Viral PSA Says Witnesses To Sexual Assault Are Guilty, Too
A Canadian public service announcement encouraging bystanders to intervene when they see sexual assault happening is going viral with its hashtag #WhoWillYouHelp.
It opens with perpetrators thanking bystanders for keeping quiet as they’re about to commit sexual assault: “When you do nothing, you’re helping him. But when you do something, you help her.” is the main message of the video.
The PSA plays out twice, once with perpetrators thanking bystanders for their complacency and silence and then a second time with survivors thanking bystanders for their involvement.
Bystander culture is gaining more and more attention in conversations about preventing sexual assault and violence and is frequently identified as one of the key components of what is often referred to as “rape culture,” a phrase itself often complicated by what is seen by many to be an air of presumed passivity.
In an interview with the advocacy group Know Your IX, a student activist at Brown University identified as “Emma” speaks to why, even if the most progressive of institutions (such as a liberal Ivy League school like Brown) need to actively engage in the kind of conversations that the Canadian PSA is designed to prompt:
“I have to wonder if our liberal view of gender makes the student body (I realize that I’m homogenizing a very diverse population) think that we don’t have to be as vigilant about preventing sexual violence, because we think we’re above it, too intelligent for it, or too progressive for it. If anything, our views of gender may make talking about rape culture even more difficult, because people might assume that everyone already understands it, so it doesn’t need to be further unpacked or discussed.”
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It is exactly because of the dynamics Emma identifies that bystander culture is so deeply entrenched, problematic — and essential to dismantle when thinking about how to confront sexual violence.
Sharyn Potter, an associate professor of sociology, the co-director of Prevention Innovations: Research and Practices for Ending Violence Against Women on Campus, notes while sexual violence is so often discussed in relation to college campuses, it — and bystander culture — are everywhere. “These kinds of attitudes that facilitate and support rape are part of the larger culture. Sexual violence is so glamorized and used to sell everything from clothes to cars. All these ads use sexual violence and normalize it.” She adds that from the video games that young boys play in which “they receive points for virtual rape” to the fact that “80 percent of ten-year old girls have already been on a diet [and] are getting this message that they are worthy for their bodies and not their brains” all contribute to a dynamic that makes it easy for bystanders to be passive rather than active in the face of sexual violence. After all, they’ve been taught culturally from a young age to not only tolerate, but accept and participate in this kind of behavior.
Potter mentions that it is important to remember that “women are not only victims and men are not only perpetrators – we all have to work together,” adding that, just as the PSA points out, there are things that “we as community members can do when you see something happening.”
And she adds that teaching this bystander activism should start at a young age as well. “There are all sorts of ways to teach about respect in elementary school, to begin laying the foundation for teaching how do we treat each other and how do we work together as a community. For example, my 11-year old talks about a child in her class with a peanut allergy and how the whole school works together to make sure that child is safe. That is the beginning of being a good bystander — working together as a community to protect one another.”
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