A sea of students sporting “It Affects Me” T-shirts marks the start of the annual campaign designed to educate the campus community about the effects of sexual violence and encourage students to take action against rape.
Throughout the week, volunteers from Students Stopping Rape, Men Against Rape and student groups from the Rape Prevention Education Program, who started the campaign six years ago, will be in the Arbor passing out 1,000 organic, sweatshop-free T-shirts displaying the slogan, “It Affects Me.” Additionally, various activities will be staged around campus.
Fourth-year women’s studies major Peggy Lee said her personal experiences led her to believe in the motives of the campaign and power of collective action.
“‘It Affects Me’ is a campaign which I believe in as a survivor of sexual assault,” Lee said. “We can stop rape if we all raise our consciousness and work with the movement.”
According to Students Stopping Rape media intern Deborah Svidler, the campaign’s slogan is intended to show how everyone, regardless of sex, is directly or indirectly impacted by sexual violence.
“The shirts are meant to ignite dialogue as a way to educate everyone,” Svidler, a third-year psychology and Spanish major, said. “We usually encourage everyone to wear those shirts as much as they can all week.”
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