Students Stopping Rape

Next Meeting: April 5

After spring break, SSR will meet for the first week of Spring quarter to reunite and get ready for the big awareness and visual campaign, It Affects Me, from April 9 to April 13!

What is IT AFFECTS ME? It Affects Me (IAM) is a campaign that Students Stopping Rape holds during a week of April, National Sexual Assault Awareness Month, to educate, inform, and enlighten the UCSB and surrounding areas about sexual violence, sexual harassment, and rape in our community.

Why do you hold the It Affects Me campaign? Rape and sexual assault is a problem intertwined with the system of rape culture present in our society today.

To end rape means to look within ourselves as individuals and live consciously - which means being aware of the language that we use, the prejudices we hold, and the beliefs that the media and popular culture instill in us.

The objectification of women, standards of masculinity, stereotypes of race and gender, and sexist language all make it harder for us to believe women when they have been raped and to blame the rapist rather than the survivor. To end rape does not involve telling people to just not rape, it means educating our peers about rape culture, the way language, beliefs, and behaviors allow it to happen, and informing them on how to be more supportive of everyone, women AND men.

One in four women in college will experience a rape or an attempted rape experience. Chances are, someone you know has been affected by rape and you may not realize it. Being more sensitive is the first step to alleviating the epidemic of rape in our community.

How can I participate in It Affects Me? We also pass out royal blue t-shirts emblazoned with “IT AFFECTS ME” on them. Since this is a visibility campaign, we pass out free t-shirts to the UCSB community with information about sexual violence and assault so that when asked, “What affects you?” they can start a dialogue and discuss these issues. One of our goals is to get all people in our community talking about this problem.

IAM involves educational, informative, and enjoyable events all week long! Check out the calendar (TBA) and come to as many as you want! We also welcome new members and are looking for interns for next year, so come to a meeting. We meet Wednesdays at 5pm.

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