone to take deep breaths to center themselves and put them in the right place for her talk.
She then talked a little bit about PAVE and why she started it, which transitioned into her talking about her own experience with sexual assault.
“I had just graduated from high school [and] I was 17 years old,” Rose said. She was walking back to her car after work when she was kidnapped at knife point and sexually assaulted. When she went to the police that night there were people there who didn’t believe her story. After that she knew she had to do something.
“I was funneling all of my anger into activism,” Rose said “I had to start PAVE because everybody had a story.”
She then started to talk about the risk factors associated with sexual assault, specifically on college campuses. She talked about the red zone, which is the first six months of college when students are most at risk. She talked about the lack of respect and consent on campuses and how the perpetrator is a lot of the time someone the victim knows and trusts.
Next, Rose spoke about stereotypes and misconceptions concerning sexual assault. She talked about how not all victims react in the same way, not all of them are sad and depressed. People tend to think that weapons are used a lot in sexual assault but that’s not true either
The most common misconception however is that men are not the victims and that’s not true. one in six men will be sexually assaulted.
She then described all of the different way that people react to this trauma. She made it very clear that everybody reacts differently and that there’s no right way to acts. She spoke about eating disorders, self-harm, depression, drug abuse, hyper/hypo sexualization and PTSD as a few of the reactions that people generally have to trauma.
Next she spoke about victim blaming and just how damaging it is to people who experience sexual assault. She spoke about some of the things that people say to victim blame. Things like, “what was she wearing,” “How much did she have to drink” and “Was she asking for it” are extremely victimizing and Rose said should be avoided at all costs.
Her final topic was about all of the things that PAVE is doing now to help. She talked about the new campaign that they recently launched called Consent Is. She also talked about the Empowerment Summits they will have as well as the book she wrote called Hope, Healing and Happiness.
“I want you to start a movement on campus, start a PAVE chapter here,” Rose said. “We still have a long way to go, [but] societal change is happening right now.”
