The Hook Up engages audiences in a facilitated discussion about hooking up, sexual assault and bystander intervention. It begins with a discussion on how gender stereotypes contribute to rape culture and harm survivors. Next, the program unpacks the practice of hooking up, and identifies the differences between a healthy hook up, a regretted hook up, and a sexual assault.
The discussion is critical because it provides the opportunity to break through the myth that rape is really just a regretted sexual experience. When we can discuss what healthy, consensual sex looks like in contrast to the methods perpetrators use, there is no confusion between healthy sex and rape. Finally, the program closes using the information we have learned about perpetrators’ motives and behaviors in order to devise successful bystander intervention strategies, and decrease our community’s tolerance for sexual predation.
Refreshments will be served!