This article won honorable mention in the 2022 Michigan Interscholastic Press Association spring awards ceremony.
A letter from the editors,
Due to the recent attentiveness on sexual assault and in honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, it is more important now than ever to cover this important topic.
As an Editorial Board, especially one of all women, we see the importance and the urgency to take the global issue and bring it to what we know best; the Northview community.
Below is an article written about the 97% and where it came from in hopes to educate on the origin and the importance behind it.
Olivia Austin, Doretta Schat Beimers and Victoria Scovel
2020/21 Editorial Board
The new TikTok trend discussing the idea of the 97% has blown up, making thousands of TikTok users repost the hashtag #97percent.
The statistic comes from a study that occurred in the United Kingdom (UK), saying that 97% of women ages 18-24 are victims of sexual harassment.
The trend first blew up due to the disappearance and murder of 33-year old Sarah Everard on March 3rd, 2021, who was sexually assulted during this process. This brought attention to a massive wave of women in the UK who have willingly opened up and started sharing their stories about sexual harassment.
Sexual harassment is defined by the Oxford dictionary, as “behavior characterized by the making of unwelcome and inappropriate sexual remarks or physical advances in a workplace or other professional or social situation.” This includes rape, attempted rape, sexual contact, exhibitionism, peeping and threats.
The TikTok trend of the 97% continues on, prompting thousands of users to repost and share their stories and experiences with sexual harassment. While the 97% came from the study in the UK, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t similar statistics in the United States.
Every 73 seconds, someone in the United States is sexually assaulted. This results in more than 433,648 experience sexual violence every year, according rainn.org.
Statistics like this one resulted in social media users, including students, to repost information to raise awareness about widespread sexual harassment.
“I personally chose to post about [sexual harassment] because even if it’s small, I have a platform where I can reach people,” junior Ryanna Miles said. “Whether you have 10 or 10,000 followers, I think it’s important to do what you can to work towards raising awareness. Your voice is significant.”
By reposting sexual harassment resources and continuing the conversation, this helps educate and publicize victim’s stories. While the 97% was and still currently is a Tik Tok trend, this doesn’t mean the conversation of sexual harassment should just be trend as well.
“The worst part about it is that people diminish or invalidate women’s feelings about being put in these uncomfortable positions. Keeping sexual harassment in important conversations is essential.” sophomore Austin Kunter said.
By students reposting information about sexual harassment to their social media, shows that the discussion of sexual harassment has made an apperance in the students dialouge, inviting and encouraging sexual harassment awareness throughout the community.
The 97% Tik Tok trend not only helped give courage to victims to share their stories, it also brought to light ways to prevent and bring awareness to this necessary and critical and necessary on-going conversation.
