"Looking at the Entire Constellation of a Person:" An Intersectional Approach to Understanding How Sexual Violence Prevention Organizations Can Use Social Media to Craft Inclusive Messaging [electronic resource]

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Described as the "hidden epidemic" by Koss (1985), sexual violence (SV) has been historically underreported in the U.S. despite statistics that highlight how common an experience SV is for women-identifying individuals and, to a lesser extent, men (Tjaden & Thoennes, 2000). Despite the prevalence of SV, social taboos perpetuate stigma against survivors; therefore, limiting their access to vital resources like mental health care, legal counsel, and community support (Campbell et al., 1999; Campbell et al., 2001). Therefore, numerous nonprofit organizations have been created in the last couple of decades to not only support survivors in their healing journeys, but to address the societal power structures that perpetuate gender-based oppression. These aid organizations connect those in need with resources, oftentimes through digital communications like official websites and social media. In the digital age, social media is now a required cornerstone of any nonprofit-despite the limitations of funding and personnel. This project interviewed representatives from 24 SV prevention nonprofits around the U.S. to identify ways that they incorporate inclusive language, images, and ideas into their social media content. Findings showed that SV prevention organizations are aware of intersectionality and its potential significance for their work but are not as inclusive as they could be in everyday practice due to lack of resources. Therefore, this research informed a resource guide that will be distributed to the SV nonprofit community to provide concrete ways of incorporating intersectionality into online communications.