“What Were you Wearing?” exhibit

The What Were You Wearing exhibit meant to bring awareness to the victims of sexual assault will be closing at the end of October.
RAs and Zeta Alpha Kappa members Haylee Payton, 21, senior of Papillion, and Kamryn Kozisek, 21, senior of Kaycee, Wyoming, put the exhibit together with the help of Interim Title IX Coordinator Morgan Cullan. They were inspired to put it together after hearing Cullan talk about sexual assault being an issue on college campuses during a meeting with housing staff at the beginning of the semester.
“This exhibit is really eye-opening,” Payton said. “While setting up this exhibit, then going back through, it never gets less powerful. I think, especially on college campuses, sexual assault always does need to be talked about. Victim blaming and other measures to silence victims need to stop, walking through this exhibit will prove this.”
The exhibit shows the outfits people were wearing when they became victims of sexual assault alongside the story of how it happened. The group took clothes from the Eagle Exchange to create outfits that fit the description of what the victim was wearing.
“I think it is really common to see people wanting to fight against rape culture,” Kozisek said. “It can be really hard to tackle all parts of that at once, this exhibit takes on one part of it and does it silently. What makes this exhibit so powerful is that stories were submitted by our peers, these aren’t just strangers but people in our classes or teaching them.”
The group launched an anonymous form and posted a QR code around campus, on social media and around town in September asking to hear people’s stories. When they’d receive a story, Cullan would review it, print it out and then display it alongside the outfit. They received 13 responses over the course of the exhibit.
“This exhibit does prove a lot of the stigmas around sexual assault wrong,” Payton said. “The main one is victim blaming. The exhibit does prove that what a victim was doing or wearing is not the reason they were assaulted. I personally have been asked by people how they can help be advocated for victims, and where they can start helping. Obviously, this is awesome to see, hopefully creating a space where victims do not have to feel ashamed or judged while talking about their assault.”
This exhibit recently inspired others to also bring awareness to sexual assault. A What Were You Wearing exhibit will be opening at the Carnegie Center in Alliance sometime soon.