Around 1 in 7 young Australians believe it’s warranted for a man to force sex onto a woman if she initiated it before changing her mind, according to new findings from Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS) and VicHealth.
The newly-released data from the National Community Attitudes Survey into Violence Against Women reveals further alarming details about young Australian’s current attitudes towards consent and control, particularly in the age of Tinder, Snapchat and Instagram.
For example, if a woman’s nude pictures are spread without her consent, over 1 in 4 young Australians believe that she’s to blame rather than the partner who shared them without permission.
Additionally, 1 in 5 young Australian men don’t realise that tracking a partner’s movements through technological means, such as logging into their social media accounts, is a form of abusive behaviour.
Alarmingly, almost 1 in 3 young men also think that many women who say they’ve been raped actually initiated the intercourse and merely regretted it afterwards.
“VicHealth and ANROWS believe these findings demonstrate we need to be doing much more to educate young people – men in particular – about sexual consent and why controlling behaviours in relationships aren’t ok,” VicHealth stated in a press release.
This study uncovers the unfortunate reality that victim blaming continues to permeate throughout the minds of many young Australians.
These new statistics also highlight a need for further conversations surrounding control, consent and open communication to be had with young Australians, particularly in an age where double taps, likes and matches are often mistakenly equated to consensual sexual activity.
Source: VicHealth
