Virginia Solan, University of Idaho Violence Prevention Programs coordinator, works year-round to fight for victims of sexual assault.
With April being Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Solan said she jumped at the chance to spread the word about the topic. She said she thinks many universities teach sexual assault on their campuses with a focus on how victims can avoid being assaulted, instead of holding the perpetrators responsible. She said she’s making an effort to change the way we normally see things.
“I’m really excited about this position, because really for the first time I put all of my energy into prevention,” Solan said.
For the month of April, there are various events scheduled meant to change the way people think and act on the issue of sexual assault. Last Sunday, Solan said she helped begin the awareness month with a day-long Green Dot training for students in Greek housing.
“They had just done Greek Week and hosted Vandal Friday and then 23 of them spent from 2-9 p.m. on Sunday, when you know they had schoolwork and everything,” Solan said. “It was killer. They spent that time focusing on how to prevent sex assault on campus and how to speak out.”
Alysia Lohman is a member of the Speaker’s Bureau — a group of staff, faculty, students and community members who have dealt with instances of assault and share their stories to help others. She works to help victims of sexual violence after her past experience. Lohman said she was sexually assaulted by someone her family trusted beginning when she was just 6 years old. She said she has also read books and researched statistics on the subject, but she finds those frustrating, because they only focus on the actual reports of sexual violence — about 12 percent of all cases.
Solan said there are many misguided views regarding the topic of sexual assault. She said she thinks it’s because of the statistics showing common victims of sexual violence are females ages 18-25. Solan said people assume that assault only happens to women at college parties when there is alcohol involved.
“Whether there is alcohol or not involved, it doesn’t matter,” Lohman said. “The fact that it happened to you, matters. The fact that you said no, that’s what matters.”
Lohman said sexual assault is a complex issue no one can afford to stereotype. Like Lohman, most victims of sexual assault said they were violated by someone they knew and trusted, not a stranger in the bushes like a lot of people tend to believe.
Lohman also pointed out that although women make up a large portion of the victims of sexual assaults, other demographics don’t get any recognition for the suffering they face. Lohman said large portions of the elderly and disabled are assaulted and no one seems to recognize it.
Solan said men and the LGBT community can be assaulted as well, but are made invisible by the stereotypes society puts on victims.
Another misconception, Solan said, is the opinion that because she is a woman working for violence prevention she thinks all men are rapists.
“I think 3 percent of men are rapists,” Solan said. “In other words, I think 97 percent are not. What I try to do is kind of connect with them on this, ‘Aren’t you getting tired of people acting like all you care about is beer and boobs and raping people? I know that you’re not like that.’ And they respond to that, because they’re not.”
Lohman said her two biggest supporters are men, her best friend and her boyfriend. In fact, Lohman said her boyfriend is the only person she completely opened up to and knows her whole story.
Solan said anyone can be a sexual assaulter or a victim, which is scary, but it needs to be remembered in order to battle the stereotypes.
“It’s not a man’s problem, it’s an everybody problem. It happens to a lot of people from both sexes or LGBTQA — whatever you identify with,” Lohman said. “People who perpetrate can be on that same exact range.”
Erin Bamer can be reached at [email protected]