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Speak Out
- Confront attitudes and beliefs
that support rape.
Openly disagree with people who make comments that blame victims, and which
you know are not true. Object to comments that degrade women or reinforce
rigid sex role stereotypes. Use your voice. Do anything but remain silent.
- Check the message.
Challenge TV programs, newscasts or advertising that reinforce myths about
sexual assault or equate violence as being sexy. Think critically about
advertising that objectifies women and messages that justify violence against
women. Write to program managers, ad agencies, and newspaper editors to tell
them your views. Don't let images in popular culture dictate your behavior.
- Raise awareness about sexual
assault.
Encourage your school, workplace, place of worship, community center, or local
library to provide current resources about sexual assault. Oppose legislation
that limits women's freedom or negatively impacts victims of sexual assault.
- Be aware of language.
Words are very powerful especially when spoken by people with power over
others. When we use words that put others down, we support the belief that
they are les than fully human. It is easier to ignore their well-being when we
see them as inferior. Watch your own language and decide to use language that
doesn't demean, objectify, or harm other people.
- Support survivors of rape.
Rape will not be taken seriously until everyone knows how common it is. By
learning to support survivors, we can help women and men feel safer to speak
out about being raped.
- Work against other oppressions.
Rape feeds off many other forms of prejudice-including racism, heterosexism,
ableism, sexism, and religious discrimination. By speaking out against any
beliefs and behaviors, including rape, that promote one group of people as
superior to another and deny groups their full humanity, you support
everyone's equality.
- Don't fund sexism.
Refuse to purchase any magazine, rent any video, subscribe to any Web site, or
buy any music that portrays girls or women in a sexually degrading or abusive
manner. Protest sexism in the media.
- Get involved.
Volunteer at a rape crisis center, join a campus group working towards
ending violence against women, attend public events sponsored by SAC, help
raise money for rape crisis centers and battered women's shelters.
- Dare to dream...
of a culture free of sexual violence... a rape culture transformed.
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