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What You Can Do to Stop Violence Against Women
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What We Should NOT Do:
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Don't teach children that violence is a way of solving
problems and conflicts. Practically everywhere they turn,
boys are shown violent behavior through cartoons, toys, story
books, and video games and the violent behavior is usually being
performed by boys or men. |
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Don't teach girls to be passive. Don't teach them
that their role in life is to be saved, protected, and taken care
of by a man. |
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Don't become immune to violence against women in the
media. Murdering, raping, beating, and terrorizing women is
not entertainment. |
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Don't support companies that use women's bodies to sell
products. Protest ads that exploit by contacting the company. |
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What We Must Do: |
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Respect NO when you hear it. A woman is more likely to be raped by
someone she knows than by a stranger. Believe women when they tell
you it happened to them. Improve the legal system so that women
who are raped are not victimized a second time when they appear in
court. |
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Give personal contributions and support increased funding
for the Rape Crisis Center of Planned Parenthood,
Alternatives for Battered Women, the YWCA and organizations
providing services needed to deal with the painful, long-lasting
consequences of rape and battering. |
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Teach your daughters to identify incidents of violence in
their lives. Girls shouldn't have to experience sexual
harassment at school, accept date rape as expected normal male
behavior, or be victimized by sexual abuse from family members,
friends, religious leaders, teachers and others they trust. |
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Lobby for tougher
legislation concerning violence against women: stricter stalking
laws, harsher penalties for rapists, removal of the statute of
limitations for sexual abuse cases. Insist that our legal system and
law enforcement agencies protect women from abusive partners. |
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Support pay equity for
women and support removing present barriers that create a
gender-segregated work force. On the average, women earn 75 cents for
every $1 men earn. This economic inequity helps to keep women in
abusive relationships with partners, bosses, and coworkers. |
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Provide widely available, accessible and affordable
self-defense courses for women and girls in our community. |
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Let radio, television and night club owners know that you
object to singers, talk show hosts and comics who use anti-woman
materials. Organize to remove topless bars and adult movie
theaters and bookstores from your neighborhood. |
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Remember women who have lost their lives because of
violence against women. |
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Challenge men to recognize that violence against women is
a men's problem. Men must assume responsibility for this
violence and organize to stop it. |
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Insist that any task force or group working in our
community to end violence include violence against women as a
priority. |
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Let your neighborhood video store know that you will
only rent films from a store that does not have a little back room
with films depicting the brutalization of women. |
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Tell your convenience store owner that you will shop
elsewhere if they carry pornographic magazines. |
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Refuse to buy books from booksellers who include a
shelf of male "entertainment" and buy instead from responsible
independent bookstores. |
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