Hands of Harvard: Say ‘don’t rape,’ not ‘don’t get raped’
No one thinks they are going to be a victim of assault
Disclaimer: The ideas presented below are true and unadulterated testimonies from people at Harvard. All information presented is based on their personal opinions and views. Their identities have been kept confidential and all information is anonymous. If you are a friend or loved one of the interviewee and are able to recognize their identity, please respect the confidentiality of these intimate posts. It is possible that some information presented will be challenging, controversial, or triggering. If you are going to participate in the comment section, please be mindful of the emotions of the interviewees who have so graciously opened up for this project.
“Make sure you don’t get raped shouldn’t be your problem, it should be make sure you don’t rape somebody. I think that because we don’t live in a world where we say ‘Make sure you’re not going to rape somebody,’ then I feel like we cant say ‘Don’t wear this, don’t wear that, because you could get hurt,’ maybe once we live in a world where we are saying to people ‘Don’t get that trashed, or don’t do that, because you could hurt somebody,’ then now we are saying that to everybody, like potential people, ‘you could get hurt or you could hurt.’
“No one thinks that they are going to be a victim of assault and no one thinks that they are going to be a perpetrator. I don’t think that people go to these events thinking ‘Oh, I should learn in case something happens to me or in case I do something to someone,’ so how do you reach people? You know, as opposed to other programming like career programming where someone doesn’t work and maybe they haven’t worked but it’s still relevant to them and they know it will be eventually. It’s hard for people to understand how programming that is geared toward sexual assault prevention is relevant unless they are a survivor.”