Aurora is proud to support the amazing campaigns to highlight the importance of supporting victims and survivors of rape, raising awareness of the myths and stereotypes that help to facilitate and perpetuate violence against women.
Unfortunately, in the 21st century, victims and survivors of rape still struggle to be believed.
The experience of victims is often brought into doubt by cultural stereotypes and myths about rape, supported by cultural assumptions about gender and sexuality.
These assumptions not only double the suffering of victims and survivors, but also undermine the criminal justice system. Only 6% of reported rapes result in a conviction for the offender.
The media plays a key part in supporting these myths, with victims becoming the target of abuse via website comments boxes, blogs and social media. One example of this was the victim of footballer Ched Evans. Following his conviction, fans of Ched Evans launched a campaign of abuse against his 19 year old victim, resulting in her being illegally named on Twitter and on Sky News.
So why, as a society, do we STILL struggle to believe rape victims?
We believe the problem is due to the far-reaching effects of rape culture which implicitly blames victims for rape and sexual assault, portrays male and female sexuality as dangerous, and perpetuates the idea that rape and sexual assault are somehow inevitable.