Jennifer Baumgardner is dedicating herselg to a deeply felt cause,  helping women shed the shame and humiliation they feel as victims of rape. She's been working on a multimedia rape awareness project , interviewing women for a film about sexual assault.

Baumgardner can't interview every women in America. Yet she wants to help women voice their truths and dispel the secrecy that surrounds sexual assault.

 

Louder Than Words

So she's created a t-shirt that says what many women find impossible to speak out loud: "I was raped."

It's controversial. Just as controversial as the previous t-shirt she created and distributed three years ago that said "I had an abortion."

 

Designed to Tell

Baumgardner has a list of answers to the question, "Why wear a t-shirt that says 'I was raped'?"

The t-shirt design isn't meant to shock. It depicts a safe with its door open . Inside the safe sits a small card bearing the three words in tiny script. It's a slow process of digesting the message, understanding what you're reading...and realizing what the woman who's wearing the shirt is saying.

Baumgardner wanted a shirt that would literally open the door to an uncomfortable subject and start conversations . That's exactly what she's accomplished in the few short days the shirt has been available.

 

Safe Topics

Fittingly enough, she's chosen to release the t-shirt design in April, which is Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

According to RAINN (the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network), 1 out of every 6 women is a victim of sexual assault. If you doubt the truth of that statement, talk to any woman who's revealed to her friends the deeply guarded fact that she's been raped. She'll tell you that once a woman opens that door, others begin to talk. And it's unsettling to find out how many women keep this secret hidden.

 

Rape Revealed

Most women will never wear Baumgardner's shirt. But if a woman can unburden herself and speak out about her rape, her assault, her abuse to one trusted and empathetic friend, that's how the conversation begins. That's how we bring rape out of the closet, dispel the fear women have that if they report it they won't be believed, and help more women to pursue prosecution and eventually, justice.