Deconstructing rape culture
Ensure all sexual violence prevention and response education and training opportunities actively deconstruct victim-blaming, rape myths and gender norms. Ensure these sessions take an intersectional approach to understanding sexual violence and supporting victim/survivors.
During our focus groups, we heard students highlighting the importance of deconstructing rape myths and victim blaming. We also heard students expressing rape myths and victim blaming. Both patterns highlight the importance of dispelling such ways of thinking through university messaging about sexual violence.
Self-serve Resources
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Supporting Survivors of Sexual Violence: A Nova Scotia ResourceAccording to its homepage, "This training is designed to help you learn more about sexual violence and how to support someone who has survived it. It is for service providers, friends, family members, neighbours, teachers, first responders, counselors, and anyone who is acting as a support person, or is concerned about sexual violence." We understand that sometimes when rape myths are repeated, listeners remember the myths, but forget the facts. One of the strengths of this resource is that it dispells rape myths without repeating them in its first module, which also takes an intersectional approach.