Far too often when somebody comes forward with a sexual harassment or assault accusation, we do not take it seriously. At the very least, we do not take it seriously in the proper ways. We have many resources for victims to help them recover mentally and physically, which I fully support and believe are necessary; however, we do not have nearly as many ways of holding the accused accountable. While the intention with this is to help the victim while maintaining the system of “innocent until proven guilty,” it gives the impression that we do not care whether or not justice is served.

This is an incredible difficult point to address because it is right that we do not convict people without proper evidence, but it is very hard to prove sexual crimes. Generally, there is little evidence beyond eyewitnesses or character references, and thus it becomes a case of he-said she-said. For this reason, many people simply do not report sexual misconduct for fear of not being believed, especially because in making the accusation, the victim is then drawn into the spotlight; if they are unable to provide evidence, they are vilified.

Any sexual assault case that has made national headlines in recent years is evidence of this. Even in the case of Bill Cosby, who was tried and convicted, I still see people on social media attacking the women who came forward as a whole because some of them could not prove their stories.

For the sake of represent- ing both sides of these issues, I do understand that some sexual assault allegations are untrue. However, I think that allegations as a whole are trivialized by looking at a situation with that at the forefront of one’s thoughts. It results in assumptions being made without looking at the evidence, or even weighing both sides of the story. My solution to this mindset would be to make no assumption about the truth of allegations until proper examination of the evidence has been done.

We can also do more to make the victim feel heard outside of taking legal action, although in many cases legal action is the proper course. It is never a bad thing to educate people on sexual misconduct. Thus, if anyone is accused of misconduct they should have some sort of education on the matter. Specifically, they should not only be told that the actions they were accused of are wrong, but be made to understand why they were wrong.

We can repeat the same things over and over until our jaws fall off, but that does not mean that everyone will understand what we are saying. For example, many people do not understand that the perpetrator is not the one who decides whether or not something is sexual harassment. If somebody comes to you and says that something that you did made them uncomfortable, you cannot simply say, “no, it didn’t.”

is issue is also prevalent in our daily lives, specifically in terms of how we discuss sexual relationships. Far too often we use objectifying language or discuss sex in an unhealthy way, and that needs to stop. If, as a society, we do not have a concept for what healthy sexuality is, then we will always have issues when it comes to sexual harassment. So talk about it. Stop making sex a taboo subject, and do not be afraid to call out friends when they are discussing unhealthy things surrounding sex. We will never fix the issue unless we accept that there is one and begin the conversation not only in terms of scandals, but also in terms of your friend saying how badly they want to use somebody.