A local woman speaks out about sexual assaults on college campuses, and the misconceptions surrounding them.
Her documentary about her own experience is getting national attention.
WDEF News 12's Mandy Odom talked to her for this local perspective.
What started out as a class project became a movement...
Bergen Baucom says, "A rapist isn't looking for the girl that's in the shortest skirt dancing on a table. He's looking for the person who's vulnerable."
Bergen Baucom shares her story of how she was raped by a close friend in 2007, and what she had to deal with afterwards.
She says, "It's sick, and I guess there was truth to it. He thought he could. He did, and then he got away with it."
She says preventative measures are good, but she wants more education about what rape is and what to do.
Baucom says, "Turns into well you took self defense. You had pepper spray. What were you doing to bring this on? What did you not do to allow this to happen, and I think that that's an attitude that perpetuates victim blaming."
In her documentary, Miniskirts, Mace, and Other Misconceptions; Bergen talked to other college students about rape and found most to be woefully ignorant.
Bergen says most girls think it just couldn't happen to them.
She says, "This is happening in a place that you've likely been before at a party, in your apartment, in an apartment that you've been in before from someone that you know."
Bergen says she's made peace with what happened to her, and now wants to create a social environment where people can talk about it openly.
She says, "I want women to be able to take ownership of that.. You know what no, you are the shameful one, not me. So I hope I can help women find that."
Several universities and rape crisis centers are now using Bergen's documentary.
In Chattanooga, Mandy Odom, WDEF News 12.
