Final Journal - Archive

        For my final journal, I was given a list of archive blogs with random collections of images. On postsecret.com, I came across this image. It stood out to me because I am a huge Harry Potter fan, and the background picture is of two characters from the series. After reading and getting a better idea of what this image represents and why it is important enough for the blogger to put on his or her website, I came to a conclusion: This image is heartbreaking. Its rhetor is a young woman who, at age thirteen, was sexually abused by an employee at her high school. The discourse surrounding this situation occurred after the school did nothing about the abuse. Because the employee continued to work at her school, the young woman felt the need to protect the rest of the female population for as long as she could. She felt it was her duty, and keeping him away from the other girls made her feel, “strong, powerful, and amazing.”

       This image and the rhetorical situation it describes are especially heartbreaking because of what it represents. This young woman felt there was a point needs to be brought to light, in order for change to be made. This exigence is one that everyone in our society is aware of. That is, sexual abuse; in specific, she is talking about in a school. She, along with the millions of other students who have walked in her shoes, went to school to learn. It is so common for this abuse to happen, and equally as likely for the establishment responsible to deny it. This is a disturbing truth in our society that deserves the attention this girl is trying to get. The clear example of how common sexual abuse is, comes from how one reads this archive; the shocking part of this anecdote is not the abuse, nor the school’s response, but how the rhetor “protected” her community. She flirted with the teacher and convinced him to run off with her. The fact that we are more disturbed by the victim doing what she felt necessary, than the act that drove her to such lengths, perfectly explains the need for this exigence.