INTRO * Astonished to see that Australia is ranked as the third highest nation for reported sexual assault. (15%) * We need to focus on the messages that men are getting and about how they relate to women. We also need to focus on what messaging men are getting about women and about what kind of women get raped.
We are in need of a cultural shift. It is time we remove the shame and the stigma associated with sexual assault. It’s not uncommon for victims of sexual assault to be allocated a level of responsibility. Questions such as; “What were you wearing? Was it appropriate” “What did you say to them (the attacker)?” “How much had you had to drink?” can be asked in response to asexual assault report. We don’t apportion blame to victims of murder or robbery. Maybe an old world order exists where it is acceptable to blame a victim, creating a level of shame that somehow lessens the true reality of the crime. In a court of law, a prosecutor has the right to lay the victim’s past sexual history out on the table, like a couple of fun facts. As such, by introducing evidence that the victim is, for example, sexually "promiscuous", this may cause the jury to believe the he/she was likely to have been consenting to the sexual encounter under examination in the trial as well. That is, the defense counsel falsely uses such "evidence" to construct consent where there otherwise was none. As a result, sexual assault victims have labeled the criminal trial process as akin to a "second rape", as their behaviour and sexual history, rather than the defendant's, is scrutinised throughout the trial. Why should it matter whether the victim was wearing jeans or a bikini, flirty or indifferent? Women aren’t “asking” to be raped by dressing and acting in provocative and promiscuous ways. Wearing a short skirt or a tight dress is not an invitation to touch.
· This summer, I have seen a number of men of all ages, walking around in ridiculously revealing singlets or just plain shirtless. I think the men are dressed in provocative ways. Does this mean that I can touch them? If they’re not wearing shirts, are they inviting sexual contact? No! Gender aside it’s not ok to take the way someone dresses or behaves as a form of consent. It is not consent.
· We don’t want anybody to tell us what to do. We don’t want to be told what to wear and how to act, not to drink in order to prevent rape. I think we should be telling men not to rape women.
· It’s not about not saying “no” it’s about whether they say “yes”
· Consent is defined as the act of giving permission for something to happen. It’s not about saying “no” and fighting as much as you can. It’s about whether the party is whole-heartedly agreeing. We need to stop defining consent as the act of saying no and start viewing it as an enthusiastic agreement in relation to sexual practices. Until someone says “YES” no one has the right to touch them. Clothes, behaviour, past sexual experiences have no relevancy.
· Stop creating loopholes and start finding a way to prevent it. By giving the perpetrators an excuse, we’re conditioning all potential attackers to believe that they can get away with something like this.

BODY 2

Questioning what women can do to prevent violence against them is wrong. It’s not about what women can say or do to prevent being attacked. We need to turn that paradigm upside down. Society needs to focus on the values that men are practicing and about how they relate to women. We also need to focus on what messages men are receiving about women and stop the questions of what “kind” of women get raped. Most importantly, we have to redefine what masculinity means. Rape is not about evil in the world. It’s about power and control. The messages that men get around masculinity from a young age are too often about violence and about exerting power and control. We need to challenge the definition of masculinity as inherently violent. We can’t keep telling our children that it’s ok for boys to rough around and harass girls because “they like them” and that “boys are just being boys”. Already, we’re creating this early excuse for boys to behave in a certain way because that’s what society expects of them. In spite of most levels of society embracing gender equality , there is still this minority belief that men are superior to women. I am not a bleeding heart feminist. I don’t hate men; I don’t think women are superior. But I believe in equality for both genders, that’s what we’ve been fighting for, for years. But somewhere, for some deep in their subconscious, for others at the forefront of their mind, there is still that belief that women are lesser. There is an urge to dehumanize a woman. This behaviour is the reason why, in some cultures, women are shamed into silence and why we underestimate the size of the problem in many countries where stigma and blame are attached to sexual assault and women fail to report it. In India and Bangladesh, for example, data reported that just 3.3 per cent of women were victims of sexual assault. Did you know that they punish women reporting rape? It’s not just a slap on the wrist and a fine. No, their punishment goes from anywhere between public lashings and the death penalty. Just for saying a man touched them without consent. The dehumanization of women spans all areas of our society. There is no shortage of evidence that rape culture results from the objectification of women and the view that we exist simply for male pleasure. When a someone says that the reward for being a star footy player or a doctor or famous is that you get to have a pretty girlfriend, that takes away a woman’s individual agency. She is simply an object to be possessed. An object there for male desire and nothing more. Men who sexually assault someone do something monstrous and criminal but perhaps we should begin to stop repeating the notion that “criminals” are the ones raping 1 in 5 women. No, it’s our husbands, boyfriends, acquaintances, relatives, and friends and they rape because they are not taught to see women as full, autonomous humans.

BODY 3

A vast majority of women do not report their rapes to the police and many more only tell one or two people in confidence. That is a result of our proclivity towards victim blaming. When we hear about a rape case in the news or when we hear about one in our own lives, the first reaction should be to believe and support the accuser. There is a misleading perception that many or most rape claims are false. That is simply untrue. When a victim comes forward, they are committing an act of extreme bravery, and we owe it to them, to support them (leaving the criminal investigation to law enforcement) and place blame directly and solely on the perpetrator. This goes back to my point that we need to stop using myths to perhaps wrongfully excuse a perpetrator. Innocent til proven guilty does not only pardon the perpetrator, but can support the victim.

Australia’s status as the country with the third highest rate of sexual assault of 15% , which is double the world average, shows women are more inclined to report a sexual assault, feeling more comfortable to do so with respect to our law enforcement and general attitude towards rape, which is great. However, the actual prosecution of an attacker? Ever heard of Adrian Ernest Bayley? You should. He’s been a big name in news. Two years ago Adrian Ernest Bayley raped and murdered ABC reporter Jill Meagher after she had been out for drinks with friends. The criminal has had a cocktail of arrests, a majority of them including sexual assault. In early 2001, he raped 5 prostitutes, who after filing a report were essentially laughed out of the police station, due to their occupation. Bayley went on to commit several more crimes, drifting in and out of jail until his life imprisonment sentencing on June 13th 2013.

* If reports on Bayley being a threat to society had been taken much more seriously, perhaps Jill Meagher would still be alive today. If any rape reports were taken more seriously we’d have a much trusting society * Victim blaming isn’t used in response to other serious crimes, so why is it use in response to rape and sexual assault?

It can be hard for some to comprehend the horrifying reality of sexual assault and the effects it has on a victim. However, Lots of people seem positively astonished at the idea that men could be taught not to rape. But what does the research show?

American researchers John Foubert, Eric Godin and Jerry Tatum decided to stop rape at the source – the men who commit rape or stand by and do nothing to stop it. First, they took a close look at a rape-prevention class male college students were required to take. The class started by showing the men a DVD that detailed a male-on-male rape experience. Focusing on a male victim helped the men in the class start to imagine how being a victim of rape might actually feel. Once the men started to feel empathy toward rape survivors, they were told to close their eyes and imagine another horrific scene: a woman close to them has had too much to drink and is raped while someone stands by and does nothing. Just imagining your mother, sister, girlfriend or grandmother being raped hurts a lot – and this exercise helped the men feel even more empathy toward rape survivors. After the thought exercises, the men were given the chance to brainstorm about ways they could intervene if they saw a rape about to occur. They were also taught other valuable skills like how to spot true consent, how to support a rape survivor, and how to confront others who tell jokes about rape, demean women, or brag about abusing women.
I know what you’re thinking. “Sure, this all sounds great, but I bet those men forgot all they learned.” But it turns out the men who participated in this program were still affected by it years later. So, how could a program that only lasted about an hour work so well for so long?
Well, one of the most important parts of this particular training program was its emphasis on alcohol. Most of the rapes on college campuses involve alcohol, so talking to men about alcohol-related situations is crucial. Years later, when the researchers asked these men about how their attitudes or behaviors had changed because of the program, nearly half (46%) talked about how they’d started to be more careful about sexual activity when alcohol was involved.
But that’s not the only reason this class rocked the boat and stayed afloat. This program worked because it met men where they are. Regular guys, not scary-monster-men with tattoos and ski masks, commit most rapes. But most men don’t see themselves as potential rapists. So, what to do? This program tapped into something most men do think about themselves – that they have the potential to help others and to intervene in dangerous situations. Basically, it let men feel like heroes! Add to that the ways the program helped the men to imagine the pain and agony that accompany rape, and presto – a new squadron of rape-preventers is born.