Today marks the last day of Sexual Assault Awareness Month 2018. Survivors and advocates spend an unbelievable amount of time trying to convince people that rape culture is real. From the folks at Ultraviolet comes the infographic above that dispels some common myths used to delegitimize the experiences of survivors of sexual violence and can be used throughout the…
The most insidious aspect of rape culture is that we perpetuate it unintentionally through norms, behaviors, and actions that we have come to accept without truly questioning whether there is an underlining meaning or resulting consequence. Often, under the vein of trying to “protect” our children, we teach them lessons that remove their agency, eliminate their…
I love a good infographic! In just 7 steps, the Gender-Based Violence Prevention Network offers tangible actions we can all undertake in our own lives to undermine patriarchy. The language isn’t super accessible to those uninitiated to challenging patriarchy. But for those already committed to feminist struggle, who maybe question what it looks like to…
Anxiety manifests in a number of ways. For those of us who struggle with it, our coping mechanisms can be as unique as the people who experience it. For Toronto-based Chris Grady, father of two young children, and elementary school teacher, creating short, sweet, and thoughtful webcomics has become one outlet for his anxiety. Featuring short interactions…
Toxic masculinity–the way of being a man that requires aggression, sexual domination, earning big money, being athletic, and most definitely, being heterosexual–not only feeds rape culture, but is co-dependent upon it. In fact, rape culture and toxic masculinity feed each other while destroying everything they touch. The video below from MTV News provides a quick and…
Because we need as many resources as possible, and because everyone loves cartoons, Blue Seat Studios–the folks who brought us the “Consent is as Simple as Tea” video–presents “Consent for Kids.” The video is a resource both for parents to teach the basics of consent to their children, as well as for kids to help them…
When someone we care about is in pain, we want to take that pain away, we want them to feel better. To do this, we often try to offer silver linings, or get them to look on the bright side. This is offering sympathy. The advocacy model for supporting someone experiencing trauma is rooted in…
Empathy–the ability to understand the emotional experience of another person–is, not hyperbolically, the beginning step to answering most of the problems we face as a society. We are currently experiencing an era of increased “Othering” in which we are encouraged to see the differences in other people, and not the similarities. And because of those differences we are…
