Positive Anti- Rape Campaigns: We Can Stop It.

I've ranted about some of the more offensive rape campaigns before, with the West Mercia Police coming for some serious criticism for the victim-blaming shite they tried to pass off as an anti-rape campaign. There are, however, some new really positive campaigns who hold the rapist responsible for rape. I attended the Rape Crisis Scotland annual conference in Glasgow last week where a few of the better campaigns were advertised. I'm going to post links to some of them over the next few days. I would, however, like to post links to any positive international campaigns. So, please send me links either as a comment to this blog or to my email: stewiegriffinsmom@gmail.com

There have been 3 very good campaigns in Scotland in the past 5 years.  Two were developed by Rape Crisis Scotland. The newest campaign called We Can Stop and was developed by the local police forces. The tagline: "Sex without Consent is Rape. We Can Stop it." is one that Assange might want to think about. The entire campaign focuses on men. It puts the onus on men to understand the legal definition of rape and consent:

Rape. Are you the type of guy who understands what this really means?
In Scotland the law relating to rape has recently changed. It now concentrates on what 'consent' means and the fact that consent can be withdrawn at any time. In addition, sexual attacks on men have been legally classed as 'rape' for the very first time.

It also directly challenges rape myths which is more than the Met managed with their fancy-pants new campaign which ended up being the same patriarchal, victim-blaming bullshit about women making themselves vulnerable to rape. You'd think that the specialist rape unit of the Met might be slightly more aware of rape myths but, you'd be wrong.

By far, the most powerful part of the campaign is the images: 

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The Met Has A Truly Original New Anti-Rape Campaign

Yep, they have a tots new campaign that has never, ever, ever been done before. One in which the Sapphire Unit, noted for its support of victims of rape and having no history of incompetence or malicious disregard for rape victims,* has come up with a brand, spanking new anti-rape campaign that has never been done before. Apparently, they are going to use licensing laws to close pubs and clubs where "high levels of rape and sexual assaults take place as part of a radical attempt to create a hostile environment for rapists." Now, I'm sure this is a lovely new policy but 1) why haven't they been doing this already? Surely that's one of the reasons we have licensing laws? and 2) How will they define "high levels" considering the fact that the vast majority of rapes are never reported to the police because of their institutional disregard for the safety of women and their general policy on blaming women for being raped?**

But, this isn't the best and original bit of the new anti-rape campaign. Nope, the big exciting bit is that it "will challenge male behaviour while attempting to speak to women about reducing their vulnerability to rape." Because, obviously, there has never been a single rape campaign ever that has told women to stop getting raped. Possibly, the lovely Boys in Blue should have spent slightly more time looking at the new Scottish anti-rape campaign called We Can Stop It because it targets rapists. It doesn't blame women for being raped. It blames rapists.

Women don't need to reduce their vulnerability. The only thing that makes women vulnerable to rape is being in the presence of a rapist.

The "professionals" in the Sapphire Unit might want to visit these campaigns by Rape Crisis Scotland: This is not an invitation to rape me and Not Ever. And, stop perpetrating rape myths since this is precisely why reports of rape are down in London. It's because women don't trust them. 

Targeting pubs and clubs is a good idea. Targeting men and making other men responsible for policing the behaviour of their friends is a good idea. Telling women what to do to avoid rape is just the same old victim-blaming behaviour and it just shows how little the Sapphire unit has learned from the sheer number of deliberate and malicious "mistakes" their members have made over the years which resulted in an untold number of women being raped by men who should have been in jail.

*You know, if you don't count the monumental fuck-ups of the John Worboys case or the dude who got sacked for deliberately screwing up. The Met seems to be glossing over these minor hiccups so probably we should too. Or, something.

** Obviously, I am being facetious here but I thought I'd just double check because according to Rape Crisis Scotland a not-very-large number of people didn't get that this was ironic. 

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