Occasionally I come across a TEDx talk that’s just too good not to share. Keith Edwards’ talk about ending rape is one of those talks. I shared it, but that just didn’t seem like enough, so I’m posting it here, along with some of my favourite quotes from the talk. Watch it, learn from it, act on it. Help us turn our hope into optimism.
“We really want rapists to be deviant in a normal culture. But what if they are really normal, in a deviant culture?”
“When these [saying “cover up”, “don’t drink too much”, “don’t walk alone”, etc.] are the only ways we address sexual violence, the real message we’re sending is ‘we know rape is going to happen, here’s how you women need to deal with that.’”
“As long as we’re only outraged at the rapist and their actions, and avoid looking at the roots of sexual violence, those roots will keep producing rapists.”
Do we hold seminars on how to walk across the street when pedestrians are getting hit by cars in crosswalks? No. So…
“If the overwhelming number of perpetrators are men, then who has more power to end rape then us, men?”
84% of men did not believe their actions to be illegal- even when that action fell on a list of 10 criteria that met the legal definition of rape.
“Our greatest challenge in addressing sexual violence is not learning, it’s unlearning.”
“Rape is better defined by the absence of a yes than the presence of a no.”
We’ve learned that a yellow [traffic] light means go really fast (instead of proceed with caution). We’ve learned the same thing about sex.
“If you’ve never noticed the rape culture, it’s not because it’s not there. It’s because it is everywhere.”
“Where’s the line? It’s hard to say. But there’s a line out there and I want nothing to do with it.”
“I’m not optimistic, but I am hopeful.”
