Tessel ten Zweege, survivor and expert by experience: “Victim blaming can have major consequences. Be critical of yourself: What do you mean by the words you say? You do not allow violence and you do not ask for it. It is never deserved or justifiable.”

Ambrien Moeniralam, survivor and expert by experience: "It is so worthwhile to say something about victim blaming when you see it happening in your group of friends. Even simply by asking questions: Why do you think what she was wearing is relevant?, when someone talks about her sexual assault. What difference does it make?"

Victim blaming

With victim blaming, after experiencing physical, online or sexual violence, such as sexual assault, a victim is told that they are to blame themselves. For example, by being asked: ‘Why were you wearing such a short skirt, then? You were kind of asking for it.’ Ton Coenen, director of Rutgers, considers this unacceptable: “It is harmful to the victim and the perpetrator gets away with it. Victim blaming perpetuates a culture in which the perpetration of sexual, physical or online violence is not taken seriously.”

“In practice, it happens too often. That is the experience of victims and support workers, including young victims,” adds Kaouthar Darmoni, director of Atria. “People often say things like that without thinking about it. By calling them out, you make them think about it.”

#ZegErWatVan

In the campaign, young people (aged 17–23) watch videos in which their peers speak out against victim blaming. In these videos, they see the social norm supported by the majority of young people. Young people are then given tools to speak out when they see victim blaming. A special set of stickers and GIFs has been developed for this purpose, challenging victim blaming. These allow young people to respond to peers who engage in victim blaming in a contemporary, accessible and humorous way.

The #ZegErWatVan campaign is part of the broader youth campaign ‘Generatie Ja… en?’. More information can be found at www.generatiejaen.nl.

Generatie Ja...en? lesson plan

Generatie Ja… en? has developed a lesson plan, including an accompanying PowerPoint presentation, for vocational education teachers about gender norms. This lesson plan helps their students engage in conversations about gender and violence with someone who thinks or acts differently from them. These topics have now also been included in the Lang Leve de Liefde vocational education programme.