I don’t normally write on our blog, but one of the discussions yesterday upset me somewhat. Justine led a discussion about the victimization of the victims of rape/sexual assault and I thought that the discussion touched on a subject that we can address as a class and then push out to the University and beyond.
The usual slogans for raising awareness and educating (as if predators aren’t aware that what they are doing is wrong) others about rape or any kind of sexual assault is wrong. However, if we look at what is usually used as a slogan to raise awareness, the slogans and campaigns are almost always targeted at the victims (usually female). In fact, I can’t think of one yet that isn’t. Campaigns like “Take Back The Night” and others are aimed at the victims, as if the victims have to do something to prevent rape.
This is not right!
The idea that we came up with is to initiate a campaign that targets the predators – “Rape is a Crime”. This is the new slogan that we will push. Although “Sexual Assult is a Crime” might be more accurate, “Rape is a Crime” is both more powerful and carries more of a punch.
I think that a central component of this campaign is to bypass the institutions completely. Why call campus security after being raped or assaulted? They may play a minor role, but taking care of it is not the responsibility of the institution. Rape is a Crime. To even have an INSTITUTIONAL POLICY about sexual assault is a slap in the face of the victims. Does The University of Lethbridge have a policy about murders that occur on campus? Is there a University policy about armed robbery on campus? Why is there a policy about sexual assault on campus? What makes this heinous crime any different than murder or armed robbery?
How often do we read about rapes or sexual assaults happening on university campuses? Almost never. Is this because they almost never happen? No! Why not? We read about sexual assaults that happen in a park or other public space. Why don’t we ever hear about sexual assault in a university or college setting? Because the “problem” is dealt with in house. Rape is a Crime! Taking care of it in house means that the perpetrator is usually not dealt with in the courts. They don’t face the criminal responsibility for their actions. They are dealt with in house.
What an insult to the victims. Rape is a Crime!
What I want from all of you is a collection of campaign slogans that are used or have been used in the past. From that, I am going to enlist the other Top Voices of Education on LinkedIn (over 500,000,000 connections in the largest professional network in the world), of which I am one, to kick off a global campaign, “Rape is a Crime”. After writing an article about our new campaign, naming some of you as instigators and The University of Lethbridge as the place where all of this has started, I will ask the entire community of Top Voices to collectively publish that article, or even better, publish their own version of the article in their own words, on the same day.
I will run draft versions of the article by you as a class so that we can polish it and make sure that it has the kind of impact we are looking for. With my name, the names of the other Top Voices, and your names behind it, I guarentee you that we will have an impact. There will be a new worldwide campaign, and you will be named as one of the instigators of the campaign (what a CV line).
Dig out the slogans and send me your ideas. We can kick this off within a couple of weeks.
Social Cognition 2018 
Jesse,
I will talk to our own campaign on campus about at LEAST changing our slogan as such. There is a contest going currently already to change it and the buttons and I have a few drafts, but will be looking towards this blog for more ideas. I agree after class discussion yesterday that the university should have no part at all in it, but at least they could change this.
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I have contacted friends at a few different Universities, here is what I have so far: UofA-“Ask First”, UofC-, University of Guelph- “Stop. Ask. Campaign” and “Do You Ask? Take a Moment. Care” (This one’s slogan is “Can I Kiss You?” accompanied by a pair of lips as a graphic).UofG also has a graphic when you search on the website “sexual assault” that says “Consent is Sexy”.
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Hey Jesse,
The #ibelieveyou campaign is ran at the University of Lethbridge.
At UBC they have the “Wear a Denim Day Sticker”
UofC has the “Ask First”
Umask actually has a self-defence course specifically for women https://students.usask.ca/essentials/safety/sexual-assault.php#PreventionStrategies
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I think another aspect of educating people about sexual assault is to teach men that if their buddies are engaging in risky behaviors such as continuously pestering a woman or sharing private photos of girls that they have been with then they need to speak up and tell their buddies that its not OK to do those things. I think getting men to jump aboard and aiming education more at men can help to teach men about their responsibilities and roles in sexual assault. If i remember correctly i read recently that the university of Alberta is starting a men’s studies class in an attempt to address issues of toxic masculinity in our society. If we can get men to police and educate each other more then we may make some significant headway in addressing issues of sexual assault. also men are just more willing to listen to other men more than women. The 2 citation I have added are links to masculine studies courses that have been written about, including the one that is going to be offered here in Alberta.
Bennett, J. (2015, August 08). A Master’s Degree in … Masculinity? Retrieved February 07, 2018, from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/09/fashion/masculinities-studies-stonybrook-michael-kimmel.html
Hunt, S. (2018, January 16). North America’s first masculine studies program hopes to spur talk on being a boy and a man. Retrieved February 07, 2018, from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/masculinity-studies-define-how-to-be-a-boy-1.4489432
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As mentioned in the discussion there’s also the #metoo campaign, in which victims are encouraged to speak up in order that other victims may feel less alone in their struggles. Although it’s beneficial to speak about your experience after the fact it would be better if the sexual assault never happened in the first place.
I wish I could think of more slogans, but slogans are not my area of expertise so to speak, I think your idea is perfect though, it’s time to work harder to stop rape.
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There is the NoMore campaign, but it is more or less geared toward sexual violence in general, University of Kansas had a “If it’s not CLEAR it’s not consent” campaign, “Consent is BAE” at Columbia University and “It’s on US” at Valdosta State University. Victim blaming is not really evident in these slogans, but I don’t think they are getting their message across effectively either. Yes consent is very important and it plays a big part in sexual assault awareness but it’s as if they are skipping around the point.
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I think the problem with so many of these slogans is they are not upfront enough. They try to make them cute, hip and catchy (or however you would like to put it), when that should not be the vibe at all. “Consent is BAE”, “Can I Kiss You” etc all seem very cringe-worthy, in my opinion. “It’s on US” does sound like it could be problematic for sure, it’s not that victim blaming is the issue so much as making it peoples responsibility to do something about preventing rape when the accused need to just be shown it will not be tolerated. I think our slogans need to be much more upfront, to the point and serious. “No means No”, “Rape is a Crime”, for instance.
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Upon Just a simple google search, some of the slogans that I have found are: “It’s a dress, not a yes”, “No means No”, and “Don’t hide, speak out”. I, too, never realized that the titles of these campaigns are targeted at the victims, not the perpetrators and find it interesting that this has not become a bigger deal already.
An interesting quote that I stumbled upon was “if age is just a number, than sex offender is just a nickname.” I think that this just shows that this is not being taken as seriously as it should be. Society encourages so heavily for victims to speak out, but not does hold people accountable to the same level.
http://fox6now.com/2014/06/04/united-way-provocative-new-ad-campaign-tackles-the-issue-of-statutory-rape/
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There is a SultWalk movement going on that had protest marches calling for an end to rape culture which includes victim blaming and slut shaming of rape and sexual assault victims. The main target of this protest is to blame the rapist and not the clothing the woman was wearing, and how much of her body was exposed to “seduce” men. They have a website dating back to 2011 that has a list of suggested phrases for people to put on their poster for the protest march. To list a few: “rapists rape people, not outfits,” “real men don’t rape,” “my skirt has nothing to do with you.” The slogan of the actual SlutWalk campaign is “there is never an excuse.” While these statements are all valid, I don’t think they hit the point home that yes rape is a crime and should be treated as such. I will leave the link of the website below if anyone is interested in going through the list of phrases used for the posters during the march. I will also note that there are boards on pinterest that are filled with phases/slogans for protest and marches such as these.
http://slutwalkjhb.co.za
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SlutWalk*** not SultWalk
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The only campaign that comes to mind immediately is #ibelieveyou here at U of L… proving your point that it’s as if theres a reason to not believe the victim… that your believing them needs to be verbally reinforced.
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It’s a brilliant idea because, not only did it draw my attention to the fact that most of the time, the slogans for such campaigns directly or indirectly involves the victim and not the culprits. I believe a slogan such as, “Rape is a Crime” points out how serious we are to hold culprits to the full length of the law and stop solving it ‘in house’ to deter others from doing it especially in the tertiary institutions. Pushing Punch slogans like this even gives victims the confidence to come out and speak knowing that the law will be enforced. Nevertheless, in our efforts to push out a strong campaign we should be careful not to make it gender biased because Rape victims can be of both sexes.
Slogan: ONLY ACT IF YOU GET A YES!
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I am all for the “Rape is a Crime” title over the “Sexual Assault is a Crime” title. It is less wordy, and as you mentioned, it packs a “punch”. A good slogan could be:
“Drinking is not a crime, Rape is”
or
“Rape is not sex, rape is violence”
Although the majority of campaigns are for females, our campaign needs to consider both genders. 1 in 10 rape victims (in the United States) are male. So it is not fair that 1 in 1000 campaigns consider males.
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The “It’s On Us” campaign thats popular in the United States is an interesting one because it was created in an attempt to popularize the idea that everyone should be involved in ending sexual assault. From teachers and parents, to organizations and community leaders, everyone should step up and be aware and involved in solving this problem. Its a nice message, and its not just about standing with victims, but being part of the change and not just a bystander to the issue. None the less, it doesn’t say “Rape is a Crime” as loudly as it needs to.
http://www.itsonus.org/
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While on exchange some students and I were discussing another student who was able to go around campus being a peeping tom and attempted to rape several students, he did succeed with one (possible countless others). People ignored the cases because there was always alcohol involved and somehow that justified his actions. The university swept it under the rug because of the “tremendous help” he was to integrating international students, yet those were the same students he preyed on. I think it’s wrong that drinking and driving is a crime, assault while intoxicated is a crime and yet raping someone while either or both parties are intoxicated isn’t. It’s not fair and it’s not right. Having been there to comfort my friend after this happened to her, seeing how much it changed her (she dropped out of school) and then knowing that the school was more concerned about its reputation than their student’s safety angers me. I agree with the slogan that “Rape is a Crime!”, I also think that in places with high drinking cultures it should also go in tandem with, “drinking is not a crime, rape is”.
Otherwise, the University of Syndey has, #EndRapeOnCampus” and the University of Wisconsin-Madison has, “Don’t be that guy”.
Thank you again for using your platform to make a change.
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Reblogged this on Site Title and commented:
This discussion has really opened my eyes to how much we have failed as a society at preventing rape. We have many organizations in schools and communities that help victims, but why not try to prevent the creation of victims/ rape in the first place? Perhaps there should be places where individuals with rape tendencies can go to get help. However, are children/young adults or even adults socialized into understanding not to rape in the first place?
When I wear outfits that could be perceived as not conservative, I have family (mom, dad, uncles, aunts, grandparents, even teachers) telling me to cover up or change. I have never heard any of these people sitting any of their kids down and teaching them to respect other people’s choices and their body and to not rape. Why is my right to dress however I want taken away for the convenience of others or even to “protect me”? There seems to be an idea of making yourself more vulnerable to rape. In reality, I would not be more vulnerable if there were no rapists. Also, consider this. How do other children or even myself, listening to family lecturing me for dressing this way feel? Would they feel that rape is okay/ deserved if one dressed non-conservatively? By fostering an ideology of preventing victims, it is perpetuating the idea that victims got themselves raped and it is their fault, rather than the rapist’s fault. This is further reinforced when campaigns are focused on victims.
Also, “Don’t be that guy” mentioned in @ sowejustgondothis’s comment and many other slogans such as
-Break the silence on men’s violence
-Women deserve better
-End violence to women now
-Real men don’t rape
illustrates men as predators and women as victims. In reality, men rape women, men rape men, women rape men, and women rape women. These types of slogans when fighting rape culture dismisses women rapists and minimizes the trauma that male victims may have experienced. This is extremely dangerous because women rapists may not realize that they are raping. Also, male victims may go unheard, and not receive therapy and counseling they need and deserve (Walker, 2005).So, in summary, I strongly believe in slogans and anti-rape communities that focus on people shouldn’t rape perspectives that are not gendered.
“Rape is a crime” is very inclusive to the types of rapists and victims. Personally, I like “Don’t Rape”, because teaching that you shouldn’t rape shouldn’t be just because it is illegal. You shouldn’t rape because you shouldn’t rape. There are so many more consequences to rape than the rapists getting locked up. I think it is important to prevent rapists and the first step should be teaching society into understanding what constitutes rape and sexual assault, and to not do that.
Walker, J., Archer, J., & Davies, M. (2005). Effects of rape on men: A descriptive analysis. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 34(1), 69-80. 10.1007/s10508-005-1001-0
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I like the first draft of the article. I think we could maybe add in something about how the slogans are making an effort to seem “cool”, and some of them are presented in an almost sexualized way themselves that I find problematic eg; “consent is sexy”, “Can I Kiss You” and “Consent is BAE”. Trying to relate to the target groups is one thing, but this is not an instance where the importance of the topic should be sacrificed for graphic design allure. These slogans need to be hard hitting like “Rape is a Crime”. Also, if it wants to be added, the current issue with Conner Neurauter, the assault did not necessarily happen on campus, but I think it is still relative. He currently serving his jail time for his sexual assault charges ON WEEKENDS!!! I am all for reintegrating those who commit crimes into society, but this is simply an absolute joke and is really sending the message that sex offenders, especially young ones in post-secondary, can get away with it and just give up their weekends. “Neurauter, 21, pleaded guilty in January to sexual interference. He was sentenced to three months in jail and two years probation. He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for 10 years and give a DNA sample to the national sample bank. The sentence, which was due to start on Jan. 4, was delayed by a judge so that Neurauter could finish his university semester. “(Global, 2018).
https://globalnews.ca/news/4010832/registered-sex-offender-connor-neurauter-to-serve-sentence-on-weekends/
Also, I am currently drafting more slogans for our own University’s use, including “Rape is a Crime”, I have “No Grey Area” and a button design that says “CONSENT, rape is a crime” with emphasis on the “CON”. Any other ideas?
I also found a great article on a young woman who faced exactly this problem we are discussing:
http://blog.studentlifenetwork.com/2018/02/09/reporting-campus-sexual-assault/
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So I wanted to try to find some slogans used that were targeted towards the rapists rather than the victims, unfortunately but somehow unsurprisingly there weren’t many, but here are a few I found after a quick google search,
“Don’t tell your daughter not to go out, tell your son to behave properly.”
“Drinking is not a crime, rape is.”
“Pornography is the fantasy, rape is the reality.”
Hopefully with all of the movements going on recently to bring awareness to the seemingly endless cases of sexual assault, we will be able to teach the rapists what they are doing is a CRIME, not a good time.
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I do agree with including a slogan that is more direct and to the point. We need something that will capture everyone’s attention and really open the readers eyes. Not only do we want to get our main focus: ‘Rape is a Crime,’ across but we also want to make sure it is gender equal. That women are not blame, it is anyone who rapes, which means they are committing a crime. We also want to point out that individuals should not be afraid to speak up and that society should be standing along with them.
Slogans: Blame rapists for rape, Not women
No exceptions, no excuses- Rape is a crime
Don’t hide, speak out-You are not alone
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