Author: J E N

Food for thought #20 (“No, Not All Men, But Probably You” (Trigger Warning))

"Food for thought", Life

[Trigger warning: discussion of sexual assault and rape that some readers may find difficult.]

You hear stories, all the time, of women being sexually assaulted in clubs or bars by strangers, in their flats by friends, in places where they thought they were safe by men they thought they could trust…

You hear these stories, all the time, on social media and in group chats with your girlfriends and at work over lunch breaks. These stories are whispered in passing and weaved into television plots, used as advertising strategies for brands and exploited by the media. They’re everywhere.

These stories are told time and time again to warn women how to dress and how to act. To stay in groups and in streetlights and on full-alert 24/7.

“Text me when you get home” is permanently stored in my phone as an automatic message due to the amount of times I’ve sent it to other women after nights out, or lunch dates or, heck, 9am university lectures.

You hear these stories of sexual assault but you never think you’ll be the one telling them because you did everything right– you followed the rules (as if there’s a bloody rule book on how not to get sexually assaulted!).

You wore sensible shoes, you didn’t drink too much, you paid attention to the types of people you were with. You were good.

This blog post might be tough for some people to read (hence the trigger warning), but I wanted to throw my hat into the ring and use my voice to say, to shout and scream that, NO, NOT ALL MEN, BUT PROBABLY YOU*!

*The “not all men”ers.

Topics include, but are not limited to: sexual assault, sexual harassment, counseling, and empowering art for women.

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