On Friday, October 11th, SMART Youth was fortunate to have Marlene
Edelstein, a health educator from the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center, and
our very own Ann Rodwell-Lawton present She
Didn’t Ask For It! The workshop focused on understanding the role of
acceptance of sexual violence in our culture and how it is present all around
us. This is commonly called Rape Culture.
We worked towards understanding that Rape Culture is the
normalization of sexual violence and a culture that perpetuates this norm.
Breaking down this complex definition, we also brainstormed how this affects
our lives and gave examples we’ve seen around us.
It became very clear this issue permeates all aspects of our
society including politics, media coverage, pop culture, music, authority
responses to sexual violence, and how we interact with our friends and
family. We also explored the
unfortunately reality of victim blaming and slut-shaming in our culture.
Now that we understand rape culture and how it affects us,
we can start to change and make our society a safer place for everyone.
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