Love U Magazine BnW Issue, Winter 2017 | Page 43

A If you are a victim of sexual assault and you need support, call 800.656. HOPE (4673) to be connected to a sexual assault professional service provider. Alternatively, https://www.rainn.org/ contains information that may help you or a loved one cope with sexual assault or misconduct. we can talk about ways we’re able to prevent things like this from happening again. We can research and discover how to protect ourselves, both in unfamiliar spaces and at home, and there are outlets you can go to if you’re a victim of sexual assault or misconduct. If you’re a victim, you shouldn’t be afraid to speak up and get the help that you need. If you’re a perpetrator of sexual misconduct, it would benefit both you and your victim to speak up instead of staying quiet. These things can’t always be prevented, but stirring up a conversation about sexual assault has the potential to make waves and save lives. even worse taste to try to present this story as anything more than sex crimes. A filthy, boastful recount of a string of sex crimes. The worst part of Foos’ story is the idea that anybody could get away with sexual assault if they keep their mouth shut for long enough. Voyeur goes against everything the modern justice push is trying to promote. Instead of being a film about the takedown of a ‘peeping-tom,’ it’s about the widespread publication of his story and how successful he was. What about publishing an article about a sexual assault survivor? What about publishing a story discussing why sexual assault is bad, instead of a story that seems interesting in theory but only glorifies some sicko? Journalists (and society, really) should be promoting an open conversation regarding sexual assault and misconduct, not sharing a story about staying quiet and waiting for your ‘criminal timer’ to run out. We should be conducting a free-flowing, positive conversation. t the end of the day, there’s not much you can do about this specific issue. Time can’t be changed, and Gerald Foos has to live with the fact that he’s violated so many lives. However, we can change the dialogue that surrounds both Foos’ story and sexual assault, and