Sexual Violence and Awareness
We all know the feeling. We’re watching the evening news and see a story about a vicious murder or terrible rape and we all think the same thing. “Thank goodness it wasn’t me.”
The truth is, at heart, we’re all incredibly optimistic. We know that malicious crimes are committed every single day but they happen to other people – not to us. We begin to think, “It won’t happen to me,” and because we think these things we don’t feel it’s necessary to prepare for a bad situation or potential attack. This mindset is completely unrealistic.
Destroying the Mindset: It Won’t Happen to Me
Realistically speaking, there are no true statistics when it comes to rape and sexual assault. The majority of crimes involving sexual violence aren’t reported. The victims are generally embarassed or are afraid that they’ll be blamed for what happened to them. Sadly, it is believed that only one out of every ten sexual assaults is ever reported.
Sexual assault happens – every day. It can happen to you, your sister, your mother, your aunt, your grandmother, and – yes, even the men in your family can become victims. Sexual violence is blind to age, gender, and ethnicity. Sexual assaults don’t happen only in the evening, only at parties, or only on bad dates. Sexual violence knows no boundaries and occurs every hour of every day around the entire world.
We all have our reasons for feeling as though we don’t need to worry about our own personal safety. You may believe you live in a safe community; you may believe you are too old or too big; you may believe you’re safe because someon in your family is a trained martial artist or law enforcement officer. These are all incredibly silly reasons to ignore your own personal safety and they aren’t actual reasons – they’re excuses you’re giving yourself for not making the time to learn to protect yourself.
If you remember nothing else, remember this: rape, and any type of sexual assault, isn’t really about the act of sex. It’s about one person exerting power over another.
There’s no excuse for any person – man or woman- to walk around unprepared. You need to be prepared both physically and mentally – knowing exactly what it means to be aware and preparing a game plan you can easily use if you ever find yourself in a bad situation.
Over the coming weeks we’ll take a closer look at sexual violence. In the meantime, think about what you would do if you suddenly found yourself in an awkward or dangerous situation. Do you know enough about self defense to take care of yourself?
