On Tuesday, November 26, Sophia R., Gaia, Chloe, Loveday and I went to the offices of the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault to speak to Kira Laffe, the Training and Outreach Coordinator of the organization. During the interview she gave us a clear definition of different types of sexual violence and a definition and understanding of rape culture. She explained to us the root cause of injustice, which is the unequal distribution of power. Kira also explained that many social systems exist to put the same people at the most powerful positions and the others at the least powerful positions in society. Kira, made an excellent point by expressing to us that when one puts a label on a person or group of people, one has already made him, her or them the lesser being(s).
Kira explained that until there was an equal distribution of power, there wouldn’t be equality, and the most difficult thing about achieving this is that when one is in a position of power s/he does not want to give it up. Once Kira explained to us the roles of power and how it effects a community, Kira went into the definition of rape, explaining to us that rape was a way of getting control or power because once a person raped someone else they have automatically taken something away from their victim, making the victim the weaker person. This is when Kira went into more specific areas, such as rape in the military, sex slavery, relationships or sexual violence between to people (in general). Also, Kira explained to us that 80% of victims of sexual violence knew/know their abuser; it is only in rare cases when the victim is victimized by a stranger, or a person who is mentally ill.
This interview not only informed us about many issues regarding sexual violence, but it helped us understand different aspects of our topic which we need to dive into further. So now that my group has the general information of our topic and the different branches within it, we will be able to look at different organizations which discuss each individual branch. This interview also helped me understand things which I need to ask in future field work visits as well as things which I need to work on. Something that will help me in future field works is to be more specific and clear when asking questions, by doing this I will end up asking less questions about one topic because by being specific I will get the specific information I wanted. Also, I noticed that since my questions were less focused, I ended up speaking a lot throughout the interview, which is neither a good thing nor a bad thing. Overall this field work was an amazing opportunity! I want to thank Loveday, who got in contact with the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault! I also wanted to thank Min Um-Mandhyan for replying to Loveday, and I wanted to thank Kira Laffe for letting us interview her!
Below this blog post there are two links to the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault website and Facebook page.
Website: http://www.svfreenyc.org/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/nycalliance
