Addressing common myths

True or False?

1. Sexual assault usually occurs because people cannot control their wild, spontaneous passion.

2. Most rapists are well adjusted. They may be well-liked and popular.

3. Bad girls get raped, not good girls.

4. Forced sexually behavior isn’t a crime if the two people have been dating a long time and have had sex many times before.

5. Women who try to resist rape are likely to get injured badly

 

1. FALSE—sexual assault is an act of violence, not of sex.

2. TRUE—society can depict rapists as crazed and obviously violent, but in reality they may appear normal.

3.FALSE—this myth supports gender-stereotyping beliefs that girls should act a certain way. This belief allows people to justify rape as a type of punishment

4. FALSE—sexual assault is any forced sexual activity no matter the circumstance, and it is a crime

5.FALSE—women who resist are most likely to get away and least likely to get injured. 75-80% of women who actively resist sexual assault attempts escape being raped

Other myths:

"Male victims are usually gay"—this is supported by the prejudiced belief that homosexual men are weaker than heterosexual men, that they aren't “real” men. This is also harmful for heterosexual men as well because it denies their experience and pain.

"Rape is a minor crime affecting only a few women"—by denying the extent, frequency, and severity of rape, violence against women throughout our society is allowed to continue. 1 in 8 women will experience rape in her life time!

"Women frequently 'cry rape' just to get back at someone who has  made them mad"—this denies women the legitimacy to declare when their own bodies have been violated. It reinforces the sexist beliefs that women are not credible, but rather emotional and irrational.

"Women who flirt or wear sexy clothes are just 'asking for it'"—this supports the myth that women have to fit into a certain mold, and those who step outside of that mold are going to suffer. This doesn’t hold men accountable for their actions. It makes violence a punishment for women who haven't conformed to the image of a proper woman.

"Once a male is aroused there is little he can do to control it"—this take the blame away from the rapist and puts in on the victim.

Just the facts.

Both men and women can be perpetrators of abuse.

 

Most abuse gets more severe over time.

 

More than half young women raped (68 percent) knew their rapist either as a boyfriend, friend or casual acquaintance

   

1 in 8 women will experience rape in her lifetime

Women ages 16-24 experience the highest per capita rates of intimate violence

 

A survey of 500 young women, ages 15 to 24, found that 60 percent were currently involved in an ongoing abusive relationship and all participants had experienced violence in a dating relationship.

Nearly 1 out of 3 adult women experience one physical assault by a partner in adulthood.

 

One in five or 20 percent of dating couples report some type of violence in their relationship. 

 

One of five college females will experience some form of dating violence.

My poster on the project so far

I had the opportunity to present this poster on June 16 at a the Sigma Theta Tau International meeting.

Welcome!

I am a senior Honors in Nursing student at UAB (Honors in Nursing Website), and part of the Honors curriculum is to implement a service learning project and partner with a community agency. For my project I have partnered with the Crisis Center of Birmingham to promote awareness of dating abuse in the local college population. To implement the project I have used an existing curriculum, Safe Dates, as a template to create a PowerPoint presentation suitable for an audience of college students .  The Safe Dates program is used to educate middle school and high school students on the topic of dating abuse, methods of prevention, and skills to aid others in abusive situations. I am working on adapting existing hand-outs to go along with the presentation, and plan to incorporate hand-outs to make it a more audience involved presentation. I am also working on a before and after the presentation survey to evaluate the effectiveness of the presentation and the participant’s attitudes towards dating abuse. I hope to present this information in the Fall to student organizations at UAB, such as sororities, fraternities, and resident assistants.