Studies Show That Approaching Youth With A Bystander-intervention Model Is Actually A Lot More Effective

Studies show that approaching youth with a bystander-intervention model is actually a lot more effective for reducing sexual assault, and it is also more enthusiastically received than programs that bill themselves as anti-rape.

We can tell youth that they are basically “rapists waiting to happen” (anti-rape initiative), or we can tell them that we know they would intervene if they saw harm happening to someone and we want to help empower them to do that (bystander intervention). The kids jump in with both feet for the latter! It was amazing to see children (and young boys in particular) excited to do this work and engage their creativity with it. Also, studies show that not only do they go on to intervene, but they also do not go on to sexually assault people themselves. Bystander intervention also takes the onus off the person being targeted to deter rape and empowers the collective to do something about it. It answers the question in the room when giggling boys are carrying an unconscious young woman up the stairs at a house party, and people are not sure how to respond and are waiting for “someone” to say or do something.

Richard M. Wright, “Rehearsing Consent Culture: Revolutionary Playtime” in the anthology Ask: Building Consent Culture edited by Kitty Stryker

I'm too stoked. I can't focus, can't work, I can't think about anything else right now. Here is some stoked music:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Every once in a while I remember that this photo happened and my day gets a little bit better.

Not sure if this counts as fanfiction exactly, given that it's the actors from canon who created it. Apocrypha, maybe?

(Via N.O.'s instagram. x)

If I had a nickel for each time I've been told to stop "overthinking" this type of hypothetical or categorical question, I'd have...a lot of nickels.

The way most autism literature describes "literal interpretation" is often not at all similar to how I experience it. Teenage me even thought I couldn't be autistic because I've always been able to learn metaphors easily.

In fact, I love wordplay of all kinds. Teenage me was fascinated to learn all the types of figurative language there are in poetry and literature.

But paperwork and questionnaires are hard, because there's so much they don't state clearly. Or they don't leave room for enough nuance.

"List all the jobs you've had, with start and end dates." What if I don't remember the exact day or month? Is the year enough?

"Have you been suffering from blurred vision?" Well, if I take off my glasses the whole world is blurred, but I'm fairly sure that's not what the intake form at the optometrist is asking.

Or the infamous (and infuriatingly stereotypical) "Would you rather go to a library or a party?" What sort of party? Where? Who's there? I work at a library. Am I currently at the library for work or pleasure? Does it have a good collection?

It's not common figures of speech that confound me. It's ambiguity, in situations that aren't supposed to be ambiguous.

I slow blink at people all the time. My roommate's dog has come to understand what it means and now sometimes does it back to me. So I guess I accidentally taught a dog how to speak cat, or one word of it anyway.

I haven't meowed at anyone, but I have reflexively hissed at people. Also, during the years when I was living with just my cat, and not getting a huge amount of interaction with other humans, I would occasionally slow blink at people instead of smiling 😻

I still slow blink at people to indicate friendliness and I no longer have an excuse.

It’s never been negatively received but on some occasions cat savvy people have paused before demanding, “Did you just slow blink at me??”

Happy Juneteenth!