By Lily O’Gara

Rachel’s Story

After spending time with Rachel Meadow,* one could not possibly imagine the trauma she experienced as a young teenager.

She has an aura of soft radiance about her, one that clings to her tall, fair frame and resides within the confines of her cerulean eyes. She is gentle yet bubbly at the same time; her laugh warms a room. Rachel loves music, children, and theatre, and is very involved in school.

One might assume that she endured only the typical teenage trials and tribulations-acne, stress, heartbreak-but this would be a lacking assumption.

Rachel was raped at age 14.

She was not in a dark alley, nor was she provocatively dressed.

Neither alcohol nor drugs were involved in the incident, at least on her part.

She did not know her attacker, and she never saw him again.

Rachel’s story is, unfortunately, a harsh and not uncommon reality for many American women. Every two minutes, someone in the United States is sexually assaulted.

At the time, Rachel was simply a high school freshman who was walking home from drama club over winter break. She left around 6:30PM, and chose to switch from the busy street that she began walking on in favor of a residential street that was more of a shortcut. Several cars passed by, and Rachel paid them no mind; she figured that they were just people driving home from work.

One truck, however, began to follow her, causing Rachel to feel uneasy. And when the truck pulled over and the male driver emerged and began running towards her, she knew she was in trouble.

The driver abducted Rachel and threw her into the truck. The door locks had been cut off. There was no escape.

Hitting her perpetrator proved fruitless, as did screaming.

“We pulled into this deserted parking lot and he stopped the car. He leaned over and told me to shut up and that I deserved this for looking so pretty. He told me I shouldn’t look so sexy if I didn’t want guys to notice me,” Rachel recounts sadly.

The young woman was wearing winter attire, an ensemble consisting of jeans, a sweater, a winter jacket, a scarf, mittens and winter boots.

The perpetrator threatened to duct tape Rachel’s mouth shut and strike her if she did not stop screaming.

Despite Rachel’s desperate and repeated attempts to push the man off, he succeeded in raping her, stealing both her virginity and her sense of safety.

“After, he opened the door and pushed me out onto the ground. He grabbed my clothes, threw them at me, got back into his truck and drove off,” Rachel says, concealing her anguish with a practiced numbness.

After the attack, Rachel lay on the unforgiving winter ground, attempting to make sense of the often-brutal reality of being a woman.

A Brutal Reality

RAINN (Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network), the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization, reports that 1 out of every 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime; this amounts to about 17.7 million women. In addition, 9 of every 10 victims are female.

For these women, and for young Rachel, the effects of such an experience are devastating. Victims of sexual assault are much more likely to suffer from depression (3x), post-traumatic stress disorder (6x), alcohol abuse (13x), drug abuse (26x), and more likely to contemplate suicide (4x).

Rachel was already in a fragile emotional state, and had been cutting herself since age 12 in response to being bullied in school; after being raped, the cutting got “out of control.”

“I was doing it when I woke up, when I took my shower, when I got to school, throughout the school day, when I got home, and before I went to bed because I just couldn’t handle it. There were also many times when I wanted to kill myself and I actually attempted to more times than I can count on both hands,” Rachel says.

No Exceptions

Now a student at the University of New Hampshire, Rachel feels much happier and safer, and is very grateful that she did not succeed in killing herself.

However, even in college, a place intended to be a secure environment, the charming Music Education has experienced the dangers of being a woman. This past year, she was walking back from a fun evening spent at a party, and was pinned against a tree in the shadows between two dorms. She kicked her attacker, and he ran off. Afterwards, Rachel called the police and filed a report. The police responded immediately, and in a manner that reinforced Rachel’s feeling that UNH is a proactive community in terms of women’s issues.

Indeed, the university has an excellent reputation in this arena, and was recently hailed by U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden for being a progressive school in terms of rape and sexual assault prevention.

Mary Mayhew, the director of SHARPP, UNH’s Sexual Harassment and Rape Prevention Plan Program, believes that the university is on the right track in terms of addressing sexual assault.

“I can say unequivocally that UNH is one of the best schools in the country in terms of education and responding to survivors. SHARPP is one of the only on campus crisis centers in the country providing confidential 24 hour crisis services. Also, when a survivor needs something, the UNH community as a whole is very quick to meet that person’s needs,” she said enthusiastically.

SHARPP is unique in its approach- according to Mayhew, the program advocates work from an empowerment philosophy, providing victims and supporters with information, a safe place to talk, and coping mechanisms.

As is evident, though, through Meadow’s experience alone, even the quaint suburban campus is not immune to these issues. Information provided in response to the Clery Act, a federal statute that requires campuses to disclose on-campus criminal activity, is demonstrative of this fact.

Reports state, “The statistics for sexual assault indicate that rape is a problem on college campuses. According to a U.S. Department of Justice report, ‘women ages 16 to 24 experience rape at rates four times higher than the assault rate of all women, making the college (and high school) years the most vulnerable for women.”

Available data for the years 2008-2010 show that “forcible sex offenses” are actually on the rise at UNH and that, in recent years, the majority of them take place on campus and in the residential facilities. For many, it is an unsettling thought that such acts are taking place on the green, idyllic campus, amidst Frisbee games, parties, and homework sessions.

Silent Fear

The reported numbers are just that: reported. A large portion of national cases -54%, according to RAINN- are not reported to the police.

Mayhew says that UNH students do not differ in their reporting patterns. The few incidents that are reported are usually done so via a friend of the victim, not by the victim herself or by the police, counselors, or crisis centers. The crushing stigma and victim blaming are often more than enough to dissuade victims from reporting.

And, most recently, negative political attention regarding rape has been added to the already heavy burden that sexual assault and rape victims bear. This summer, Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin sparked controversy with his “legitimate rape” comment; Akin insinuated that many rape cases were not valid, and went so far as to say that women can shut their bodies down if they are being violated.

Comments such as these reinforce the disappointing reality that many Americans simply do not seem to understand the issue or respect the victims.

They also sadden, anger, and genuinely confuse victims, like Rachel Meadow.

“What is legitimate rape? If the girl was asking for it, then it’s not legitimate? Or if she was drunk or high then she deserved it? If she was dressed a little scantily, she deserved to be raped? I was wearing jeans, a sweater, a winter jacket, a scarf, mittens, and winter boots,” she says. It is difficult to pinpoint exactly which emotion Rachel is feeling as she says this; perhaps she is not even sure herself.

Regardless, she is sure of one thing.

“I believe people need to know that if a man decides to attack a woman, it is not because she did something. It was 100% his decision and he needs to be held accountable for that,” Rachel says.

Hope for the Future

Though rape remains a problem worldwide, it has sparked an important dialogue, particularly on college campuses.

For a young woman who has endured such a great deal of trauma, Rachel refuses to remain silent. Though it is often painful to revisit such memories, she strives to be open about her experience. Rachel is ever hopeful that, by speaking out, the anti-rape movement is one voice closer to its goal.

In a show of strength that is nearly palpable, Rachel explained, “I have grown a lot since this happened. I am now a much stronger person. I can deal with so much more than I ever thought possible.

*Name has been changed to protect the subject’s identity.