Sex on the Hill

My grandma always annoyed me with her warnings about the latest “rape man” in our city, that I need to walk in packs with my friends, and park in well-lit places at night. But even though she annoyed and still to this day annoys me, she is right. We as students need to make ourselves aware of these things.

FAMU’s Women Center and “Sexpectations” held an event Thursday night called “Sex on The Hill.” Yolanda Bogan, a Sunshine Manor Psychiatrist opened the event explaining to students how to be aware of sexual crimes that can happen to both women and men. She then premiered the film “Breaking the Silence,” a short filmed directed and edited by Esi Yamoah.

She concluded the event with tips to make everyone aware to prevent these sexual crimes. We as women consciously feel we have to be more aware of our surroundings and what we wear and how we act so we do not give off the wrong impression.

 I feel as if this event was very informal and wish it could have reached a wider audience of men. So many people have this mindset, that sexual crimes mainly happen to women and that men have no reason to be cautious.

According to The National Center for Victims of Crime (NCVC. Org) about 3% of American Men, or 2.78 million men, have experienced a rape such as rape by siblings, rape from unknown women and even rape from their own mothers. Although it is sad, we as women have to be more cautious in this society. Women are looked as objects and, even when we are conscious of what we wear and how we act, sometimes that is not enough. Some men have no self-control and to be honest this has been going on since the beginning of time.

Our generation needs to make that leap into being more aware and proactive against sexual crimes, because everybody can become a victim. No human being is an object, and men need to start taking accountability for holding other men responsible for treating women with respect, regardless of who she is or what she looks like.