Aly Raisman (‘Aly Raisman: Darkness to Light’) on the biggest misconception about sexual assault [Exclusive Video Interview]

Aly Raisman believes that one of the biggest misconceptions about sexual assault is how many people have actually experienced it. “I struggled to find women in my life that haven’t had that experience of some kind of sexual harassment or some type of abuse. I can’t even think right now off the top of my head of someone who hasn’t experienced some type of trauma that I know,” the executive producer of “Aly Raisman: Darkness to Light” describes to Gold Derby during our recent Meet the Experts: TV Documentary panel (watch the exclusive video interview above). She elaborates that this misunderstanding can prevent survivors from being honest about their abuse. “Survivors often already feel so much shame and guilt and so it puts the blame on the survivor and it enables the abuser to keep harming other people.”

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The Lifetime documentary chronicles Raisman’s journey to raise awareness about how far-reaching sexual assault is in our lives. The three-time Olympic gold medal gymnast arrives at this after she went public in 2017 that she had been one of the many people who had been abused by the Olympic team’s former physician, Larry Nassar. She speaks with several survivors including those who were abused by a pediatrician in Johnstown, Pennsylvania and one of the male survivors of Richard Strauss’ abuse at Ohio State University.

One of the strongest things Raisman advocates for survivors is having a support network to rely on, which she explains is something she’s still going through and relying on. “I can’t stress enough how important having that support system is. Even right now in my everyday life, I still have so many ups and downs and I’m still kind of navigating and coming to terms with everything.” She still tries to maintain a sense of balance with everything in her life and is able to rely on her mother and friends to help her if she needs it, along with working with a therapist.

Among the many things that she thinks is very unfair is when people question why survivors don’t speak up about their experiences right away. “We have to be more empathetic and realize that, first of all, that question is why so many people don’t speak up, because they don’t want to feel shame for speaking up too late or too soon.” She adds that real right time for survivors to come forward with their experiences is whenever the survivor feels safe enough to do so.