Her Campus Logo Her Campus Logo
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UGA chapter.

I bet you thought this was going to be a list of tips for young women such as “use the buddy system” and “don’t take drinks from strangers.” If I see another post like this, I’m probably going to scream and I’m sure some of you are with me.”

Posts like this are a product of the rape culture that we live in. These posts try to convince us that, if girls just did these things, everyone would be fine and sexual assault would stop altogether. This is a not so subtle form of victim blaming. It completely forgets who actually is to blame here: the men who sexually assault women. A woman is never asking for it. No one wants to be sexually assaulted. I’m so sick of hearing people saying,

“What was she doing alone at night anyway?” “Why did she drink so much alcohol?”

“Well, I mean what did she expect to happen when she was dressed like that?”

That is such backwards thinking. The question people should be asking when someone is sexually assaulted is,

“What kind of sick person could do that to another human being?”

I understand that people think that telling girls how to be safe is a big step in combating sexual assault but, as a college girl who associates with a lot of young women, I can tell you that we are safe. We try not to let our friends walk alone at night. We make each other send texts in group chats when we get home safely. We know our limits with alcohol and we know not to leave our overly drunk friends alone. We do these things, and yet 1 in 5 college women have been sexually assaulted. In reality, these steps are good when it comes to avoiding getting sexually assaulted by a stranger, which is why we take them, but most women know the person they are sexually assaulted by. We shouldn’t have to keep our guard up around every male we ever see just because men can’t be trusted to not sexually assault women.

I have four sisters. Does that mean sexual assault is unavoidable for one of us? I know my sisters, like most women, are almost always constantly thinking about their safety. I’m not going to tell my little sisters not to wear something because boys might take advantage of her in it. Clothes mean almost nothing to someone who is going to sexually assault someone. Clothes are just another way to victim blame and another way society tells girls that we are inherently guilty no matter what we do. If someone is walking alone at night and gets assaulted, and that’s something people bring up in defense of the assaulter, that’s victim blaming. If a girl drinks too much (in the case of sexual assault, any amount of alcohol is seen as an excuse) and she gets told “she deserved it” because she was drunk, that is victim blaming. These reactions are so ingrained in our society, a society that thinks that women are objects that are asking for bad things to happen to them, that people genuinely think that these are excuses for rape. I’m here to tell you that there is never an excuse for rape. Ever. No one’s needs are more important than your own, and no one should force you into nonconsensual anything, especially sex.

So here’s an idea, maybe women aren’t the problem?

The best way to prevent sexual assault is to teach boys and men not to sexually assault women. It’s as simple as that. We need to change our society so that consent is given every time a sexual act takes place. We need to teach men that women are human beings, and even if they are walking alone at night or drank too much alcohol, that they need to be treated with the respect every human being deserves. I think men can be trusted to not sexually assault women. I guess I just have faith in humanity or something crazy like that. I think the best way to prevent sexual assault is to hold men who sexually assault people accountable for what they’ve done and instead of teaching the victims how not to get sexually assaulted, we should teach men to not sexually assault people.

Here are 11 tips on how to prevent sexual assault

  1. Don’t sexually assault women.

  2. Don’t drug women.

  3. Don’t sexually assault women.

  4. Don’t harass women who are alone.

  5. Don’t sexually assault women.

  6. Don’t use clothing as an excuse to sexually assault women.

  7. Don’t sexually assault women.  

  8. Don’t buy women drinks with the intent of getting her so drunk she’ll come home with you. 

  9. Don’t sexually assault women.

  10. Respect a woman’s right to say no.

  11. Don’t sexually assault women.

Remember that everything you need to know about preventing sexual assault starts with you. To learn more about sexual assault and consent, stop by any of our events this week!

Caitlyn is a fourth year student at the University of Georgia. She is pursuing a double degree in journalism and women's studies with a new media certificate and an interdisciplinary writing certificate. She is the Campus Correspondent for Her Campus UGA. Caitlyn spends her free time drinking tea, being a book worm, and imagining new fictional characters to write about.