issues > myths & stereotypes > challenging stereotypes

Challenging stereotypes

• Stereotype #1 - Women who wear provocative clothing are the only ones to be sexually assaulted.
• Stereotype #2 - Rapists are ugly, funny-looking people.

Stereotype #1 - Women who wear provocative clothing are the only ones to be sexually assaulted.

The idea that women "ask for it" is often used by offenders to rationalise their behaviour. It also blames the victim for the crime, not the offender.

Victims of sexual assault report a wide range of dress and actions at the time of the assault. Any woman of any age and physical type, in almost any situation, can be sexually assaulted. If a woman is sexually assaulted, it is not her fault.

Stereotype #2 - Rapists are ugly, funny-looking people.

Men who commit sexual assault come from every social, economic, ethnic, racial and age group. The belief that women are more often sexually assaulted by men of colour or by working-class men is a stereotype rooted in racism and classism.

Men who commit sexual assault can be the doctors, teachers, employers, co-workers, lawyers, husbands, or relatives of the women they assault.