 I consider Thunderfoot a friend, but if he were a vehicle, he'd be one of those luggage trucks at the airport, because he brings a lot of baggage with him wherever he goes. I disagreed with parts of his recent videos on rape prevention, and I've had a chance to tell him so during a recent Magic Sandwich show. On the other hand, some of the content of the video is factually accurate, and he broached a subject that's often avoided because of how hard it is to handle attack and empathy. It's also given me a chance to think about how certain attitudes among people, many of whom identify as feminists, interact with public health efforts to mitigate sexual victimization. I have three objectives with this short video. I want to raise your consciousness. I want to inject some factual research on the topic. And lastly, I want to try to give a more comprehensive view of how risk of rape can be mitigated. Let's start with a consciousness raising. I want to thank the four or five people who independently brought to my attention the use of specific genders to stand as generic terms for victim and attacker. It's easy to say, men rape women. And that is a significant portion of all rapes. But it does a disservice to victims who are men, or women who are raped by women. It also has a subtle effect on the way we think about this issue. It creates an us versus them attitude, placing a division down gender lines. I'm personally guilty of this. And looking back on things I said just a few days ago, after having this pointed out, I'm disappointed in myself. I even talked about educating my daughter about not becoming a victim, while teaching my son not to be an attacker. It's so pervasive, and it very well could have been a mistake that I propagated to my children. I'm not blind to the actual statistical differences in the risks they face, and they'll receive subtly different messages. But by singling out my daughter for the victim chat, and my son the attacker, I could teach a subtle message about the roles they ought to play in adulthood. I now notice that the discussions on blogs of all types, comment forums here on YouTube, and even on news programs repeat these gender roles, substituting woman for victim, and man for attacker or rapist. Looking at slogans like, teach your sons not to rape, I'm now painfully aware of the way they assign the default role of attacker to men. The signs should say, teach your children not to rape. My challenge to all of you is to be aware of this subtle enforcement of default gender roles in a horrific crime. Challenge people to raise their consciousness. Both men and women can be victims. Both men and women can be rapists. Next, I want to inject some facts into the discussion based on the best research. The citations for these facts are in the description bar. This is far from an expert or comprehensive review of all the literature, but so often the discussion occurs in a complete vacuum of sourced information. First, the size of the problem. Approximately one in seven women in the US have been raped in their lifetime, according to multiple validated surveys. One in four college women have been raped or experienced and attempted rape. Second, the conditions of the rape. As high as 85% of rapes in a college setting are by non-strangers, who could be a partner, date, or just acquaintance. Researchers break down rapes into three categories. Forcible rape, referring to rapes involving force, threat of force, or injury. Incapacitated rape, where the victim is too intoxicated to be aware of or control his or her behavior. And drug or alcohol-assisted rape, where the perpetrator deliberately gives the victim drugs in order to facilitate a rape. To answer a common question, the perpetrator of an intoxication rate is intoxicated themselves between 30 and 75% of the time, depending on the report. In fact, alcohol appears to have two roles to play in sexual assault. It reduces the victim's ability to reason and resist. And it also increases sexual aggression and reduces sexual inhibition. In a survey of men who admitted to committing sexual assault, 48% had only done so while sober. The remaining 52% had either committed rape while intoxicated, or both sober and intoxicated. Third, the issue of reporting and why it matters. Only 16 to 20% of forcible rape victims report the rape to law enforcement. When alcohol or substance abuse was a factor, the number drops to only 2.7%. In one study, only 18.7% of rape victims received medical attention after the rape. And about the same number sought assistance from a rape crisis center. Looking at only victims who chose to report the crime, the numbers are much higher, around 50%. That means that in addition to helping law enforcement to catch repeat rapists, efforts to encourage victims to report will also lead to better medical attention and counseling to deal with the consequences. This is critical to the recovery of victims. Consider, for example, the issues of sexually transmitted diseases, or pregnancy in the case of women, as a result of rape. Victims need to seek both counseling and medical advice, and that is tightly linked to whether they feel comfortable reporting the crime. Fourth, the consequences of rape. The National Women's Study found that 30% of female rape victims suffer major depression. 33% have contemplated, and 13% have attempted suicide, compared to eight and 1% for non-victims, representing a 13-fold increase in attempted suicide. Post-traumatic stress disorder has a common consequence of rape, and untreated can lead to substance abuse, deterioration of health, and panic attacks. Lastly, the topic of rape resistance. A study of cases of women who either actively fought back against an attacker, striking, gouging, or punching, or used passive resistance, shouting, screaming, pleading, found that active resistors were more effective at preventing the rape without incurring any additional risk of injury. While controversial, there is evidence to suggest that as a last resort, urinating or vomiting can be protective against an attacker, according to one survey of reported cases. My last goal is to present a more comprehensive view of the public health efforts around rape mitigation. Many women feel that public health efforts focus entirely on restrictions on what women, as potential victims, are allowed to do safely, without a similar effort to educate young men on the responsibilities to avoid becoming attackers. My own opinion on why this may be the case is that we generally don't focus public health efforts on education for potential perpetrators when the issue involves a violent crime. There aren't many anti-stabbing campaigns or anti-bludgeoning campaigns, but not because those aren't important issues. I think the perception is that those behaviors don't emerge from a lack of knowledge, whether that is true or not. In my Journal Club video, I used a paper that focused on education for college-aged women about the risks of binge drinking. In their terms, because drinking in victims was a behavior that was amenable to educational interventions, meaning you can get results by talking to potential victims about the risks of drinking, where you may not get the same result by counseling potential rapists on their already illegal behavior. We also have to be careful about the messaging if the education is to be set in a public high school, given how hard it is to even teach teen pregnancy prevention instead of abstinence in many states. Imagine how hard it will be to have a frank discussion about crystal clear sexual consent with 16-year-olds. I'm not suggesting it shouldn't be done, only that public health policy will face an uphill challenge introducing these programs nationally because of the prudish and naive attitudes of parents. I want to end on the most important message I have to convey. The consequences of victim-blaming for rape victims. In surveys of women who have been sexually assaulted, approximately 25% of them report negative reactions from their friends or family, including victim-blaming behaviors. This can produce what experts call a second victimization, which in addition to preventing the person from seeking medical and psychiatric help, also statistically increases their chances of suffering mental disorders like PTSD and panic attacks. I don't want to over-dramatize this, but for someone who is trying to find support, the finger of blame can feel like a second rape. That's why it's so important that if someone in your life reveals an incident of sexual victimization to you, treat them right and get them help. Thanks for watching.