After being amplified by the media the #Metoo movement generated fear between sexes, and men started to be scared around women. Companies started devising policies that created a rift between men and women rather than bridging it. This was just the opposite of what the movement was set out to do. The question asked by me over this problem was “Why don't they speak up right away?” Lead me to understand that the insensitive point of view I was harnessing was in itself was one of the reasons they don’t come out and speak openly.

The question formed the basis of the project and helped me gain an overview of the patriarchal world we live in. Where we expect solutions to all the problems to be clear as black and white. We often have a strong point of view over situations which we see or hear from a distance but the ones who face them know and understand the complete heat of it.

The project was able to surface multiple reasons and it’s layers that make decision making hard in situations like these. The victim is confronted by multiple psychological and physical challenges that include Fright/ Freeze, Shame, Denial, Fear of Consequence, Low Self Esteem, Isolation, and Hopelessness, eventually breaking the willpower of the victim to speak up. By the time they realize the fact that action should have been taken, it becomes too late.

The focus of the project is to communicate through a fictional story about sexual violence and explain reasons why victims of such incidents don’t speak up. How perpetrators get away with the crime and how important a role society plays in situations like these. The challenge of the project is to visually justify the message through the medium of an illustrated graphic novel.

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• Understanding Why Victims of Sexual Harassment Don’t Come Forward......