Challenging short film on the reality of rape
Published: Tuesday, June 07, 2011
This thought-provoking short film from Scottish Rape Centre highlights the heinous but sadly widely accepted concept that women who dress in a certain manner are inviting sexual attacks. Looking at it from a no-nonsense approach, it examines the idea that women who dress provocatively, drink too much or, even indeed, flirt are partially to blame for any ensuing rape.
The campaign, called "Not Ever", sets out to shake up inherent prejudices concerning the idea that rape can ever be qualified by the actions of the victim. The notion that a woman can "ask" for rape, either consciously or unconsciously, has far-reaching repercussions beyond that simply of the act. This is re-enforcing the existing culture of "Don't get raped" as opposed to "don't rape".
The SRC broadcast the film in the format of a TV advert and this has proved to be an exceptionally useful tool in examining the issue with much-broader scope. Eileen Maitland, the Information and Resource Worker with SRC, firmly believes it was money well-spent. "As we knew that the attitudes we wanted to challenge are held across a broad spectrum of the population - spanning both genders, all age ranges and socio-economic groups, TV was the perfect medium for us to achieve that reach in communicating our message."
""Not Ever" was a very cost-effective campaign that allowed us to reach 82% of the Scottish population," she continues. "We are delighted at the response it has had, and in particular at the amount of discussion and debate it has generated online."
In fact, the response to the advert has exceeded expectations with postings on their website and facebook page proving to be highly supportive of the message being put out by campaign. The YouTube video has been viewed over 150,000 times.
Nonetheless, this treacherous attitude toward sex crimes continues. This makes it more difficult for victims to come forward as they can become convinced of their own culpability by what they were wearing, how much they had to drink and whether they had acted inappropriately. This is an issue that raises its head time and time again. Recently, we witnessed the Corrib Garda scandal. This in itself is enough to question the attitude toward rape and how seriously is it taken as a crime.
"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, quite often they actually do", Ms. Maitland states.
The refreshingly honest approach of this short film is that regardless of any of the aforementioned behaviours, imagined or otherwise, it is simply never acceptable to rape someone. We highly recommend you click here, watch it and help change this ingrained and preposterous attitude to sexual violence.