Forced

By: Nicole Ramos

There have been numerous accounts of women and children who have been pressured into enacting sexual acts with men, sometimes at gunpoint, and then forced to remain silent by their predators. Some of these brave women have spoken out in numerous newspapers but was justice ever really served?

I created this piece to emphasize the fear and injustice those women and children felt after being forcibly sexually assaulted and afterwards being shushed into silence.

The woman and child in this piece have multiple different skin tones and hair colors, even though it's black and white, mainly because I wanted to symbolize that this didn't just happen to one specific race; it happened to all and I hoped with this, I was able to shed some light on the situation.

Sources:

W.D. Wallach & Hope. “Evening Star. [Volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854–1972, September 03, 1957, Page B-2, Image 26.” Library Of Congress, 3 Sept. 957, chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1957-09-03/ed-1/seq-26/#date1=1870&index=1&rows=20&words=assault+sexual+sexually&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=sexual+assault&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1.
Nome Pub. Co. “The Nome Nugget. [Volume] (Nome, Alaska) 1938-????, October 19, 1959, Image 1.” Library Of Congress, 19 Oct. 959, chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84020662/1959-10-19/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=1850&index=5&rows=20&words=assault+sexual&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=sexual+assault&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1.
W.D. Wallach & Hope. “Evening Star. [Volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854–1972, September 01, 1957, Page A-17, Image 17.” Library Of Congress, 1 Sept. 957, chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1957-09-01/ed-1/seq-17/#date1=1850&sort=relevance&rows=20&words=assaulted+sexually&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=14&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=sexual+assault&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=2.
W.D. Wallach & Hope. “Evening Star. [Volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854–1972, August 30, 1957, Page A-24, Image 24.” Library Of Congress, 30 Aug. 957, chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1957-08-30/ed-1/seq-24/#date1=1850&sort=relevance&rows=20&words=assaulted+sexually&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=4&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=sexual+assault&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=3.
“Evening Star. [Volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854–1972, September 06, 1957, Page B-2, Image 36.” Library Of Congress, 6 Sept. 957, chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1957-09-06/ed-1/seq-36/#date1=1850&sort=relevance&rows=20&words=assaulting+sexually&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=7&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=sexual+assault&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=3.

Not all sources can be seen in the piece but they're all there within the file as the background, merged together.