There has been a new trend emerging on campus as of late. It is impossible to stand in line at Starbucks with someone flipping to UBC confessions. UBC confessions is a facebook project in which students email the creators anything from witty blips to deep personal confessions and then the creators repost it, posting it so all of  UBC  can see in complete anonymity. Though UBC confessions is not the only form of this phenomenon of “online diaries” which have appeared on campus. Whisper is an application explicitly designed for the exchange of secrets, UBC crushes is another face book project which acts as a bathroom wall did in grade school in which users write about someone they have been admiring from a far. The list continues with Yik, Yak, UBC admires and so on.  In my blog I will primarily be discussing UBC confessions, but it is important the note the plethora of sources to act as an online confessionals which have become an important part of campus life. But what is fueling this desire to share our secrets to the “cyber community”? Though no research has been done explicitly on UBC confessions, the study of the web blog by Miller and Sheppard shows that the innate desires which fueled in surge of the web blog are applicable to the very modern social networking confessionals. This principle of secrecy breeding realism is a major factor of UBC confessions. There is no possible way to gage the authenticity of the confessions, but consumes of these sites may be more will to believe the audacious claims due to the veil of secrecy from which it was written. Another factor to the popularity surge of the social media confessional may be the format. In an increasingly connected word, the karios of the social media confessions fit perfectly university campus with more wifi hotspots than libraries. This format fit with the highly connected, immediate gratification seeking student population from which it is thriving. UBC confessions seems to be thriving because it is satisfying a desire to be share and to listen, all while hidden behind an Iphone screen.

Carolyn R. Miller and Dawn Shepherd. “Blogging as Social Action: A Genre Analysis of the Weblog” Into the Blogosphere: Rhetoric, Community, and Culture of Weblogs (2004).

“No perspective, however informed, can fully represent trauma” (Chute page 102)

In the examination of traumatic events, Chute explains that no matter how eloquent the wording or how intelligent the speaker, it is infeasible to accurately explain the true nature of trauma. It can even be said that trauma essentially erases the traumatic event from the cognitive life narrative of the victim. As said by Dr. Laurie McNeill in lecture, “trauma is something that erases the subject”. Through my blog post I apply this principle of trauma robbing the story of the victim to victims of sexual assault in the 21^st century. In order to understand the traumatic implication of sexual assault, it is important to fully comprehend the boundaries of which sexual assault can be classified. Popular YouTube figure Hank Green provides a thorough explanation of sexual assault, detailing how sexual assault is not exclusively penetrative rape, but instead can be viewed as a wide spectrum encompassing acts such as unwarranted sexual advances and inappropriate touching. With the examination of sexual assault, it is important to note the psychological concept of repression.  Elizabeth Loftus stated that “Repression is one of the most haunting concepts in psychology. Something shocking happens, and the mind pushes it into some inaccessible corner of the unconscious.” (Loftus, page 1). Through repression Chute’s ideas of trauma erasing subject become tangible. In the mind of the victim the traumatic event is quite literally erased robbing them of their testament to the abuse. This is important because not only is the individual in question robbed of their personal narrative, but from a legal perceptive they are essentially unable to be brought justice. Even when the victims have a comprehension of the trauma, it is convoluted to accurately explain and report said act. However there has been a recent surge in sexual assault awareness and empowerment movements. One Huffington Post article entitled “Project Unbreakable” depicted survivors holding posters with the words their assaulter’s said to them. The pictures show a stark juxtaposition between the horrid phrases and the strength on the survivor’s faces. They are claiming back their story.  As a previously silenced survivor of sexual harassment, the act of reclaiming a stolen story truly matters. Victims should not be robbed of their life narratives, even in the cases of unimaginable trauma.