A 21-year-old photography student at the School for Visual Arts has embarked on a project designed to give a voice back to victims of sexual assaults by empowering them with the words of their attackers.
Grace Brown is in the midst of a campaign that uses photos of sexual assault victims holding cards with things their attackers said to them written on them in an effort to raise awareness of the issues victims of sexual assault face both during and after the crime.
Brown began the campaign – called Project Unbreakable – in October of 2011, when she was just 19, and has captured images of hundreds of victims of sexual assaults.
Awareness: The woman who began the project says she wants it to spread awareness of issues involved in sexual assaults
Empowerment: The project’s director says victims often feel stronger after one of their photo shoots
Growth: Since it was started in 2011, Project Unbreakable has photographed hundreds of victims
‘I created Project Unbreakable as a way of spreading awareness to an issue that isn’t talked about anywhere near as much as it should be,’ Brown told the Huffington Post in a 2012 interview.
The stories address many issues other than the crimes themselves, including what it took for the victims to come forward and how they were received by their families and authorities once they told them their stories.
Friends: many of the attackers were friends of the survivors
Survivors: Survivors often feel a sense of guilt, or that there was something could have done to avoid the attack
Family friends: In many cases of sexual assaults on children, the attacker is a friend of the family, or even a relative of the victim
Project Unbreakable aims to raise awareness of all aspects of sexual assaults, not just the attack
Fear: Attackers will often use scare tactics to make their victims comply with their demands
One woman, who was assaulted repeatedly by her tennis coach when she was just a teenager, wrote that detectives asked her ‘why didn’t you just leave or quit tennis?’ And that her mom said, ‘it’s your fault. You should have said something. You have caused us all so much grief and pain.’
‘It’s important that survivors have access to everything they need — counselors, support groups, and most of all, valid and correct information about their rights, if the assault happened on a college campus,’ Brown said. As for the perpetrators — I think more needs to be done when it comes to mandatory presentations about sexual assault.’
Awareness: Children victims often don’t understand what sexual abuse entails, or they’re afraid to tell someone about it
Witnessing a sex crime and not reporting it is illegal in many places, even if you’re not participating in the actual attack
Memory: Children will sometimes repress memories of sexual assault
Brown and the project’s director, Kaelyn Siversky, book tours around New England to try and make their way to as many survivors as possible, and continue to grow both the project and awareness.
‘There are some times when someone walks away with just a little more power in their stride. It’s great to see the vast differences of people coming to us these days,’ Siversky said. ‘As different as it may be, they all have this one shared experience.’
Humiliation: Men will often feel too embarrassed to report an attack, especially if the attacker is also male
Delusional: Attackers will often convince themselves that the victim actually wants to have sex, but is simply pretending to not
Degradation: Attackers will often make their victims feel worthless, and that they deserve to be attacked
In many cases, a victims own boyfriend will justify forcing sex by claiming it’s love
Read more: Daily Mail
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