As a part of Sexual Assault Awareness week, the student group Eyes Wide Open hosted the event Sex Signals at Grand Valley State University.

Sex Signals is an interactive play that uses improvisation, comedy and audience interaction to highlight how social pressures, gender stereotypes, and false preconceptions contribute to tension in relationships. The Sex Signals group encouraged audience involvement, giving students the ability to break through the difficult barriers of discussing sexual assault and rape as well as question and reevaluate the culture that we are all a part of today.

Eyes Wide Open, a group of sexual assault peer educators available to students on campus, hosts the event every year. Their main goal – both for the event and as an organization on the whole – is to spread awareness of the multiple resources available for survivors of sexual assault.

“Every year, Eyes Wide Open hosts SAAW, which is devoted to spreading the word about sexual assault and rape and its prevalence on college campuses nationwide,” Zachary Wilson, Eyes Wide Open member and SAAW Co-Chair, said. “As a part of SAAW, we usually bring in a presenter to give a talk to students and this year we chose Sex Signals.”

The national touring actors of Sex Signals hit many main topics related to sexual assault, including dating, cultural stereotypes of genders, terms used to describe sex, rape, and the many misconceived stereotypes of rape.

“I think people don’t know the reality of sexual assault,” said Jordan Cross, president of Eyes Wide Open. “It’s easy to make light of something and think that it is not a big deal because it happens everywhere. A Lack of understanding often leads to making light of it”

The actors of Sex Signals also made their point that the Greek community at colleges can be very influential to the rest of the campus, and encouraged Greek members to take a stand against sexual assault.

“I think that the Greek community has a powerful position on campus and they are important factors, so if they are taking a stand on something they can be influential,” Cross said.

As for next year, Eyes Wide Open is planning on having Sex Signals perform again. The group has a unique mix of improvising and comedy that could really hit home with the college demographic.

“The hope is that this event showed students that rape and sexual assault is a very serious issue and that once they realize this, they will change the way that they behave and encourage others to speak out against and refrain from committing these heinous crimes,” Wilson said.

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