What Were You Wearing is an art exhibit created to challenge the victim blaming mentality and myth that survivors provoke perpetrators with their clothing choices and/or behavior. The reality is that survivors are never to blame for violence enacted against them, and no clothing choice invites sexual violence.
Norse Violence Prevention and the Office of Student Accessibility are partnering to host NKU’s second annual What Were You Wearing exhibit during Sexual Assault Awareness Month. We are collecting stories from NKU community members who have experienced sexual violence and will display these anonymous stories and outfits in SOTA's Atrium Community Gallery throughout the month of April
We are collecting stories from NKU community members to include in the exhibit. If you’d like to submit your story including a description of what you were wearing, please feel free to complete an anonymous submission form (below). We will use your description to recreate an outfit for the display. Any clothing items donated by survivors will be displayed in a locked display case.
Submissions will be accepted through March 1st. For questions, feel free to contact nvp@nku.edu.
NKU’s What Were You Wearing exhibit will be on display in the Atrium Community Gallery of SOTA from April 2nd through April 30th, 2024.
Join us for an opening walk through following Take Back the Night on April 2nd at 8pm.
The first installation of What Were You Wearing was hosted at University of Arkansas in 2014. The original exhibit, created by Jen Brockman and Mary Wyandt-Hiebert, was inspired by Mary Simmerling’s poem, titled, “What I Was Wearing”.
Similar exhibits have since been displayed at various colleges and venues nationally, including the United Nations Headquarters exhibit in summer 2022.
Northern Kentucky University
Albright Health Center 246
1 Nunn Drive
Highland Heights, KY 41099
Local: +1 (859) 572-5865
