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Over a thousand institutions in almost 130 countries are taking part in this year's 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence — from the 25th November (International Day Against Violence Towards Women) to the 10th December (International Human Rights Day). Thanks to the financial means from O¦KA Foundation's Fund for Women we are able to take part in the international campaign.
The project THE BITCH HAS PROVOKED ME prepared in December 2003 will be displayed on 17 Warsaw trams during the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence.
The project is a protest against sexual violence and stereotypes „justifying” the violence in the public opinion. It turns out that every 2 in 5 women were either raped or became victims of other forms of sexual violence (Women's Rights Centre's research data). The violators tend to „justify” their actions by accusing women.
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The deeply rooted stereotype „justifying” rape — the stereotype of a woman whose behaviour „provokes” men, leads to the increase of the number of rapes and to further victimization of women in the process of law enforcement and in the public opinion.
THE BITCH HAS PROVOKED ME project breaks away from the traditional stylistics of social projects in Poland — instead of a bruised face of the victim and the stop-the-violence slogan we decided to show rape „from the perspective of the perpetrator”. We hope that the project will provoke the public discussion about sexual violence in Poland.
On the poster we will also give the telephone number of the 24-hour service of the Crisis Intervention Center.
text: Magda Gryszko, translation: Tatiana Cichocka
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