Slap. Nine seconds. Another slap. Nine seconds. Another slap.
Every nine seconds, a woman in the United States suffers from domestic violence. This adds up to 9,600 women per day.South Carolina ranks number one for rates of deadly violence against women. It has been in the top-10 for the past 18 years.
Since 1987, October has been observed as Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM). The University of South Carolina’s Sexual Assault and Violence Intervention and Prevention (SAVIP) and other organizations hosted a variety of events throughout the month to raise awareness and inform students about the issue.
One of the dominant goals is to make college students aware that domestic violence is a serious issue.
“It’s happening on college campuses. It’s happening everywhere,” SAVIP Associate Director Shannon Nix said, referring to what she calls “intimate partner violence.”
One of the recent events was the Empty Place at the Table display, which was set up on the second floor of Russell House on Wednesday. The display honored several of the lives lost to domestic violence, including USC professor Jennifer Wilson, student Diamoney Greene and associate professor Dr. Raja Fayad. It also recognized 18-year-old Stephen Sylvester Jr., who was killed this past July, and Yeardley Love, a student at the University of Virginia who was killed in 2010.
“These things happen and they happen to anybody. It’s just not one certain segment of the population, and it’s not just women,” Nix said.
Also on Wednesday, SAVIP partnered with Mary Kay, a cosmetics company that also encompasses the Mary Kay Charitable Foundation, for Support a Survivor with a Selfie. The company was founded by Mary Kay Ash with the idea of empowering women. Independent Sales Director Heather Catts, along with two other sales associates, hosted the event.
“It’s all about giving women the opportunity to create a life that they want,” Catts said of the company. The event itself gave women the opportunity to test Mary Kay beauty products, including cleansers, microdermabrasion exfoliators and foundation.
After the makeover, women were asked to take a selfie. For each photo, $1 was donated to the Mary Kay Charitable Foundation and Sistercare of Columbia, a nonprofit shelter that assists domestic violence survivors and their children.
Catts said that Mary Kay is enthusiastic to become more involved on college campuses.
“Another cause that we have that we just started is about bullying and date rape and things like that,” she said. “Starting with younger women and showing them … that they are special and they are important …That’s something young women don’t necessarily get at home.”
First-year marine science student Lauren Faulk attended the Mary Kay event because of her own experience with domestic violence.
“Today’s actually the anniversary of the experience that I had, so it was a cool thing to come and raise awareness today,” Faulk said.
SAVIP hopes to stress to college students that domestic abuse can appear in forms other than physical violence. Other types of abuse include psychological, sexual and financial.
Nix described abusive relationships as “volatile and complicated” and emphasized that they often include emotional abuse and manipulation.
“There are definite issues in terms of the … seriousness of the issue that people do die, but also in general that it’s just harmful to be in an abusive relationship,” Nix said. In reference to her previous experience in counseling, she said, “I would see that there was a lot more psychological [abuse] than physical.”
Nix estimates that between 300 and 400 students have attended the events so far, but she aims to reach a larger audience through partnerships and cooperation between groups.
On Tuesday evening, independently from SAVIP, Melissa Kirk, domestic violence survivor and USC alumnus, delivered a lecture about her experience.
Kirk described her joyful childhood and her successful high school and college careers. She divorced her husband after a single incident of violence, but in a later relationship, she tolerated the violence until it became life-threatening.
“When you [have] to teach your 11-year-old daughter a code word to call 911 … that’s pretty pitiful,” she said.
Kirk also dispelled the stereotypes about victims of abuse. She asked for descriptions from the audience and received answers such as “deserved it,” “dependent,” “looks weak” and “probably has a couple kids.”
“Stereotypes are crap,” Kirk said. “She looks like the woman in the mansion, and she looks like the woman in the projects.”
Although October has nearly come to a close, SAVIP will continue working to raise awareness about domestic violence. In November, they have an event partnered with the Office of Student Conduct, and they will be at Hip Hop Wednesday on Greene Street to inform students about bystander accountability.
Next semester, they will recognize Stalking Awareness Month in January and Sexual Assault Awareness Month in April.
“I hope if anything it’s made [students] aware,” Nix said. “Awareness months are great, but I’ve always said we need to be doing it 12 months a year.”