The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) have launched the “Don’t be that Guy” campaign, a sexual assault awareness campaign targeting potential offenders.
The campaign uses strong images with the taglines “It’s not sex when she is wasted”, and “Just because she isn’t saying no doesn’t mean she is saying yes.”
The campaign, which is already being run in NUI Galway and Trinity College, was launched in University College Cork on the 23rd of January by Mary Crilly, the director of Cork’s Sexual Violence Centre.
She said: “I have talked to guys who said she ‘was asking for it’. However, I ask them to think that if there is a girl passed out drunk and it was their sister, would they want a guy taking advantage of her? These posters ask the same”.
The posters are designed to be thought provoking and were originally devised by a community group in Canada in 2010. They have helped to cut the reported sexual assaults by 10% in Vancouver alone.
The USI also launched a national survey on students’ experience with violence. The surveys asks questions about education, personal experience and the help offered by third level institutions.
The initiative is similar to the ‘Don’t be that Guy/Girl’ campaign used by the DCU Student’s Union this year to combat excessive alcohol consumption among students.
Sean Defoe
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