Don't expect Lindsay Keiter to apologize for being confrontational.

Keiter (junior-film, history and women's studies) said her photography exhibit, Seeing Through the Violence: Photo-Narratives of Sexual Assault at Penn State, must be confrontational.

The exhibit, which features a series of photographs re-enacting two women's personal experiences with sexual assault, has been on display in the North Halls and West Halls since October.

With about 20 people in attendance, Keiter held a gallery talk last night in Warnock Cultural Lounge to discuss her personal experience and goals for the exhibit.

"I don't care if it's disturbing; you're not supposed to be comfortable with sexual assault," she said. "If you think it's hard to look at, try to imagine living through it."

Michelle Toon (junior-political science) said the striking nature of the photographs caught her off guard at first.

"I had that kick-in-the-gut reaction," she said. "I have fears and images of this issue, but I haven't seen anything like this before."

Keiter said more than anything, silence on sexual assault is most dangerous.

"The most disturbing part is that we think it's OK to sweep this under the rug rather than address this issue," she added.

Dora McQuaid, a communication arts and sciences professor and poet/activist, said the issue of sexual violence is often shrouded in silence.

McQuaid, who teaches Communication Arts and Sciences 498D (Private Lives, Public Voices), said Keiter's exhibit is a good example of how people can take personal experiences and share them with the public sphere to raise awareness.

Keiter said she was upset with the many misconceptions that still surround sexual violence, and hoped to raise such awareness by sparking a dialogue through her photo narratives.

"The way people talk about sexual violence, it often seems like the person who was attacked was the person doing something wrong," she said. "A lot of times you hear what a person could have been doing or should have been doing, or sexual assault happens to a certain type of person."

Keiter said the language used when talking about sexual violence can actually perpetuate these misconceptions.

"Words like victim, survivor and rape are very charged," Keiter said.

She added that she hopes a new perspective will help to dismantle some of these stereotypes.

Many students in the audience said they thought this type of dialogue on sexual assault was long overdue.

"This exhibit is really something," Darryl Watson (sophomore-sociology) said. "It's high time that people really start to talk about sexual assault on campus -- an exhibit like this should have been up years ago."

Gloria Yuen (senior-crime, law and justice) said the exhibit was important because sexual assault is still an issue that people have a hard time talking about.

"Not many are willing to do something like this because it is such a taboo topic," she said. "An exhibit like this opens the door for people to say, 'Hey, it happens.' "

Yuen also said she hoped this exhibit would help people see the reality behind sexual assault.

"You can tell yourself it can't happen to you, but it can," she said. "And sexual assault can involve someone you don't know, or even someone you know."