Rape Prevention Campaign Targets Men, Says No to Victim-Blaming
In 2011, criticism of victim-blaming attitudes towards sexual violence went viral as activism like the SlutWalk protest marches on college campuses made headlines across the country. Now, Jorge Rivas of Colorlines is drawing our attention to California’s MyStrength campaign, an awesome poster initiative that emphasizes men’s responsibility to prevent sexual violence.
So what’s great about this campaign? A few things:
● It features posters that convey the basic “no means no” message, but also some that go beyond it, like one that reads: “When she changed her mind, I stopped.” The poster acknowledges that a “yes” doesn’t mean irrevocable consent.
● It features couples—a reminder that most sexual violence is committed by someone the victim knows and not the proverbial stranger in a dark alleyway.
● It’s multiracial and bilingual, reflecting the diversity of a state that passed the majority-minority milestone back in 2000.
● And it’s inclusive of both same- and opposite-sex relationships—an important acknowledgment that men can also be victims of sexual violence.
The campaign, now in one of the largest states, is also a testament to the reverberations that a seemingly small action can have. As Colorlines reports, this particular initiative was originally created about a decade ago by the organization Men Can Stop Rape and launched in public high schools in Washington, DC. Years later, in 2006, it made it onto posters in California.
And of course, the history of men working to prevent sexual violence goes even earlier—groups like the Oakland Men’s Project provided foundational leadership for this kind of activism back in the 1970s.
While public ad campaigns—even those as good as this one—won’t stop rape on their own, they’re a significant tool in creating awareness about sexual violence and tackling ingrained gender roles. Meanwhile, young men also need to be getting these types of messages from their peers and adults and, more importantly, by seeing the kind of respectful behavior modeled here in action.
Reducing sexual violence requires changes to broader cultural attitudes towards masculinity, sex, and gender—the kind of changes this campaign is clearly trying to encourage. It’s a heartening step towards a greater acknowledgment of men’s responsibility to stop rape and to be feminist allies and advocates.
As Takeo Rivera, a former rape crisis advocate and MyStrength participant, wrote on the campaign’s Facebook page after an event in May: “MyStrength is for redefining who we are as men and as human beings. MyStrength is for envisioning a just society, an equitable society, where women are free from fear and oppression, and men are free from being the wielders of violence.”
That’s something everyone should get behind.
Alyssa Battistoni is a staff writer for Campus Progress. You can follow her on Twitter at @alybatt.
Sen. Rubio Sympathizes with, then Attacks, Blameless Children
Public Opinion Snapshot: Millennials Want a More Equitable Society
Cartoon: The Nine Zeros Club