Amber Mitchell- Instagram Account for Sexual Assault

In my previous writing, I talked about why I chose sexual assault. I also talked about ways to fight back against rapists and my own experiences. Sexual assault is a serious topic that should be talked about more. Which is one of the reasons why I picked it as my topic [(https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T0u44GPI2UcW2braunOC5nnbnWIyhx6xiPo0bmS8onQ/edit?usp=sharing)]. To raise awareness, I’ve made a instagram account called no_means_no.21 (no underscore means underscore no.21) where I will be posting ways to protect yourself from rape or/and sexual assault, what to do if you have been raped, how to comfort someone if they have been sexually assaulted or raped, and promoting skits and videos by other people. I will of course give credit to the people of the videos in the captions. My goal is to educate the people who already follow me, but to also educate their followers. That is why I have told my sisters and friends to re-post my account. That way, a lot more people would see it and hopefully read my posts.

For me to be posting information on my new page, I will have to do a lot more research before posting so I know that I’m not posting anything that isn’t true or actually helpful. A source that I find really helpful and reliable is Rainn.org [(https://www.rainn.org/after-sexual-assault)]. This site has a lot of useful information. One thing that was useful for me is the “After Sexual Assault” section. There are a lot of ways we could change the amount of sexual assault. Boys are usually taught at a young age that it’s ok for them to hit a girl’s butt if you like them and girls are often told that “boys will be boys” after they tell someone that they were touched inappropriately. We could start a change by raising sons right and telling them that it’s not ok to touch people without their permission. Also that touching someone inappropriately is not funny or a joke. There also needs to be long sentences for rapists who are caught. Both women and male rapists get let off too easy too often. It’s always “What were you wearing?” and victim blaming. Then male rape survivors are told “You should’ve enjoyed it” simply because they are men. That is something else that really needs to change.

But for men and women, rape takes away their sense of power, confidence, love for themselves. For men, it can take away their manliness. (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/16/male-rape-victims-sexual-abuse-support) The purpose of Agent of Change is to bring attention to rape and sexual assault. How normalized boys touching girls without consent is and how normalized it is that male rape survivors need to just “suck it up”. I want to educate the people I know on this issue, that way they could know how to protect themselves and to understand how horrible this issue is. I chose this topic because it felt like something that could come to me easily. I myself have had experiences of sexual assault, which is one of the main reasons why I picked this topic, to show myself ways I could protect myself and to always be careful.

I want my followers and people I know to be able to protect themselves just in case anything happens. Rape and sexual assault could happen anywhere, which is why it is important to know these things. I learned a lot of things which is what I wanted. This was a very important and educational experience for me, yet sad to know that this is the world we live in. Even if my instagram account doesn’t get a big following, I know that I am contributing to changing the world. This was a very deep project for me, since I had to look into my experiences that I had in order to write this. Although I already knew that some things I went through stuck with me, while doing this project I realized how many times I’ve been sexually assaulted. At such a young age too. I don’t want other people to go through these types of things. I want people to know as much as possible so they can protect themselves and others. I’m actually proud of the outcome of this project. I don’t know what I would want to change. Even if this project is over, I want to at least have 10 posts on my account before stopping, so I will continue to post on it. I have a bit of followers right now, but hopefully, it grows, and hopefully my account does help people.