Artist Fights Rape

Very interesting story on ArtCal's website by Hrag Vartanian about an artist who created a beautiful sign on Meserole and Humboldt stating:

"A woman was raped by a stranger on this block. Please protect your friends, lover, sister, daughter, mother, grandmother, niece, cousin, neighbor, the woman you hear call for help late one night. 1 in 6 women in this country have been victims of rape or attempted rape. This needs to stop happening."

The artist, who remains anonymous as her own rape case is in court, was inspired by the various "ghost bikes" around the city. The interview is definitely worth a read.

Comments

[gloria dori]

I work for a domestic violence agency in West Fulton and i could not think of a better and more effective way to denounce what happens to us than your denounce-art work. It is paricularly strong not only against the attacker, but also against the world around us that allows it. Gloria

[Jean Desiree Pockrus]

This is necessary because the social problem of sexual and physical abuse needs to be confronted in a social, public way. You can't just fight this individually in the courts. This is one of the best examples of merging public space, art, and social protest I have seen. I interned at San Francisco Women Against Rape and have studied the history of the development of sexual abuse crisis centers in the U.S. This work follows (even if unintentionally) from a history of actions that have sought to make the private pain of sexual abuse acknowledged as a social problem. In the 1960s and 70s groups of women, many of whom were survivors of sexual assault or friends and family of survivors, came together to do public actions like this one -- from creating public memorials and signage to posting flyers around neighborhoods and going door-to-door with information about sexual assault.

I'd like to add something by way of personal experience here as well: I'm a transgender / gender non-conforming person and I was attacked on the street in Philly by a group of teenagers who started out by ridiculing me and my appearance. I had been waiting for a bus when they came up to me. Then one of them walked over to me and suddenly punched me hard in the cheek. She and her friends ran away and I could do nothing to stop them. I felt so horrible after it all and to make it worse, I felt utterly helpless, dis-empowered, under-valued... and just afraid. I realize that it's nothing new to say that it's traumatizing to be attacked.

But I thought to myself recently that I wanted to go back to the corner I had been waiting on early this summer and make some kind of semi-permanent marker or sign explaining what happened to me and giving information about how many reported assaulted occur in Philly and in the U.S. against transgender, gender non-conforming, or GLBTQ-identified people. This work has reminded me of the need to do that, to do something to educate people. It's unfortunate that those who are attacked have the added burden of educating people about it all -- thus risking re-traumatizing themselves in the process of explaining painful memories. But what else can one do? If we educate each other as best we can, if we try to make our cities even a little better, then we all live in a better place. I always try to remind myself of that in my most pessimistic moments. Sometimes it doesn't work right away and I feel depressed about the vicious inequalities present in most societies and the violence and disrespect enabled by backwards value systems. But when I see others speaking out like this it really gives me some hope. This work is not only a sorely needed public service (like the "ghost bikes" around the city), but a testament to the strength, resilience, courage, and intelligence of its maker. I'm very grateful to her for the effort. -- Jean Desiree Pockrus