During my research for tabling this month, I found a very informative site ran by The New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault. On that site I found a multitude of fact sheets that presented some stark, startling, and outright disturbing statistics. Though I know much of what I am about to share is depressing, I don't think that is any reason that we can allow ourselves to ignore the evidence that is staring us in the face.

The first statistic is one that I am well aware of. My position in my organization was preceded by a membership in the national rape awareness organization called 1 in 4. 1 in 4 take their name from the disgusting statistic that at least 1 in 4 college women will be a victim of sexual assault during her academic career. Consider the college aged women that you know. Almost all of us know at least 4. So, just think of the fact that at least 1 of those women, by national averages, will be sexually assaulted in her collegiate career. Once you do that, you will never think that working against sexual violence is a trivial pursuit again.

The next statistic that jumped out at me is that during one academic year 35.3 incidents of sexual assault were recorded per 1000 women on college campuses. You may say that 3.53% doesn't seem like a large amount, but when we are talking about a violation of the fundamental safety of a woman, anything more than 0 is far too much.

However, the one statistic that made my head spin around was so shockingly depressing that I debated whether I should even share it with anybody. However, as the title of this post says, we need to change thought of what people think about sexual assault. In order to do that, we have to confront the horrid misconceptions that currently plague our society.

The statistic that cause such consternation for me is that, in a survey of high school students(many of whom were incoming freshman to college), 56% of girls and 76% of boys believed forced sex was acceptable under certain circumstances. Over half of the girls surveyed and over 3/4s of the boys surveyed thought that forcing a partner to have sex is sometimes ok. This is quite possibly the most frightening statistic I've ever heard.

Let me say this straight out. This is an area where there is no gray area. At no time, under no circumstances, is it acceptable to force sex on a partner. Not if you're married, engaged, dating, or complete strangers. There is no situation where forced sex is ok.

The fact that this large number of high school students would think that forced sex is acceptable in any circumstance is enough proof for me that what I do is needed and necessary. On days when I start to wonder why I do what I do, which have occurred as recently as yesterday, all I have to do is remember statistics like this and I realize that there is so much more work to do. I hope that we can count on each and every one of you for help.