Discounting for a moment that these are targeted at a college-age demographic, are there people out there on the verge of committing sexual assault who would be swayed by the advise of a cartoon taco?
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Personally, I think the message featured in these posters is of the utmost importance.
I think it should be broadcast and re-broadcast, at all levels, until the population has been saturated by it.
That the message is here being broadcast using signage suitable for a fourth grade classroom but aimed at a college demographic is horrifying. That such signage would be a necessary tool of communication within that demographic is fucking TERRIFYING.
This was posted not to belittle the message or to make light of our need for it - but to highlight just how pitifully we have failed as a culture/civilization for having the need to implement it…
I considered deleting this post entirely, under the notion that my intentions had misfired badly. But the discourse in this thread seems like it has as much potential to be a part of the solution as a talking anthropomorphic taco.
Art should challenge conceptions and ignite dialogue. So, perhaps the taco was an effective tool.
it is extremely sad but some people just dont know
because they are extremely sheltered due to their parents who dont think theyre “old enough” to learn about sex and consent
this is why its in a college
because in college you dont have mum and dad over your shoulder deciding what you can and cant see
Yeah there really are such people.
The whole mass of humanity is mostly doing whatever feels kind of normal most of the time and not thinking about it.
Countering the momentum of “holy shit I really want to be fucking right now I am so hot for this” takes a LOT of work.
If you can make “I changed my mind and I don’t want to get fucked after all” a thing then you need to seed that idea (stop fucking) as a normal thing that people just do when it feels right, in advance, firmly in the mind of insecure young people who never had any deep thought about sex at all before.
Its exactly as effective as a “gun free zone” sign.
This was a big thing in the military. If someone was assaulted, or if someone committed suicide, they would gather everyone in to one place for an all-day or even several-day powerpoint presentation on why that is bad. We did that “training” annually anyway, so it was just extra iterations of exactly the same prefabricated lessons and presentations, the most “check in the box” reaction you could possibly have. As if people with the propensity and inclination to commit assault would remember the extra lessons and choose differently, or the stressors leading someone to a fatal choice would be fixed by the powerpoint.
It’s a shitposting comm, but you asked a serious question which deserves an answer.
Trigger warning: it’s about rape, and I mention some pretty specific examples coming from reality. Honestly, I hope this doesn’t keep me up tonight.
To start, I think it’s important to look at how and why rape happens. In most cases, rape is a matter of the perpetrator asserting dominance over the victim. There are many non-sexual as well as sexual ways of doing that. Rape is one of, if not the most intimate way. It’s the reason why there are cases where heterosexual men rape other men, for instance. It’s not about attraction. It’s about asserting dominance, in one of the most disgusting ways imaginable.
Rape is rarely the “someone jumped out of the bush and raped me” story. In the vast majority of cases, it’s someone they know. A friend. A significant other. A family member. And it’s not necessarily the “I was forced into the bed” story, either. It’s often a direct pressuring of the victim into doing something they really don’t. “Why not, do you think I’m ugly?” “It’s been so long, how are you so insensitive?” “You never want to! How is our relationship supposed to survive?” (By the way, these examples come from reality - not word by word, but the statements as wholes.) It’s often part of a larger pattern of abuse - and I mean think about it, if you’re doing something that heinous, it’s probably not the only morally reprehensible thing you’re doing.
So honestly, I’m going to go with a pretty clear “no”. I mean, do we have signs telling people not to steal? Do we have signs to tell people not to kill? No. The closest thing we have to that is signs at stores that essentially say “you can’t steal here without getting caught”. It’s never about “watch out, you might accidentally steal something, here’s how not to do it”. And think about it this way: these “don’t rape” campaigns have been around for a while now. I have yet to see any evidence that they actually do any good.
In fact, I worry that they actually may do more harm than good. And I’m not even talking about people who would never rape someone who are even more scared to approach and make legitimate advances on people due to things like this. It’s oversimplifying the complex patterns present in abuse down to something that can be itself abused. Think about the statements I mentioned above and the fries poster. The last four points listed can be easily achieved by modifying those manipulative phrases. “You always make me feel like I’m forcing you, you know I always stop if you want me to” (for us looking in from the outside, that second statement is obviously a lie). Add a little Gaslighting and the victim will believe they’re freely consenting. So now the victim sees this poster, and goes, “well, I guess it was consensual?” The fuck it was not. And that’s often one of the main difficulties with recovering from rape in the first place: coming to terms with it. Rape is by nature incredibly traumatic, and in traumatic situations (especially ones like that) people often reason that the traumatic situation never happened, because dealing with it is too taxing. Meanwhile the person is developing psychological symptoms left, right and center, which the victim will often, then, in turn, also try to cover up.
So, what should we do to combat rape? Well, we have to take a more holistic approach. Consent is very important in sex, but it doesn’t only apply to sex. We need to teach people how to recognize abusive behavior - and teach kids in school (obviously, at an age appropriate level) about abusive patterns. How to recognize it happening to them, and how to recognize it happening to others. We need to teach people how to deal with abusive situations. We need to reach people how to help others in abusive situations. At the moment, this is knowledge that mostly only specialists in that topic and people who are or were personally affected and did a lot of reading know. When these things become common knowledge, then we have a chance at turning the tide. We also need to vastly improve the way we deal with mental health. Essentially, we need much more readily and easily accessible psychological care. Treating trauma is one of the best ways to avoid victims becoming revictimized, since predators tend to feed on those who are already down, and can also avoid extreme cases where victims become perpetrators. Now, you may be thinking, “isn’t that victim blaming?” We’re not blaming the victim. The victim is not at fault for being a victim. The fault lies clearly at the perpetrator’s feet for being such an abhorrent piece of shit. And while realizing that as a victim is incredibly important on the road to recovery, it doesn’t change anything about what will help. Unfortunately, a perpetrator who keeps getting away with what they’re doing will very, very rarely (really) change what they’re doing. So, we can only try to help victims and avoid creating further victims.
Personally, I think the message featured in these posters is of the utmost importance.
I think it should be broadcast and re-broadcast, at all levels, until the population has been saturated by it.
That the message is here being broadcast using signage suitable for a fourth grade classroom but aimed at a college demographic is horrifying. That such signage would be a necessary tool of communication within that demographic is fucking TERRIFYING.
This was posted not to belittle the message or to make light of our need for it - but to highlight just how pitifully we have failed as a culture/civilization for having the need to implement it…
I considered deleting this post entirely, under the notion that my intentions had misfired badly. But the discourse in this thread seems like it has as much potential to be a part of the solution as a talking anthropomorphic taco.
Do you actually believe that there is only “rapists” and “good people” in this world? Because no, there are indeed lots of stupid teenagers out there who genuinely do not understand how to talk to people. This poster is not just about straight up rape but also about unsolicited saying of weird shit, or non-consensual hugging and things of that nature.
No this poster alone wont change anything, but if kids are primed for awareness to these issues (from lessons, events or experiences) this poster might just remind someone of those things they learned.
Either way it doesnt hurt anyone…
Great point! Also it isn’t just teenagers, adults do this a lot, too! Also I’d venture a guess that most rape is accidental and borne from a lack of education rather than malicious. Doesn’t make it less rape, but it does challenge our views of what a “rapist” looks like.
When we understand we are all capable of rape, we can all help to prevent it and change into better people.
Not my intention to disparage the effort or make light of the problem.
But to see such weighty subject matter addressed by a cartoon at a college level is both surreal and terrifying.
College kids are just slightly larger children, it’s not really that weird
It got your attention
Meh.
They need to put these up around Microslop campus. They don’t understand what consent means.
Most rape occurs by accident by people who don’t understand consent. People just like to treat it like it’s all violent because they are afraid of accepting that they are both capable of rape and have likely committed it at some point in their life because they were never taught about consent and were raised in a culture that teaches them to ignore the concept of consent
All unconsensual sex is rape, but not all people who have raped intended to rape. This is extremely important to understand and this is why it is extremely important to teach people about consent.
This is probably not the place to share this, but to your point here’s a personal story about that:
I went on a date with a guy who was a friend of a friend and I’d known casually for a while. We were at his place and hanging out. He tries to do something I didn’t want and I didn’t want to ruin the mood so I casually move away. He tries again and I verbally very seriously say that I don’t want that. He tries again a bit later and I end up leaving. He legitimately has no idea what he did wrong. He calls and texts an apology. He’s a nice guy otherwise. He asks if we can chat about it because he’s confused and concerned. We do. He grew up very sheltered and literally didn’t understand that no means no. I know that sounds idiotic to anyone with a normal upbringing, but it was the case. We have an extended conversation about enthusiastic consent. He apologizes again and asks if I would feel comfortable going out again at any point. We do and he acted exactly as one would hope. We dated for years with no issues afterwards. I’m sure someone will probably be thinking “he was manipulating you” or “he was worried about his reputation”, but in reality he just never had someone talk to him about consent and bought into the “no means yes” bs that was popular in media when he was growing up.
If I didn’t know him as well as I did, or if I was someone else, it’s possible I would have been too concerned to speak up about it and he would go on never knowing that what he did was wrong. This sign would probably legitimately have helped him.
I think this is a part of why a lot of SA goes unreported. No one want to report their boyfriend because of what in a non sexual circumstance might be called a misunderstanding. If I say I don’t want dessert and my BF orders me dessert anyway, I can just not eat it. That’s not the case when it comes to sexual contact and people seem to struggle with that.
Thank you for sharing, that was an extremely appropriate example of exactly what I was talking about!
And I think you’re absolutely right that that may be the reason a lot of SA goes unreported. Likes yes there are situations where systems of power are used to silence people, but there are also a lot of clumsy sexual interactions we had as teens that may technically be rape or sexual assault, but we were all still learning.
The boys were learning that consent is a very real concept and the girls were learning how to advocate for themselves (for the most part, of course as the opposite was also the case) . All of these were happening in tandem with systems of power making things just that much more complicated.
Yea, I think it’s extremely sad that women’s bodies are essentially used as a training ground for men’s understanding of consent, and therefore woman have to deal with the consequences of any misunderstandings the men may have. It’s also sad that a women’s inability to advocate for themself may mean a man legitimately doesn’t understand the harm he’s causing as he’s causing it. And vice versa of course.
One of the reasons I am so verbal about enthusiastic consent is because that requires both parties to understand what is needed of them. It’s not just about knowing how to recognize consent, but also how to provide consent. I appreciate the nuance you added to the conversation. Sometimes the internet can be hit or miss about these things.
100% agreed. All great value-added points!
If you’re going to choose food to illustrate a point, Tacos and Fries are pretty good choices! Who wouldn’t listen to a delicious taco??
If only this poster was on Epstein’s island somewhere
Somewhere there’s a student council member who’s really proud of this poster.
And they should be, because it’s visually appealing and it’s a good way to simplify the concept in a way most people will understand.
In college. Not fifth grade
Start a campaign to mass mail these to Trump. It has pictures so he’s more likely to follow along.
Seems to be about a 3rd - 4th grade level. Probably still too advanced.
If only this was around when Cosby was young.
You want to put mayo on his fries but isn’t there someone you forgot to ask?
