Personal Essays
1.) Use something you're passionate about, something you can elaborate on and get excited about.
2.) Include the readers in the experiences you write about, and don't set them aside as observers.
3.) Use a hook to capture the audiences attention, make connections, and personal perspective, nut don't over use it.
If you dress provocatively or drink too much you're asking for it, right? This is a justification made by men and women alike to justify the actions and attempts at sexual harassment, assault, and rape. Rape culture, the social concept of rape or sexual assault and harassment, is being normalized and desensitized through the media and pop culture.
We need to start teaching our children the basic respect that they should have for each other as humans. It's to late for us to really change how we think as a society, but what we can recognize our flaws and pass down how we wish we would act to our future generations.
Instead of instructing our children on how to defend themselves with violence or how to avoid predators in dark alleys or dorm rooms we must first start with not raising predators. Teach boys that when someone means no they mean it and teach girls that it's not okay to hit boys just because they think they can.
Rape Culture is largely influenced by current pop culture, songs that sing of taking advantage of drunk women and turning attractive men and women into nothing more than arm candy are a lot more influential then we would like to admit. We can't limit or regulate what content is releases by artists but by teaching our children that this treatment isn't acceptable, when they grow up to become the artists, they won't feed into the constant flow of our rape culture.
The current statistic for sexual assault against women in America is currently 1 in 3, With men following with half of that at 1 in 6. Considering our current population sizes (circ. 2010) , thats about 52 million women and 25 million men who have been victims of sexual assault. These millions of men and women shouldn't simply be left as a statistic. These are all people with families, jobs, dreams, and humans who don't deserve a world that tries to hurt and take advantage of them.
People do argue that we need to be teaching our children things like self defense and how to remove themselves from dangerous systems, and I agree that safety is above everything else. But theres always going to be someone who isn't as prepared, who doesn't have the knowledge that your child would have. We've slowly become a society where rape is just something that happens and if we aren't smart enough to avoid it then it's somehow our fault.
Blaming the victims of rape and sexual assault is ignorant and despicable. Ignoring and denying our faults as a society do not just make them go away, they just establish that actions no longer have have consequences. By placing blame on the victim we not only take it off of the attacker but we also let everyone else watching know that if they ever find themselves as a victim or as an attacker that the societal bias has already been formed either in their favor or against.
We need to find the balance between protection and information so that our children are able to protect themselves but are also able to educate others and themselves on how to prevent these things from happening. We can't just flip a switch and it's going to take decades to do something like this, but the idea of a better, safer further is something to strive for.
Starting with our children is the best place to start. Parents and the environment that children grow up in have such an influence eon them and who they will turn out to be. By changing the influences we can change the people they will be, and a positive change can and will lead to a more positive future.
2.) Include the readers in the experiences you write about, and don't set them aside as observers.
3.) Use a hook to capture the audiences attention, make connections, and personal perspective, nut don't over use it.
If you dress provocatively or drink too much you're asking for it, right? This is a justification made by men and women alike to justify the actions and attempts at sexual harassment, assault, and rape. Rape culture, the social concept of rape or sexual assault and harassment, is being normalized and desensitized through the media and pop culture.
We need to start teaching our children the basic respect that they should have for each other as humans. It's to late for us to really change how we think as a society, but what we can recognize our flaws and pass down how we wish we would act to our future generations.
Instead of instructing our children on how to defend themselves with violence or how to avoid predators in dark alleys or dorm rooms we must first start with not raising predators. Teach boys that when someone means no they mean it and teach girls that it's not okay to hit boys just because they think they can.
Rape Culture is largely influenced by current pop culture, songs that sing of taking advantage of drunk women and turning attractive men and women into nothing more than arm candy are a lot more influential then we would like to admit. We can't limit or regulate what content is releases by artists but by teaching our children that this treatment isn't acceptable, when they grow up to become the artists, they won't feed into the constant flow of our rape culture.
The current statistic for sexual assault against women in America is currently 1 in 3, With men following with half of that at 1 in 6. Considering our current population sizes (circ. 2010) , thats about 52 million women and 25 million men who have been victims of sexual assault. These millions of men and women shouldn't simply be left as a statistic. These are all people with families, jobs, dreams, and humans who don't deserve a world that tries to hurt and take advantage of them.
People do argue that we need to be teaching our children things like self defense and how to remove themselves from dangerous systems, and I agree that safety is above everything else. But theres always going to be someone who isn't as prepared, who doesn't have the knowledge that your child would have. We've slowly become a society where rape is just something that happens and if we aren't smart enough to avoid it then it's somehow our fault.
Blaming the victims of rape and sexual assault is ignorant and despicable. Ignoring and denying our faults as a society do not just make them go away, they just establish that actions no longer have have consequences. By placing blame on the victim we not only take it off of the attacker but we also let everyone else watching know that if they ever find themselves as a victim or as an attacker that the societal bias has already been formed either in their favor or against.
We need to find the balance between protection and information so that our children are able to protect themselves but are also able to educate others and themselves on how to prevent these things from happening. We can't just flip a switch and it's going to take decades to do something like this, but the idea of a better, safer further is something to strive for.
Starting with our children is the best place to start. Parents and the environment that children grow up in have such an influence eon them and who they will turn out to be. By changing the influences we can change the people they will be, and a positive change can and will lead to a more positive future.
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