A joint campaign by the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres (OCRCC) and Action ontarienne contre la violence faite aux femmes (AOCVF) launched Monday to get Ontarians reflecting on how they’d react if someone around them were to be sexually harassed.
The “Draw the Line/Tracons les limites” campaign, intentionally launched within Sexual Assault Awareness Month, lives online at Draw-The-Line.ca and Tracons-Les-Limites.ca. It also has a Facebook page.
The concept stems from a new Ipsos Reid poll that shows Ontarians are torn when it comes to how to behave in instances of potential sexual harassment or assault. In occurrences where the threat of sexual violence was obvious, respondents were certain about how to act. But in more complex cases, the results reveal the majority of people don’t get involved.
Julie Lalonde, project manager for Draw the Line, said in a release that while there’s still a stereotype that sexual violence is about strangers attacking in dark alleys, a more likely scenario involves “whether we should stop a friend who is drunk from going home with someone they just met.”
The website and Facebook page—the creative steered by Toronto agency Public Inc.—pose questions involving realistic examples of sexual harassment, consent and violence. The scenario “You hear your boss tell a coworker how great her legs look in a skirt” is listed, at which point the visitor can choose whether or not they go back to their desk. In the Ipsos poll, 50% of respondents indicated they would say something to their boss, while the other half (49%) would just go back to their desk and say nothing.
When users take the campaign quiz, their responses are aggregated and they will see the percentage breakdown of how other respondents replied.
The Facebook page allows visitors to put forward other situations or tips on how to deal in these scenarios. The campaign also has a Twitter feed that offers a daily questions for Ontarians to mull over and discuss.
“The [Ipsos Reid] survey results show how much more conflicted we feel when it’s not obvious whether a situation is acceptable or not. When it comes to those murky situations, like our own boss, or our friends’ decisions, it’s not always easy to know what to do,” said Lalonde.
She said Ontarians should question whether they “walk the talk” when these things happen “because there is ample evidence that we don’t.”
The campaign is also creating awareness beyond the digital world via grassroots wild postings in Toronto on Monday.
Jungle Media helped the OCRCC coordinate pro-bono ad space, and Newad executed poster space focusing on campus and youth locations. Further on-campus outreach will take place later this summer.
