KNOWLEDGE MOBILIZATION PORNIFICATION A Study Into Young Men’s Attitudes and Beliefs Toward Dating, Sex and Sexual Assault Dr. D. Scharie Tavcer Mount Royal University Associate Professor stavcer@mtroyal.ca Department of Economics, Justice and Policy Studies 403-440-6383 Can young men distinguish between quotes from conventional magazines and quotes from convicted rapists? To what extent do young men agree/disagree with statements about dating, sex, women and sexual assault? 1. Can young men distinguish between The purpose of this study is to contribute to the existing literature about young men’s attitudes towards women and sex. This study is a partial replication of the work conducted in the United Kingdom (UK) by Horvath & Hegarty (2011) combined with a partial replication of the work conducted in the United States (USA) by Lonsway & Fitzgerald (1995) 2. Under what conditions do young men Myths, beliefs and the attitudes of today’s young men toward dating, sex, and sexual assault are also explored in this study. Similar research in the UK revealed over 60 percent of male respondents could not differentiate between dating advice in a men’s magazine and quotes from a convicted rapist. Tavcer focuses on gauging the attitudes of young male students at Mount Royal University. The study mainly explores the following questions: quotes from conventional magazines & quotes from convicted rapists? believe sexual assault and/or rape is acceptable? 3. Does the pornification of dating advice negatively influence myths about sexual violence? 4. Have these beliefs changed since Burt’s 1980 assessment of rape myths? Methodology Participants were asked to distinguish comments made within men’s magazines from those made by convicted rapists. Participants were then asked to answer questions about sexual assault and under what conditions do they believe it is “acceptable”. SAMPLE Online survey 1 Number of respondents 182 Years of age 18+ Sex male Second and third year students at MRU single in a relationship engaged common-law married divorced/separated widowed 56.04% 25.82% 2.75% 6.04% 7.69% 3.85% 1.65% Heterosexual Homosexual Bisexual I don’t describe my sexual orientation as any of these 85.71% 4.95% 4.40% 4.95% Findings “Women who are caught cheating on their “If both people are boyfriends/husbands/partners, sometimes claim it drunk, it can’t legally be rape” was rape because they don’t want to admit the truth.” 37.97% 36.13% ‘completely agree’ / ‘somewhat agree’ ‘neutral’ / ‘don’t know’ 14.28% ‘completely agree’ / ‘somewhat agree’ 20.17% ‘neutral’ / ‘don’t know’ “A lot of times, women who say they were raped “It shouldn’t be considered rape if a man is drunk agreed to have sex and then regret it” and didn’t realize that he was forcing someone to engage in sex acts” 27.73% 25.21% ‘completely agree’ / ‘somewhat agree’ ‘neutral’ / ‘don’t know’ Implications There clearly remains a need to educate or re-educate young men (and women) about consent, healthy relationships, and the law. Data extracted from the 2013 cycle of the American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment II reveal that of the 1,380 respondents at Mount Royal University, approximately 10% of male and female students had experienced some form of sexual victimisation within the previous 12 months. Some may question the need for a specific sexual assault education program based on the number of these reported incidents, but it is important to look at data from a subset of those willing to respond only and that it is not indicative of reality. Sexual assault reporting rates across Canada reveal that only 1 in 10 victims report sexual assault and data from a previous study by Tavcer focused on Edmonton and Calgary mirrors similar reporting/un-reporting rates. The reluctance to report an assault stems from a number of reasons such as fear, shame and victimblaming, he said/she said beliefs and the fact that re-victimization often occurs through the media and the courts. 5.08% 10.08% ‘completely agree’ / ‘somewhat agree’ ‘neutral’ / ‘don’t know’