Not Ever

With "Not Ever, Rape Crisis Scotland has launched Scotlands first ever TV campaign aimed at tackling women-blaming attitudes to rape. The advert was launched on Monday 28 June, and was broadcast for the first time that night during coverage of Brazil's World Cup match. It will continue to be shown over the next 9 weeks on STV, Channel 4 and Channel 5.

"Not Ever" addresses women-blaming attitudes towards rape such as claims that dressing provocatively, being drunk or flirting with men are contributory factors. Its hard-hitting approach is intended to make people stop in their tracks, and to shake out and challenge ingrained prejudices many people have towards women who have been raped.

Recent research reveals that almost one in five Scots believe a woman is partially to blame for being raped if she is wearing revealing clothing - a survey of 1,040 Scots carried out by Cello MRUK in February 2010 for the Scottish Government found that:
• 23 per cent think a woman can be at least partly responsible if she is drunk at the time of the attack
• 17 per cent thought that a woman bore some responsibility if she wore revealing clothing
• 15 per cent say there should be some burden of responsibility for rape if the women is flirting
• 8 per cent think rape can be the woman's fault if she is known to have had many sexual partners

These attitudes can make it difficult for women to speak out about being raped, because of fear of being blamed for what has happened. There are also significant concerns about the impact these attitudes might have on rape survivors' ability to access justice, in terms of attitudes which jury members might hold.

Although many people genuinely believe they wouldn't judge a rape victim by what they wear, how drunk they were, or if they had been flirting all night, they often actually do; particularly when sitting as a juror in court. Not Ever wants to prompt people to keep their judgments in check and to remember that there's only one person who is responsible for rape and it's not the victim. It doesn't matter what you wear, how many sexual partners you've had, or if you're out getting drunk with friends - no one deserves to be raped - ever.

A new campaign website has been set up to allow people to share their thoughts and seek support at www.notever.co.uk , and people can also show support for Not Ever on the campaign's Facebook page at http://bit.ly/blMIu2 .
There is also a Not Ever Twitter stream: @Not_Ever to keep people updated with the progress of the campaign.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Rape
• Rape myths
• Rape Crisis Scotland
• Rape campaigns
• Prejudice

[MaddyOps]

This is probably the BEST ad I've EVER seen.

It teaches "don't rape" rather than "women, don't get raped."

[Scoooobyful]

I hope this gets shown in Australia! Or something similar.

It's time people learnt that:

People do NOT get raped because of what they are wearing, if they were drinking, if they were walking alone, if they were flirting or because of anything they were doing.

People get raped because SOMEONE RAPED THEM.

We need to stop this slut-shaming, victim-blaming society, and we need to do it NOW.

[jaanusgirl]

@Barrowaxe - Seriously?! So a person's right to their body doesn't count for anything? And if you wear a blue shirt and blue brings out the monster in me enough to beat you to a pulp, that's OK? Check your logic man.

[Barrowaxe]

@MissReige  Not saying it's alright to rape but if they way a girl is dressed makes me want to rape her then isn't she partially to blame? like walkin around in a bad neighborhood covered in gold chains?

[DontStopBelieving145]

Of course blaming the victim would be excusing the the rapist and that in itself is a violation. However, excusing the victim for fostering actions that could otherwise be avoided would just be an equivalent error. Rapists should be held accountable and advise should be given on preventing the fostering of perversion if the endless pattern is to e halted forever.

[LaceNeilSinger]

So people do stupid things like walking home alone down dark alleyways, or thru bad neighbourhoods. So what? That doesn't excuse the rapist for wanting to violate a person in the worst possible way. Yes, rape is rarely about sex; it goes deeper than that. Anyway, no matter how stupid or thoughtless a person is, THEY DO NOT DESERVE TO BE RAPED, EVER. No-one deserves something like that, whether they be male or female, wearing a burka or wearing a bikini. NO. NOT EVER.

[LadyMidnightBluu]

Anyone saying that is a victim is to blame for getting raped, they are also saying that men are dogs that can't control themselves.

[MissReige]

@kathywathy888 when the idea should be "That rapist should be put to justice for hurting me, no matter what I chose to wear, or where I went, or what I did!"

[MissReige]

@kathywathy888 The prevailing attitude is still that women should be held responsible for being raped, if they weren't being completely careful in their dress and actions and who they associated with. No, society does not literally "condone" rape, but there's still this attitude that a victim could IN ANY WAY be the one at fault, and that is WRONG. Dead wrong. So many cases of rape go unreported because of this attitude; the victim thinks "I shouldn't have done that/worn that," cont.

[abbypets]

@patrifiedy2k Women aren't possessions. Women aren't cars or houses. They can't get stolen or broken into. Rape is a violent crime. How about "I was walking through the park at night because I took the wrong train home and needed to cross the park to get to my building. Then, out of nowhere, I was knifed and robbed. I'm a human being! I should be able to walk home at night without needing stitches after." The fact that you think this analogy is relevant to rape shows how sick our culture is.

[ami1043]

@Ur0wnEg0 I get what your saying. In the same way a women can't dress provocatively without also asking to be raped, a can't man walk around in his designer suit with gold rings and watches without also asking to be mugged. Or a man that forgets to lock the car door and put the alarm on is asking for it to be stolen. Or a man that dresses like the situation form the Jersey Shore is asking to be slapped. Right? Blame the victim, the perpetrator shouldn't be blamed! The person did it to themselves