The Girl EMpower Project is a poster campaign originally created to complement VSDVAA’s existing Men Of Vision Campign - a sexual violence prevention campaign targeted at young men. The overall goal of The Girl EMpower Project is to counter the societal pressures hindering young women from developing a sense of self-determination about sex. We feel that these pressures set-up an environment where the sexual double standard is allowed to run rampant (often leading to victim-blaming in rape cases), and young women's self-efficacy and self-esteem related to sexuality is crushed. Since males often have more freedom in the realm of sexuality, it becomes that much easier for SOME young men to set-up norms of unhealthy sexuality - normalizing sexual coercion, exploitation, and aggression towards their female peers.
For example, 16-year-old Jane has received so many messages about how she is expected to think and act sexually - many of them conflicting - that she has not yet figured out FOR HERSELF how she feels about sex. That is, she has only just begun to realize that she even has the right to have an opinion on the matter. No one has ever asked her how she feels about sex, and she has only scratched the surface in knowing for herself what she considers to be the pros and cons of being sexually active, what she expects from a sexual partner (should she decide to become sexually active), or what kinds of sexual situations might make her feel bad or good. Seventeen-year-old John decided several weeks ago that he wants to have sex with Jane. One Friday night, at a small get-together after a football game, he asks her to come into the bedroom to "talk". Once they get into the bedroom, he closes the door and without saying a word, starts to kiss and undress Jane.
How does Jane react? Does she freeze-up and feel helpless? Does she reluctantly go along with it for some extraneous reason (e.g., John will think she's "cool")? Does she assertively say to John, "Stop. What do you think you're doing?" and walk out of the room? Does she confidently say to John, "Wait a minute. This is not how I want to do this. I’d like to have sex with you, but we need to get a few things straight first…”? If Jane had been encouraged to determine for herself how she feels about sex, she would likely feel confident in this situation and make a decision that she can feel good about. However, Jane has not been allowed any of this autonomy, and thus making any decision about sex seems unnatural – maybe even shameful. Given this circumstance, it might be more likely that she would just go along with the very decisive/coercive John. It is likely that “going along” with John means that he will be that much more able to act coercively in the future. It also means that, at a minimum, Jane is not a full participant in her own sexual experience.
Let’s say that Jane has received mostly abstinence-until-marriage messages, and has been isolated from the societal pressures that would tell her she is supposed to have sex in order to “be cool”. Even under this circumstance she is still in the same predicament as before because she still has not been given the resources to make or articulate sexual decisions for herself. She might be able to tell John that she won’t have sex with him, but that won’t likely stop him from applying pressure. If she hasn’t been provided with the opportunities to think deeply about sex (and in this example, articulate to herself why she wants to remain abstinent), then how will she be able to effectively fend off John’s verbal manipulations? If John were a practiced sexual coercer, it would not take him long to wear her down, and at the very least further damage her self-esteem and sense of healthy sexuality.
The goal of The Girl EMpower Project is to level this gender-biased sexual landscape. Girls are at a disadvantage in sexual situations, in part, because they have not been given the same opportunities to explore and articulate their own ideas about sexuality as boys. Moreover, they are often discouraged from doing so. Obviously, a lot of work also needs to be done from the other side. The Girl EMpower Project is pointless if we’re not also talking to young men about their sexual decision-making - particularly the pressure that is put on them to treat sex with a detached hyper-masculine bravado that can easily lead to coercive behaviors.
It should be noted that the primary objective of The Girl EMpower Project isn’t to teach girls how to “escape dangerous situations”. The Girl EMpower Project will not prevent rape - Jane being able to demand respect and perfectly articulate her sexual decisions will not guarantee that John won’t ignore her, overpower her, and rape her. The Girl EMpower Project might reduce young women’s risk for being raped, since most men who rape tend to choose a “path of least resistance” and avoid women they deem to be assertive and/or confident. However, the goal of The Girl EMpower Project is more fundamental than any of these purposes. It seeks to show young women an alternative to the current environment where they have little or no say in their sexual decisions; to inspire them to dig deeper into their thoughts and feelings about sex; to tell them that they have the right to expect respectful treatment in any kind of intimate encounter; and finally, to give young women some tools to be able to articulate their feelings about sexuality - for themselves.
