GBVF Response Fund urges young men to remember that no means no
The Fund's executive head of marketing and communication said SA urgently need to address the attitudes of young men about women’s bodies.
According to the South African Police annual crime statistics, there were 42 289 rapes reported in 2019/2020, as well as 7 749 sexual assaults.
Most of these types of crimes are suffered by women, at the hands of boys and men.
The Waterfall City-based independent, private-sector-led GBVF Response Fund (the Fund) states that there are statistics that confirm that South Africa’s institutions of higher learning are increasingly becoming places where Gender-Based Violence (GBV) is being perpetrated.
The Fund urges young men to remember that even in their relationship, consent is still a real thing and that no always means no.
Executive head of marketing and communication of the Fund Tshepo Sefotlhelo said, “Every day, young women are violated, humiliated, and dehumanised by men. On the other hand, men can also be part of the solution.
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“We need to see our young men taking a stand in the fight against gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF). We want to see young men in Mzansi saying: GBVF ends with me.”
Sefotlhelo said society has been normalising rape and other forms of violence for far too long and that dealing with any form of violation after the fact is too late.
“We urgently need to address the attitudes of young men about women’s bodies. The toxicities of masculinity need to be addressed — especially in schools and on university campuses — to change the socialisation of boys and young men,” he explained.
He concluded that an attractive young lady wearing ‘that skirt’ to a lecture is not an invitation for a ‘catcall’.“If young men see their friends acting in a disrespectful or abusive manner, call them out and urge them to do better.”
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The GBVF Response Fund encourages South Africa’s young men to consider these facts:
- At this very moment, there’s a female student who’s part of the 57.5% of the survivors who could not attend lectures after being violated by a man.
- In 80-90% of GBV-related crimes on campus, victims and assailants know each other as friends, acquaintances, or people they go out with.
- Right now, on SA campuses, there are men who have a hand in the 36.1% of students who have experienced physical GBV.
- At the hands of men, 57.8% of students have experienced some form of GBV at their universities.
- Research indicates that 45.4% of the committers of sexual GBV were university friends, followed by unfamiliar people at 21.7%, boyfriends at 19%, and lecturers at 15.2%.
