Let's Talk About the 97%

I think it's time to talk about this. Primarily because of April 24th. I know it's passed but, the fact that people have considered that particular "national day" to be a joke, it's time we bring out statistics and discuss the nitty-gritty.

• I do want to let whoever is reading this, that this might be triggering to some people. Read if you feel entirely comfortable.

What is the "97%?"

The 97% is a number explaining a percentage of women who were sexually assaulted & harrassed. This was a conversation that started on Tiktok when some girls admitted to experiencing sexual assault before.

This caused most men (and internalized misogynistic women) to argue against, saying that the numbers weren't real.

According to Open Access Goverment, 97% of women are statistics from the United Kingdom, those women between the ages of 18-24.

Some women who experienced sexual assault were not taken seriously because they weren't "attractive." And other women didn't share their assault because they were afraid that people wouldn't believe them.

In another article from NPR.org, an online survey called "Stop Street Harassment" shares that 81% of women and 43% of men had experienced some form of sexual sometime in their lives.

The numbers are very high regardless, despite the fact that 97% is true or not.

Street Harassment Not Taken Seriously

If you look up street harassment on Youtube, you can see videos of how serious and scary it is to be a woman just existing. The statistics are dangerously high, from being catcalled to refusing to give your number, and they continue to ask, the statistics are dangerously high.

In an article from The Guardian, Mary Morgan shares how she was rushing to get to the train, and someone approaches her, and she tells him to get away from her several times.

She also shares that an international study of 16,000 found that 84% of women experienced harassment before they were EVEN ADULTS.

Do you know how dangerous that is? That means the risks of under-age women also are sexually harassed.

But why isn't catcalling taken seriously? Authorities don't consider it to be serious. A study from Plan International shows that only 2% of sexual assault was reported in Dehli. "Out of girls and women who did report, the majority of responses from authorities ranged from belittling, disbelief, and dismissal, to further harassment from authorities themselves as well as a complete lack of justice, resulting in frustration and a lack of trust from the system."

How Can Women Protect Themselves?

Now the question is, how can we as women protect ourselves?

There are self-defense classes for women to take to defend themselves in case someone tries to cause harm to them. Looking up "women's defense classes" in my area, I already see more than 5 locations to take these classes. TikTok also has content creators teach their audience how to protect themselves from getting hurt.

In an article from Forbes.com, Kare Anderson interviews Claudia Alexander, who she learned as part of an organization that researches what self-defense practices and products are best to equip, empower & educate women to protect themselves and their families. She even shares tips scenarios to keep yourself safe. For the full article, click here.

April 24th.

Leading into April of this year, anonymous people decided to make a "joke" and establish April 24th as "National R@p3 Day".

As people heard about it, people decided to take action and discuss why it's far from a joke and how ridiculing survivors who dealt with that horrible experience is terrible.

April 24th is a day to acknowledge the genocide of Armenians, called Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, which occurred from 1915-1923. The Ottoman government arrested and murdered hundreds of Armenians, soon becoming a massacre of Armenian families. To take that day, and make it something gruesome and dark for people, was a slap to the face for content creators from Turkish & Armenian backgrounds.

To conclude my article, I hope it brings awareness to people, understand that the 97% statistics are factual, and the cases, and the rise of these cases, are not being solved. This is a big issue and needs to be addressed. This conversation had been brought up recently, and hopefully, the awareness allows the numbers to go down and take people's personal experiences seriously.