"Girl Code Movement" Attempts to Empower College Women
Working for a sexual assault center can be trying. We have a prevention education department, a statewide coalition against rape, mandated child abuse reporting laws, Sexual Assault Response Teams, an awareness month, and still, people are victimized.
There are small movements of victory in this battle, and today, I stumbled upon one on the internet.
Two young women, students at Syracuse University, were discussing their experiences as sexual assault survivors and in an effort to combat sexual violence on theirs and other college campuses, they started an organization aimed at creating a movement where women “become active operatives to stop a rape from happening.” And The Girl Code Movement was born.
What does this mean? They want women to watch out for other women. There have been other calls to action along these same lines, but this is done in such a way not to blame victims, but to encourage onlookers and bystanders to get involved. Just asking if someone is ok might give that person the opportunity to say no, they aren't ok and you remove them from the situation or get them help.
We applaud these students for seeing a problem, and doing what they can to address it. We can all take an active role in preventing sexual assault.
There are small movements of victory in this battle, and today, I stumbled upon one on the internet.
Two young women, students at Syracuse University, were discussing their experiences as sexual assault survivors and in an effort to combat sexual violence on theirs and other college campuses, they started an organization aimed at creating a movement where women “become active operatives to stop a rape from happening.” And The Girl Code Movement was born.
What does this mean? They want women to watch out for other women. There have been other calls to action along these same lines, but this is done in such a way not to blame victims, but to encourage onlookers and bystanders to get involved. Just asking if someone is ok might give that person the opportunity to say no, they aren't ok and you remove them from the situation or get them help.
We applaud these students for seeing a problem, and doing what they can to address it. We can all take an active role in preventing sexual assault.
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