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you can prevent gender-based violence when you:
Ending gender-based violence will take a wide range of efforts that will include, community-wide strategies, changes in policy, and changes in the way society views and addresses these acts of violence. It can be overwhelming to consider such broad change, however, change begins within each individual.
You can start to change your world when you begin to address unhealthy behaviors in your own life and those you are closest with.
You can begin that culture change when you begin to talk about gender-based violence and take a stand against it.
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Call out others when they make or laugh at sexist jokes;
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Acknowledge that discriminatory behavior and language are connected to gender-based violence; and
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Spread the message throughout your community that sexual violence and other forms of gender-based violence is never okay.
Keep learning about gender-based violence, bring the problem up in conversations and challenge values that create unhealthy behaviors.
You can lead the change.
Sometimes we do not realize that the language we use is harmful. Other times we are too afraid to call someone out when they make a joke that is harmful, because we do not want to be the outcast. The bystander effect is a societal phenomenon where people are reluctant to help another person when there are other people around. One reason for this behavior is the perceived diffusion of responsibility, in which a person does not feel the need to intervene because there are others there that can, or will. The other reason a person may not intervene is that the actions, or inactions, of others influence how an individual will respond. Click here to learn more about being an active bystander to prevent sexual violence.
So, if you are safe and able, speak up when you hear a sexist joke, and explain that the joke normalizes inequality and sexual violence. Chances are others in the group feel the same way. If not you, who will?
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