I've been researching for a project where I have to create a publication for kids to dispel commonly held myths and was looking into what ideas they commonly have that I might want to dispel.
Stumbling across this site I found a doozy: http://www.uic.edu/depts/owa/sa_rape_support.html
It's info for Chicago students about sexual abuse on campus, but this page draws statistics on various studies including surveys of teenagers and pre-teens on their views on rape.
- In a survey of high school students, 56% of the girls and 76% of the boys believed forced sex was acceptable under some circumstances. (ref 5)
- A survey of 11-to-14 year-olds found:(ref 5)
· 51% of the boys and 41% of the girls said forced sex was acceptable if the boy, "spent a lot of money" on the girl;
· 31% of the boys and 32% of the girls said it was acceptable for a man to rape a woman with past sexual experience;
· 87% of boys and 79% of girls said sexual assault was acceptable if the man and the woman were married;
· 65% of the boys and 47% of the girls said it was acceptable for a boy to rape a girl if they had been dating for more than six months.
Is this just a case of young people being misinformed/ignorant? I wonder if these boys and girls grow up to realise, actually, that was a pretty fucked up thing to say.
This might be a bit of a heavy one, but when did you, Escapists, learn about rape and what it means? When did someone explain to you that no one has a right to touch you in your 'special place' if you don't want them to? When were you told that you were expected to extend that respect to other human beings? Did you used to believe that rape was okay in some circumstances and change your mind and if so, what made you change your mind?
Basically, where did you get your education about a subject as reluctantly approached as rape?
(EDIT: Someone's pointed out that the sources for the above link are quite old, so it would be interesting to know how kids' perceptions have changed now.)
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Also, although a bit off topic to the rest of this post, there's also the pretty scary bit in that link which cites that 1 in 12 male college students admitted to committing acts that met the legal definitions of rape, and 84% of men who committed rape did not label it as rape, which I've heard something similar about in a more recent article here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124272157