This project is an ongoing visual communication masters graduation project at Konstfack, Stockholm

After my own sexual assault, I realised how much the visual patterns of how sexual assault is depicted influenced my own ideas about what happened to me. Often in mainstream media, sexual violence is depicted from the perspective of the harasser. Articles on sexual harassment are frequently illustrated with stock photos of a woman holding up her hands in resistance, almost as if inviting viewers to adopt the harasser’s point of view. POV: you are sexually assaulting someone. There’s also an overwhelming emphasis on resistance. This framing can leave survivors questioning themselves: Did I do enough to stop it? Was it my fault?

When this is the only way sexual violence is visualized, it becomes the only accepted truth. An unempathetic, guild-ridden truth.So much is wrong with these one-dimensional interpretations. I think a change of perspective is necessary. This is how I see sexual violence