What We Did:
In order to combat this unfortunate issue, we held our own event in Reavis on November 21, 2013. This even took place from 11am-1pm, we asked passing individuals to sign our pledge and we also passed out flyers, both spoke against nonconsensual sexual activity. We felt that the interactiveness of our approach would be effective. We wanted to engage the public, so having them put their signature on the pledge, we felt, was one of the greatest ways to achieve this task.
Our c/c partner, Andrea, helped us throughout the process of planning and presenting our action. She felt that our pledge would be a good idea, she thought one of the benefits of having a pledge would be that those who signed the pledge would actually have to stop for a moment to think about the cause. When putting your signature down, you make sure that it is something that you stand for and believe in, which is why she believed the pledge was a good idea.
In creating the pledge, we wanted to stress the idea of getting a YES before engaging in sexual activity, rather than telling potential victims not to get raped or sexually assaulted. We understand that these heinous crimes can never be the fault of the victim, but is always the fault o the perpetrator. We felt that if we stressed getting a YES then it would be understood that affirmative consent is needed before engaging in sexual activity, in that way, both partners need to be willing to engage in the activity.
Our outcome was pretty impressive, we were able to get 43 signatures. Considering the fact that we are only students, we did not really expect much attention to be paid to us. We were surprised to find that many people did listen to us and many people did care about the cause, which was quite impressive.
Below are images from the day of our event:
Our c/c partner, Andrea, helped us throughout the process of planning and presenting our action. She felt that our pledge would be a good idea, she thought one of the benefits of having a pledge would be that those who signed the pledge would actually have to stop for a moment to think about the cause. When putting your signature down, you make sure that it is something that you stand for and believe in, which is why she believed the pledge was a good idea.
In creating the pledge, we wanted to stress the idea of getting a YES before engaging in sexual activity, rather than telling potential victims not to get raped or sexually assaulted. We understand that these heinous crimes can never be the fault of the victim, but is always the fault o the perpetrator. We felt that if we stressed getting a YES then it would be understood that affirmative consent is needed before engaging in sexual activity, in that way, both partners need to be willing to engage in the activity.
Our outcome was pretty impressive, we were able to get 43 signatures. Considering the fact that we are only students, we did not really expect much attention to be paid to us. We were surprised to find that many people did listen to us and many people did care about the cause, which was quite impressive.
Below are images from the day of our event: