#QuitThisShit is here to empower sexual assault survivors
Three survivors of sexual assault have joined forces to create a movement, one that aims to stop the harassment of fellow sexual assault survivors online. As part of their organization SafeBAE (Safe Before Anyone Else), Daisy Coleman, Ella Fairon, and Jada Smith created the campaign #QuitThisShit. Warning: The following contains harsh language and descriptions of sexual assault.
The video for #QuitThisShit features people reading real messages Coleman and Smith received, online and via text message, after they had been sexually assaulted. This only added to the trauma Coleman experienced, and she tried to kill herself after she was sexually assaulted by her brother’s friend. She was 14 years old. Now, Coleman’s brother is also a part of SafeBAE and works alongside his sister, who is fighting to help other sexual assault survivors.
However, this doesn’t stop the hateful words from existing — words that were sent to Coleman while she was in the hospital recovering from her suicide attempt.
Smith also suffered from extreme bullying after her sexual assault at age 16. The perpetrators shared photos of her unconscious body online with the hashtag #jadapose, which trended in her community as people cruelly used it to recreate photos of the assault.
Based on their own experiences, Coleman, Smith, and Fairon created #QuitThisShit to stop this type of harassment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbeoN5zlPGo?feature=oembed
Although you may often not know how to help survivors of sexual assault, #QuitThisShit is a tangible way to stand with those who have gone through traumatic ordeals. Like Fairon says in the video:
"You can decide to not talk shit and put an end to the re-revictimization of sexual assault survivors over social media."
https://www.instagram.com/p/BSYkuYajRDr
Surviving sexual assault is hard enough, so it’s incomprehensible to us that people would harass those who’ve lived through it. Yet, as the #QuitThisShit website says:
"The daily torment and re-victimization they face from their peers after their assaults are as bad as the assault itself. It is a quiet secret. A secret that we are here to break wide open."
So take the pledge to not talk shit on anyone who has said that she or he has been sexually assaulted — and help #QuitThisShit.
