16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence #OrangeTheWorld

Zeroing in on sexual harassment
It’s unfortunately hard for me to talk about sexual harassment without feeling emotional. I don’t know of any girl who has never experienced some form of sexual harassment
.I know of far too many women who have experienced sexual assault.
It’s such a normalized part of our culture, that we begin to think it’s inevitable that a woman will get harassed when she does simple things like walk into school.

From the time I was young, I always somehow knew not to walk too close to where large groups of men were standing, to ensure that I was with friends when moving about. As I grew older, I got used to the lewd comments fronmem old enough to be my father. Let’s not even begin talking about the harassment at bus stations. It becomes too much for a girl to handle.

Sexual harassment is defined as “behaviour characterized by the making of unwelcome and inappropriate sexual remarks or physical advances in a workplace or other professional or social situation.” By Oxford Dictionary.
A lot of people expect women to take the mantle in ending sexual harassment, but an unfortunate fact is that majority of sexual harassment incidences are carried out by men.
It’s men that women are afraid of when we walk down the street, it’s men that women are afraid of when we weaponise our keys, it’s men that we’re afraid of when we get onto a bus.

So here’s a challenge; if you are a man and you are reading this. Call.oit your friends and family on their harassment and nonsense behaviour.
If you are a woman, don’t stop talking about it. Make as much noise as you can.

Worldwide, 35% of women experience some form of sexual harassment. This is a figure that is too large to exist.

 

I wish I could envision a future where no woman (or man) had to endure sexual harassment but as it stands more people need to raise their voices in protest .

I want to be hopeful, but for now I will continue to #OrangeTheWorld

 

 

 

 

 

16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence #OrangeTheWorld

Understanding Rape Culture

Every year, from the 25th of November to the 10th of December, 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence is commemorated world wide. This year the theme is “Orange the World: Generation Equality Stands Against Rape.”
This is an important theme as we hear, witness and in many cases live incidences of rape. There are far too many harrowing reports of rape against women and children, and many unreported cases of rape against men. We are clearly living in a crisis time.
This is why it is necessary for us to examine themes such as rape and rape culture.
Rape culture is a term that was coined in the 70s by American feminists to describe the prevailing attitudes towards rape and rape victims. Attitudes that still exist today .
Rape culture is often scoffed at by men and indeed women who don’t understand the actual essence of the term..for them something as vile as rape, cannot be a culture.
Culture is often defined as the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society. (Oxford Dictionary). Thus in the sociological point of view, rape is a “thing” not a culture. But attitudes, ideas and conversation around rape and how it is treated is what forms rape culture.

Here are some definitions of rape culture that make it more clear:

“More often than not, it’s situations in which sexual assault, rape, and general violence are ignored, trivialized, normalized, or made into jokes.” -Every day feminism
“A complex set of beliefs that encourage male sexual aggression and supports violence against women. It is a society where violence is seen as sexy and sexuality as violent. In a rape culture, women perceive a continuum of threatened violence that ranges from sexual remarks to sexual touching to rape itself. A rape culture condones physical and emotional terrorism against women as the norm . . . In a rape culture both men and women assume that sexual violence is a fact of life, inevitable . ..” Emilie Buchwald
“In a rape culture, the commonality and pervasive nature of sexual violence and rape is fueled by commonly held beliefs, values, and popular myths that encourage and excuse sexual violence committed by men and boys against women and girls. In this context, women and girls consistently experience intimidation and threats of sexual violence and actual sexual violence itself.” Niki Lisa Cole PhD. via ThoughtCo.com

A common trend among these definitions is the factor of attitudes. The attitudes we have towards sex and rape is what fuels the crisis we have. The idea that rape is inevitable based on what a woman was wearing, what time she went out at night, who she was with or where she was is harmful and simply annoying.
Rape culture pretends that women’s bodies belong to men and thus undermines consent. Rape culture also diminishes the incidences of male rape victims because according to rape culture a man cannot be raped.
It also warps the idea of sex, that young people are growing into. Sex doesn’t need to be violent and the ‘conquest’ of a sexual partner does not need to include violence, coercion and force. (Conquest is used loosely here).
Rape culture has permeated out society so well, that some of the things that constitute it are often regarded as harmless.
Here is a list of some examples of rape culture:
1. Rape jokes.
2. Victim blaming
3. Slut shaming
4. Refusal to accept sexual violence
5. Trivialization of rape
And so on.
Thus, those edgy rape jokes guys make in their dorm rooms 👀
Calling a girl ‘fast’, ‘loose’ or ‘finished’ 👀
Saying she was dumb to be assualted 👀
Asking female students to watch their dress code so they don’t tempt men 👀.

The examples are endless, and the more aware we are of them the better equipped we are to bring awareness and fight for justice. As we begin our #16DaysActivism let’s start to unlearn some of the attitudes we have and do better as a society. Rape culture is prominent, but it can be defeated.