‘To+end+rape,+educate.’

Callum Robertson N8839425 Tutor: Steve Badman
 * ‘To end rape, educate.’ **
 * __The Artefact __**



The chosen artefact serves as a good example of the current issues we are facing within the topic of sexual education in Australian schools. With the current generation and society becoming desensitised to things such as the importance of consent and healthy relationships we see the evidence of a rape culture forming. This rape culture has created a culture of prevalent attitudes and practises which have normalised, excused, tolerated and to some extent condoned rape. This wiki aims to identify and analyse the issues surrounding sexual education in schools such as the lack of education on consent and rape as well as inequalities to those students classed in sexually diverse categories. Sexual education curriculum in Australian schools on a broad scale still do not accept these issues as something worthwhile to educate the younger generations on and therefore we continue to see a prevalent rape culture forming and ongoing inequalities. This rape culture has caused society to become desensitised to the serious issue of rape and we continue to see cases of sexual assault remain high within society.
 * __PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE __**

The online website known as ‘Force: upsetting rape culture’ is an art activist program which seeks to break the phenomena known as rape culture. Force explains rape culture as “ Rape culture includes jokes, TV, music, advertising, legal jargon, laws, words and imagery, that make violence against women and sexual coercion seem so normal that people believe that rape is inevitable” (Force, para 1) This has become indented into society over time and rather people viewing rape culture as a problem and having the desire to change it this rape culture is now seen as a ‘social norm’.
 * __LITERATURE REVIEW __**

The rape culture that we see indented into society today has been caused by several contributing factors, the lack of education on consent, gender equality and healthy relationships in schools and the media which desensitises us to these issues are a few elements which have caused this ongoing trend. [| Antonia] (2010) believes that media has caused us to become desensitised to this serious issue and created a rape culture. She states that “ Fashion magazines use sexualized violence with alarming frequency, depicting sprawled dead-eyed and bloodied models. One Dolce & Gabanna ad, since pulled, showed a shirtless man pushing a woman to the ground while four other men watch, and wait for. . . what? Their turn?” This is a very good example of the frequency and complexity of this issue as demographic groups such as adolescents are very open to social influences and are likely to copy trends which they consider ‘hot’ or ‘sexy’ leading to them viewing this sexualised violence as something good. Facebook is another tool which is used to desensitise the public to the issue of sexual assault and rape with many Facebook groups making the issue into a complete joke such as the group Antonia (2010) talks about in this article known as "If you rape a prostitute, is it rape or shoplifting?'' It is things such as these which influence people to view rape as something that can be consider a joke or something that is sociably acceptable.

An article by Carmody, M from the University of Western Sydney argued that anti-violence prevention strategies has lead to sexual intimacy being dominated by discourses of fear and danger with women’s pleasure becoming invisible (Carmody, 2005) This has lead to the need for an alternative conception of sexual ethics to be produced so that anti-rape education can be focused around the desire to form healthy relationships and intimacy rather than fear. Changes to the way in which anti-rape education is taught is a necessity as fear campaigns have not been overly successful in reducing the amount of rape and sexual assault cases still seen in society today. The results from an ABS national personal safety survey in 2005 showed the following results of sexual assault within Australia: <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">(Australian Government, 2013)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">During the 12 months prior to the survey, 8.3% of Australians experienced some sort of violence.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Both men and women most often experience violence from male perpetrators.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Women are at more risk of violence in the home from men they know.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Men are most at risk in public spaces and licensed premises from men they don't know.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Women in Australia still experience high rates of sexual violence.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Since the age of 15, 32.5% of women have experienced inappropriate comments about their body or sex life, compared to 11.7% of men. 25.1% of women experienced unwanted sexual touching compared to 9.9% of men.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Since the age of 15, people were more likely to have experienced violence from a previous partner than from a current partner.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">There was a small decrease in the overall incidence of sexual violence over the 12 months preceding the 1996 and 2005 surveys, but an increase over the course of women's life times.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">As it can be seen from the results, aspects of rape culture can be seen in the body of these results such as 32.5% of women experiencing inappropriate comments about their body or sex life (Australian Government, 2013) Society accepting this behaviour has meant that rape culture has remained prevalent and people have become desensitised to the ethical discriminations in which this behaviour promotes.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">The process of forming values, attitudes and beliefs towards the topic of sexual abuse and rape starts at a young age and therefore it is vital the youth are educated towards consent and healthy sexual relationships at a young age. We continue to see a conservative approach to sexual education in Australian schools with a lack of education on sexuality and diversity. A program being run in Victoria known as Sexuality Education is a good example of a program which seeks to promote education on diversity, respect and healthy sexual relationships. According to the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (2013, para 10) “the purpose of the program is to ensure comprehensive education to all Victorians to ensure they are respectful of diversity and can contribute to positive behaviour changes”. This positive behaviour change is vital if we are going to see this rape culture be diminished in society.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">The philosophy of consent is something which is often forgotten about when analysing an effective sexual education program for a school. As consent is a topic of paramount importance in a healthy relationship it is important that there is a major focus on this aspect to ensure rape and sexual assault is something which neither woman nor man has to experience. There is lack of consent based curriculum programs being run in Australian schools at the present time, one program from NSW’s curriculum support network gives a program focused on providing education on consent to students. The programs aims to ensure students recognise the importance of consent and identify consent and non-consent to sexual activity (NSW Government, 2013) this program focuses on providing students with practical activities to complete to give them an understanding of future situations they may be faced with and how to deal with them appropriately and ethically (see reference list to view consent activities).

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">It is evident that there are a number of contributing factors which have lead to a rape culture forming in society which has desensitised the public to the seriousness of the issue. Media, social networks, peer influences and a lack of comprehensive sexual education are just a few of the factors which have caused this issue to arise. Without changes to the public’s ideologies and education we will continue to see these prevalent attitudes towards the topic of sexual assault and rape continue to be ignored. The curriculum focused around sexual education in Australian schools generally does not cover aspects of ethical and diverse attitudes such as consent, healthy relationships and accepting diversity. This has contributed to students lacking the knowledge and education to be socially aware of their ethical responsibilities and how to treat all people in a safe and respectful way.
 * __<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">CULTURAL AND SOCIAL ANALYSIS __**

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Of good example to the theory that rape culture is alive and well among the youth can be no more evident than in American college culture. According to (Cook, 2012) “At least one in four female students experience a sexual assault during college but few report it. Sexual assault is one of the crimes on campus that is least likely to be reported. That's because campus culture supports rape” Some of the elements of rape culture have been thought to contribute and put pressure on people to behave in a certain way include: Hegemonic masculinity, peer influences and the pressure of being a ‘real’ man (Cook, 2012) before any progress can be made on eliminating this social stigma the pressure which is put on people to behave in a certain un-ethical way needs to change so that society embraces people to behave in a way which promotes acceptance and healthy relationships.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">The public and especially adolescents are deeply consumed by what they see on the media as well as peer influences and this has huge impacts on the values, attitudes and beliefs they have towards intimacy and sexual ethics. It is of paramount importance that adolescent’s sexual education extends beyond just that of information on STI’s and STD’s but also an understanding of acceptance of diversity, understanding sexuality and the importance of consent and healthy relationships. The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) Provides a good example of a program for students in grades 8 to 10 which focuses on accepting that students at this age are sexual beings and guides them in a way which promotes positive sexual education. An area of this program which advocates helping to end rape culture in younger generations is through education on topics such as exploring the assumptions, community attitudes and stereotypes about young people and sexuality (VCAA, para 29) A program such as this is a step towards ending rape culture through education and support, to have greatest effect an initiative such as this needs to be implemented as a core curriculum component for all Australian schools. If all schools can provide students with a comprehensive sexuality education program we would see the social stigma of rape culture become less influential in society.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">The chosen artefact is a great example of the current discrepancies we are continuing to see within our sexual education programs. The artefact acts as a direct message saying “if we don’t teach our children how to have sex, we can never teach them how to prevent rape” This statement is very important to acknowledge and address as topics of importance such as consent and equality continue to be neglected in mainstream sexual health curriculum. I strongly believe the best way to end the social stigma of rape culture is to educate younger generations on the social and ethical importance of sexuality education focusing on consent, equality and healthy relationships. The younger generations are at a much higher risk of being influenced be media, social networks and peers to behave in what has become a ‘socially expected way’. I feel the only way we can end this negative culture is if we provide comprehensive education to the students which lays a strongly positive and ethical foundation for them to base their sexual relationships around. If this can be done on a national scale we would see future cases of sexual assault and rape being dramatically reduced and the ‘rape culture’ will be something of the past. This assessment piece has given me a deep understanding of the factors which contribute to the rape culture forming and a society becoming desensitised to what should be considered a very serious issue. I have realised the dire importance of comprehensive sexual education which includes education on consent, equality and healthy sexual relationships, and believe this is the only way to end rape culture. If we can educate younger generations that it is ‘cool’ to be kind and promote equality and ethical decision making then we have taken the first step to potentially preventing them from being involved in rape and-or sexual assault.
 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">ANALYSIS OF ARTEFACT AND REFLECTION __**

==<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Atonia. Z. 2010. Are media creating a culture of rape?: Online posting of sex assault on a B.C. girl spotlights the issue. //Toronto Star//. Retrieved from [] ==
 * __References__**

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Australian Government, Australian Institute of Family Studies (2013) Facts & Figures. Retrieved from []

Carmody, M (Ethical Erotics: Reconceptualizing Anti-Rape Education) //Sexualities, 8// (4) 465, 480. doi: 10.1177/1363460705056621

Cook, S. M (How to Progress From a Rape-Supportive Culture) //Women In Higher Education, 21// (7) 16, 17. Retrieved from []

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Force (2013). WHAT IS RAPE CULTURE?. Retrieved from []
==<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">NSW Government (n.d.). Consent in sexual relationships. Retrieved from[] ==

Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (n.d.). Health and Physical Education. Retrieved from []

==<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Victorian Government, Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (2013). Why We Need Sexuality Education. Retrieved from [|http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/social/physed/pages/aboutwhy.aspx#2] ==


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">Reflections **


 * 'Wasted? So is your life.' https://healthcultureandsociety2013.wikispaces.com/share/view/64710382**
 * 'The war on drugs is a war on us' https://healthcultureandsociety2013.wikispaces.com/share/view/64710600**

<span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: 1951px; width: 1px;"> ==<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Atonia. Z. 2010. Are media creating a culture of rape?: Online posting of sex assault on a B.C. girl spotlights the issue. //Toronto Star//. Retrieved from [] == <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Australian Government, Australian Institute of Family Studies (2013) Facts & Figures. Retrieved from [] Carmody, M (Ethical Erotics: Reconceptualizing Anti-Rape Education) //Sexualities, 8// (4) 465, 480. doi: 10.1177/1363460705056621 Cook, S. M (How to Progress From a Rape-Supportive Culture) //Women In Higher Education, 21// (7) 16, 17. Retrieved from []

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Force (2013). WHAT IS RAPE CULTURE?. Retrieved from []
==<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">NSW Government (n.d.). Consent in sexual relationships. Retrieved from [] == Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (n.d.). Health and Physical Education. Retrieved from [] ==<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Victorian Government, Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (2013). Why We Need Sexuality Education. Retrieved from [|http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/social/physed/pages/aboutwhy.aspx#2] ==