Say It With Me: To Stop Rape, Get Men To Stop Raping

(Trigger warning for rape and rape apologia)

On the night of September 10, at a rave outside of Vancouver BC, a young woman was slipped a drug to incapacitate her, after which a group of young men filmed themselves repeatedly raping her (the video itself is not at that link; it's a link to a CBC report on an arrest of one of the suspects).

As seems to be all too often the case lately, this film has made its way onto the Internet, and though the police have made some efforts to have the video removed where they find it, we all know that once it's on the Net, it's never, ever going away. They anticipate using the child pornography laws to pursue anyone they can catch putting it up or possessing a copy themselves (as is the law in Canada; any depiction of sexual activity by people under 16, or looking like they're under 16, or of sexualized children, is deemed child pornography).

I can't find a media report of it (most have updated to the version linked above, replacing earlier stories with it), but Shaker Erin writes to say that their local station was reporting:

Listening to my local news station, they had a piece on it this afternoon. Christy Clark was asking whether parents feel that their daughters are safe, and how to educate them to stay safe, and whether those parents feel that their sons would step in to help in a situation like this, not stand around and watch. But nothing about teaching their sons (and daughters) about enthusiastic consent, not raping, etc. Even though, when first questioning the students at the high school the victim went to, almost all students were victim-blaming. Even though she had been drugged.

As usual, the MSM focus is on victim-blaming: the advice all carries the usual "Well, if girls/women would just stay home and not do anything fun, they wouldn't be so vulnerable to rape," rather than what we know the situation to actually be: "If rapists would just stay home and not do anything fun, (girls/women) wouldn't be so vulnerable to rape."

If you would like to express that message to the superintendent of the local school district, who has been inviting police to give lectures on how girls can stay safe, then:

The superintendent for the Maple Meadows school district is Jan Unwin and her email is junwin@sd42.ca.

The mailing address for the school district is: Ms. Jan Unwin
Superintendent of Schools
SD #42 (Maple Ridge)
22225 Brown Avenue
Maple Ridge, BC V2X 8N6
Phone: 604-463-4200
Fax: 604-463-0573
junwin@sd42.ca

I would suggest, as I usually do, a polite but very clear missive explaining how to conduct rape safety training (TRAIN THE BOYS NOT TO RAPE, DUH!).

Teaspoons up, Shakers.

ò,óP <-- is Caitie's Angry Face, with Teaspoon

Tip of the CaitieCap to Shakers Anelle, somebodyoranother, and Erin, as well as Liss for sending it on to me. Also, JenMR, who gave updated information on contacting the superintendent.