A student petition calling for the removal of an “offensive” Home Office poster shaming victims of rape has garnered more than 23,000 signatures.
Cambridge University student Jack May started the petition last week calling for the removal of a Home Office alcohol awareness poster bearing the statement: ‘One in three reported rapes happens when the victim has been drinking’.
The controversial poster – part of the government’s ‘Know your Limits’ campaign – can be seen in hospitals, surgeries and universities despite the fact the campaign has ended.
Jack, a second-year English student at Gonville and Caius College, told the News he was “horrified” when he first saw the poster.
He said: “I found the poster particularly offensive because it is sanctioned by a respected and trusted authority.
“For that authority to abuse its trust to promote a harmful agenda of victim blaming is really unfair.
“Implicating victims in their own rape is completely unacceptable – rape is always the fault of the perpetrator, and no matter what/whether the victim has been drinking, what they are wearing, what the perpetrator thinks may have been implied, rape is never their fault.
“We need to create a culture of honest, open consent, with all blame landed firmly on the shoulders of those who don’t play by the rules of consent. This poster hinders much more than it helps.”
The poster does have honourable intentions, such as encouraging people to drinks responsibly and to address sexual violence but these issues should be handled in different ways, he said.
Jack, of Oxford, said: “I’d like to see posters outlining the harmful affects of alcohol in ways that don’t, by implication, threaten people with sexual assault if they drink too much.”
He called for free rape alarms, consent classes and specialist staff in police stations, hospitals and sexual health clinics to improve the way rape is reported.
Jack said he was delighted by the response to his petition, which he expected to receive a few hundred signatures.
He said: “The fact that thousands and thousands of people have felt the same way I have about this poster, and have chosen to support it themselves, is absolutely fantastic, and makes the case so much stronger.”
The petition also includes an open letter to Home Secretary Theresa May and Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt.
The Home Office said the poster was part of its ‘Know your Limits’ campaign used between 2005 and 2007, which was aimed at addressing drinking rather than sexual violence.
A spokesperson said the government no longer uses the poster nor stocks copies of it.
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