To Abbey Knupp, the Monument Quilt is a reminder that she is not alone.
“For me as a (sexual assault) survivor, … it’s a constant reminder that there are people out there who have gone through situations similar to what I’ve been through,” Knupp, the president of Ambassadors to Survivor Advocacy Program, said. “And regardless of how bad it can get at times, it will get better.”
The Monument Quilt will make its way to Peden Stadium as part of Ohio University’s ongoing effort to highlight the voices of survivors of sexual assault while improving responsiveness and prevention efforts on sexual violence.
Spearheaded by FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture, an activist group based in Baltimore, the Monument Quilt is filled with stories and experiences written, stitched and painted by survivors of sexual assault. The quilt aims to publicly display the diverse narratives survivors of sexual assault have faced.
The organizers of the quilt have collected more than 1,000 survivors’ stories throughout the past four years, according to its website.
Often times, people may think of sexual assault as something foreign if they have not experienced and do not know others who have experienced it, Knupp, a senior studying journalism and women’s, gender and sexuality studies, said.
“(The quilt) humanizes it,” she said. “Seeing the Monument Quilt laid out in Peden will put a voice to (sexual assault) and show that it has happened to a lot of people.”
The depiction of sexual violence is one that portrays a stranger jumping out from the bushes or a perpetrator whom the survivor has never met before. There are cases like these, Director of the Women’s Center M. Geneva Murray said, but the depiction does not reflect reality accurately.
“We know that the vast majority of cases where someone has been sexually assaulted (it’s) by someone they know: by an ex-partner, by a partner, by a family member, by a friend,” Murray said. “Representing sexual violence in this stranger danger sort of way can make people feel, when they have known their assailant, that ‘What did I do wrong? What could I have done to stop this?’”
To Murray, the presence of the quilt on campus means many things, especially because some of the quilt squares were created by her former students.
The event will be exempted from the mandatory reporting, she said. Mandatory reporting requires OU faculty to report suspicions of abuse. Murray will be leading a booth in which survivors of sexual assault can make their own quilt squares.
Patty Stokes, an assistant professor in women’s, gender and sexuality studies, said a possible reason for the depiction of a stranger being the perpetrator may be because it allows people to distance themselves from the reality that sexual assault can happen in places and with people they are familiar with.
It is also important to recognize there is not a right way to be a survivor, Murray said. It is amazing to hear stories of survivors who fought back immediately and were able to get away from their assailants, she said.
“But sometimes people freeze. Sometimes people are scared and don’t know what to do because they think if they fight back they’ll be hurt more. Sometimes people aren’t in a position to fight back,” Murray said. “It’s really important that we expand this narrative and we think about all the different ways in which people have been assaulted not just by strangers, but by friends, family members, partners (and) ex-partners.”
Stokes said when survivors disclose their experiences with her, the survivors recall experiences in which people have doubted them and made them feel ashamed, feel as if they were imagining something or as if they were to be blame for the sexual assault.
“Maybe you know both people who were involved with it (and) you have a hard time believing it, but just to suspend judgement is truly the most helpful thing you can do ... to be a good listener and a good friend,” she said.
Despite being part of a national conversation, sexual assault does not get discussed as often as it should, Knupp said.
“It is something that is incredibly difficult to talk about. It’s uncomfortable. It’s not a happy subject so talking about it can be extremely difficult,” Knupp said. “(But) I hope that by seeing something as physical, as tangible and as huge as the monument quilt is, it’ll start those conversations.”
