Sexual violence is an issue that is deeply personal to me, and to many other women. I have noticed that this issue is almost universal among women around campus and the world as awhole–a seemingly inescapable universal–whether you find yourself in your own home or visiting a foreign country or walking through your community. Throughout this research project  on the history of sexual violence at Ohio State University thus far, I found myself feeling an overwhelming sense of familiarity. With the narratives I examined, I began to draw parallels to the present in almost every one I read. I still see high-profile rape cases against athletes  in which institutions turn a blind eye all too often, such as the Steeb Hall case. I still see victim/survivor-responsibility policies and not enough policies that attempt to address the root of the problem, like the street light efforts of the 1960s. I still see Universities juggling maintaining a certain image and doing the right thing in sexual violence cases, similarly to the Oxford University sexual harassment and rape case. I still see women’s oriented spaces on campus needing to fight for a real voice and funding, just like WAR did.

While it is profoundly disheartening and enraging that so many things seem to stay the same in regards to sexual violence on campus and elsewhere, it is simultaneously profoundly encouraging to know that women (and men) historically refuse to be bystanders. For example, I wrote about the ongoing efforts of Take Back the Night, an anti-sexual violence group that fights for the reclamation of safety of women on OSU campus and around the world since the 1970s. The Rape Education and Prevention Program of the 80s has remnants today, as sexual misconduct awareness training will become mandatory as part of first-year orientation for incoming students next year. OSU students are asserting their power with  clear demands and demonstrations, as seen in the strike of 1973 with the Women’s Liberation list of demands and the current coalition efforts of Reclaim OSU.

So how do we grapple with the fact that, despite our efforts, sexual violence is still very much a reality for people on campuses and beyond? The unfortunate truth is that  sexual violence may never go away, not as long as we live in a patriarchal, capitalist, misogynist, racist society that refuses to address this issue. But does that mean we should give up? Absolutely not. There is encouraging change happening all around us through grassroots organizations, student and faculty resistance,  and community outreach, which has laid the groundwork for the path towards a sexual violence free world. I think this project can help give context to that groundwork for future anti-sexual violence endeavors, as history can provide insight into how we can grow to be campus and society that values women and shows compassion for all. Until then, there is work to do.