526 Lines

526 lines. 521 teal. 5 white. Every line represents a woman who was sexually assaulted at Utah State University this school year. Every line is a sister, a daughter, a friend, a human being. The 5 white lines are the assaults that were reported. The teal lines represent someone who suffered in silence. 521 women who thought their pain wouldn’t be enough for people to care. 521 women who feared being asked what they were wearing or if they were drinking. 521 women who feared being shamed for something they didn’t choose to have happen.

It’s hard to imagine how many lives sexual assault impacts. We hear the statistics all the time. One in five women during college or approximately 35 women for every 1,000 female students per school year. With Utah State having a little over 15,000 female students, that comes to roughly 526 sexually assaulted each year, and that doesn’t even include the men. But, 526 is just a number. It’s not until you see it represented that it hits just how many lives that is. I didn’t hit me until an hour into painting lines on my best friend. With such a large number of people hurt by sexual assault, it is clear why we need things like the “my dress doesn’t mean yes” campaign. We are doing this not only to show that the way a person dresses is not an excuse to sexually assault them, but to raise awareness that this is such a huge problem not only on campus, but everywhere. Sexual assault is going to be an issue until we change it. It is up to us as a class, a school, a society to change the way victims are treated and how rapists are handled. It is up to us to help prevent 526 more women from the same fate.