Please let’s import them
In I think every anti-rape campaign I’ve seen, the responsibility is on women and girls not to get raped. Do this, don’t do that, don’t go home with a stranger, don’t drink too much, don’t travel on your own, you can use your keys as a weapon, etc. And if women don’t do these things and something bad happens? Well, they just weren’t careful enough.
I’m not saying that women shouldn’t ignore the dangers. When one in three women are sexually assaulted, of course women are wary. In this environment, women are fearful and already take precautions even though they shouldn’t have to.
We live in a culture that glamourises and eroticises violence against women, as I’ve written before. This culture gives permission to men to treat women badly and pretend that’s what they want.
But how refreshing for a change to see responsibility placed exactly where it lies. These new posters are a continuation of a campaign launched two years ago by the Edmonton (Canada) police department.
We could use some of these posters here. Especially given the AFL in its Respect and Responsibility manual, has to explain that if a woman is out of it, she can’t agree to sex. Under a section of checklist items to help a man know consent has been given, it states:
When is consent freely given? When she’s conscious – AWAKE!
Maybe it would help them to see that in pictures.
Images via Buzzfeed
See also: ‘What do they expect Kerri-Anne? They expect not to be raped’, MTR blog.
‘Not rape, just boys acting up’, MTR, The Australian.
‘Violence against women is endemic to our sick culture’, MTR ‘100 years of international women’s day: let’s end the tyranny of sexual violence’, Kate Ravenscroft.
December 6th, 2012 at 1:27 pm
I love these ads so much, I would love to just print them out at my own expense and plaster them all over the city.
December 6th, 2012 at 1:41 pm
I also really like this ad from http://notever.co.uk/ <= links to their website and you can watch the video on the home page.
December 6th, 2012 at 2:28 pm
Although encouraging, I wonder just how successful such campaigns are. I read the slogans and they make great sense to me, but when a bloke is wasted, the last thing he’ll think of is a slogan.
What we need is a change in blokey-boofhead mentality that is sadly so endemic within our young male population. Poor role-models combined with a lack of a moral compass and personal discipline are all contributing factors to a decline in the respect and honour of women and sadly (as alluded to in the article) encouraged by too many woman who 1) accept such hideous behaviour without saying anything and/or 2) participate in the same behaviour, perhaps having never known the nurture, support and encouragement of a strong male role-model.
If campaigns such as these make it to our shores, then good! If they’re successful even better! And in any case they’re better than doing nothing. But somehow I think the problem lies deeper than this. Our young men (and women) need a change in attitude and that can only come from the heart, with a real desire for change.
December 6th, 2012 at 7:28 pm
The second example case in the second image is stupid. He’s probably wasted too (so is she assaulting him as well? No of course not, we know that only men assault women). They’re both stupid. Or consenting. Until one of them regrets it in the morning and complains to the cops.
Good luck telling people who willingly break the law to stop breaking the law though. It works everywhere else.
Might be smarter to teach people to watch out for themselves whatever the situation (I tried to avoid walking through Redfern, Sydney, and didn’t carry lots of bling with me when I did. I never asked the people who assaulted my friends to stop assaulting them because frankly, that would be a stupid waste of time), because in the end, that’s the only person who cares.
December 7th, 2012 at 6:50 am
Correct Ivan we do need a change in behaviour but it is men’s and boys’ behaviour which must change.
Males learn as boys they have the innate (pseudo) right of sexual access to any female of any age, because women and girls are ‘sex’ not autonomous human beings. ‘Consent’ is a meaningless term within our Male Supremacist System because as I stated above men and boys learn they have the pseudo male right of sexual access to female bodies, whereas women and girls are expected to prevent males from gaining sexual access to their bodies.
This means in reality men claim ‘but she didn’t say no;’ she was dressed provocatively;’ she ‘seduced me.’ These are typical male excuses/male justifications for men’sand boys’ right to have limitless sexual access to female bodies.
When was the last time a male was told ‘you are responsible for your sexual behaviour not the woman.’ I’ve not heard any man being told he is responsible for his sexual behaviour/sexually aggressive actions towards a woman/girl/women but I have heard countless times that women and girls are responsible for gatekeeping men’s behaviour. But this myth negates the fact men have accorded themselves the (pseudo) right of sexual access to females which is supported by the male created legal system. The legal system views male sexual violence and male sexuality from the male rapist’s perspective never the female victim’s perspective. That is why women have to ‘prove’ they did not ‘consent/submit to male sexual demands’ because the male presumption is women are in a constant state of sexual consent/sexual submission to male demands.
This pseudo power men claim women have over men ensures one thing and that is continued pseudo male sex right to female bodies. Until such time as men are held accountable for their sexual predatory behaviour towards women and girls we will not see male sexual violence against women and girls diminish. Instead what we are seeing is an increase in males’ belief in their pseudo right of sexual access to women and girls which is fuelled and justified by mainstream pornography. Pornography is filmed male sexual violence against women and girls and whilst pornography in itself does not cause men to commit sexual violence against females, pornography justifies and reinforces men’s misogynistic belief they are entitled to have sexual access to any female of any age. Males view filmed male sexual violence against women and girls and swiftly accept said male sexual violence as normal and appropriate male sexual behaviour because the male sexual violence committed is eroticised male sexual violence and the women filmed as they are subjected to numerous male sexual assaults appear to enjoy what these men inflict on them. This in turn reinforces the misogynistic lie that women and girls are not human but merely males’ disposable masturbatory objects, who can be subjected to male sexual violence and then discarded. After all if women and girls aren’t human then men and boys cannot possibly subject them to sadistic male sexual violence. One can’t hurt an object can one?
Mainstream pornography also teaches girls and women their sole value and worth lies in being men’s disposable sexualised commodities and therefore women and girls have no rights whatsoever other than to be used/abused by men. Male Supremacist System has always denied women their fundamental human right of sexual autonomy and ownership of their bodies and until such time as men are forced to accept they do not have pseudo sex right to female bodies nothing will change.
The above campaign is a start because it focuses on male behaviour and male accountability but we must challenge and eliminate men’s pseudo belief in their innate right of sexual access to any female if we are to really reduce endemic male sexual violence against women and girls.
December 10th, 2012 at 9:21 pm
Jennifer, It’s so sad that sexuality has become seemly legalistic in so much that it needs to be be argued female and male sexuality is discussed solely in terms of ‘access’ and ‘rights’.
Sexuality is a gift. It is a gift from God. Unfortunately in this current culture at least, we can all agree, that femininity is observed as fodder for the consumation by misguided men. It is not supposed to be that way.
The sole purpose of sexual expression is to unite the physical and psychological complimentary of men and women to co-create in the gift of new life. This is marital love.
Men and women come together as a result of sensual or physical and sentimental or emotional attraction. From this point, the two ideally give to each other, begin to trust and know each other. A part of that trust is the respect of the man for the woman physically and emotionally, in exercising self-control. Marriage is the point of commitment, when the two agree under God, that their relationship is for life, as you are probably aware.
It is following and within marriage the two can only know each other, after that selfless commitment. The two fully know each other through the sexual act, giving themselves emotionally, physically along with their fertility. Only the man knows the woman in this intimate way and the woman knows the man.
And only through this commitment is the purpose of their relationship is known through the sexual act. In love for each other the man leads the woman into a lifelong commitment, in in that love a family is built.
The above advertisements talk about ‘consent’ to sexual activity. I agree with you. The concept of consent is meaningless. The only real consent to sexual activity is that of the commitment of marriage, where a woman knows and trusts a man to take their hand knowing that in that commitment she trusts the man not to consume her for his purposes, not to leave her abandoning with hungry mouths to feed, but to protect and honour his wife in the difficult of times.
While this may target the horror of rape, generation of self-centred pleasure seeking, power hungry and commitment lacking men that need to be addressed. These men promote fractured families, fatherless children, and lonely, depressed and anxious women, who often think this is the unfortunate norm.
No ‘sexual autonomy’ will every bring men and women toward true, self-less and betrothed love, it will only produce more tension between men and women, and will not encourage men to be directed to selflessness, self-control and courage.