In response to this New York Times article which is in turn in response to this climate survey by MIT, I’ve made an infographic on how one might go about speaking up and reporting their own experiences– the first step to tackling a deeply traumatizing and complicated issue. One of the most terrible aspects of being sexually harassed is the feeling of both being utterly alone and having to retell one’s story over and over again. Facts and figures from this survey proves that one is, unfortunately, rarely alone and that there are resources to report anonymously to– hopefully fueling greater cultural and civic change to our treatment of these problems.
https://infogr.am/you_are_not_alone_speaking_up_about_sexual_assault_at_mit
Great information, and a timely, important infographic. Two things.
One, you do a great job of guiding your audience through the fact that they’re not alone. In fact, you do a good job overall being that supportive voice. I find it missing in the portion where you quote the survey:
One-third of MIT students surveyed said that harassment can happen “because men get carried away.”
What’s your response to that? How should your reader process this quote? What’s more, I’d like you to define harassment for your reader, explain that the “men carried away” argument doesn’t hold water, outline its negative impacts, and then pivot back to the idea that saying something is for the best.
Finally, I would like you to include direct contact information for the resources you mention.
It’s so, so important to talk about this. Kudos. I think I’d recommend thinking about making sure people don’t feel blamed if they decide not to speak up. I agree that speaking up is super important, but there are totally legitimate reasons not to, and there are a host of terrible examples of people being treated awfully when they do speak up, so if people don’t want to for their safety, I don’t blame them.