Disrespect women? You’re not alone

This editorial ran in the Toronto Star:

The most disheartening aspect of Bill Cosby planning a series of town hall meetings on how to avoid sexual assault accusations is that people will show up.

Cosby’s representatives announced the tour after a sexual assault case against the entertainer was declared a mistrial. At the meetings Cosby, who more than 50 women have accused of assault, will advise people, especially “young athletes” and “married men,” on how to avoid these charges.

As Jodi Omear, a spokesperson for U.S. anti-sexual violence organization RAINN, said in the New York Times, “It would be more useful if Mr. Cosby would spend time talking with people about how not to commit sexual assault in the first place.”And yet a seminar that seemingly teaches people to toe a line they shouldn’t want to go near is neither new nor surprising. That’s cause for real concern. Yet the solutions are far from obvious.

One of the best methods to combating sexual assault, as the Canadian Women’s Foundation points out, is teaching consent and one that’s needed. A 2015 study by the organization found although 96 per cent of Canadians believe all sexual activities should be consensual, only one in three understands what it means.

But fighting the kind of deep-rooted entitlement that creates the conditions for sexual assault needs to go far beyond the classroom. Everyone in society needs to speak out against not only the perpetrators of these acts, but the people who show up, whether to a town hall or a Twitter feed, to support them.