The sequins on a creamy white bridal gown caught the sunshine and attracted onlookers at the Grayson County Courthouse Tuesday as part of a display on National Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
The gown, draped over a dressmaker’s form, appeared to be doing its job well. People were stopping to look at it and when they did, they saw a piece of paper on the back that explained the sexual assault suffered by the woman represented by the form.
Grayson County Crisis Center Sexual Assault Coordinator Anna Brown and Primary Prevention Coordinator McKinze VanHarpen spoke with the folks who stopped to read the signs.
“Our goal is to bring to life the story of our survivors,” VanHarpen said.
Brown explained that often times when people hear that a woman or a girl has been sexually assaulted, they think or comment on things like what she was wearing, where she was and what she was doing at the time as a reason for the assault. So, the display intended to show people the actual clothes that were worn by sexual assault victims to try to dispel the myth that what a woman wears can contribute to the assault.
The Crisis Center representatives want people to understand there are real people at the heart of the statistics that they hear on the radio or see in print. One thing to understand, they said, is that sexual assault victims come in all ages and genders. Over half of the survivors they have seen, VanHarpen said, are children.
Brown said it is important for people to know if someone hurts them, the team of sexual assault responders is there to walk them through the process of reporting the crime and getting a sexual assault exam.
For more information on how the team helps in that situation, call the 24-hour hotline at 903-893-5615. For more information about the Grayson Crisis Center, call 903-893-3909.
“Since our sexual assault program has been implemented in Grayson County, we’ve seen over a hundred survivors come through,” VanHarpen said. “It is easy for people to detach themselves from this problem, but it’s here. It’s in our community and these are helping to bring to life the different ages (of victims) that we see.”
The card on a dressform wearing a pair of jeans and a sorority T-shirt proclaimed, “This is why we have underage drinking laws. This is your fault. If you were drinking this would not have happened to you.” So often, Brown said, young women are blamed for the violence they suffer. She said the display is aimed at reminding people not to do that. Reminding them to take the time to find out what happened and to remind people, especially the victims of sexual assault that help is available at the Grayson Crisis Center.