This is clever. It really highlights the absurdity of the reasoning behind such statements as "asking for it." I like!

I love it! I particularly love how cheerful the salesperson is ("definitely the blue one!") because it makes it both extra funny and extra grim.

Oh, but I would point out I think that this ad is aimed at women as well as men. While men do the majority of the raping, women do plenty of the "she's asking for it"ing -- this shopping scenario makes it really clear to women as well as men how ridiculous the "asking for it" idea is because women can easily put themselves in her shoes and agree that obviously women don't go out shopping for skirts specifically to be raped in.

I appreciate the effort... if only there was a follow-up defining "rape" for the male viewer. I'd wager most date rapists don't consider their actions rape -- rape is what scary violent dudes do, not charming persuasive dudes like them.

The add tells people not to rape, and the woman has a face. What's not to love???

I think what makes this ad successful is that everyday guys can relate to likely having said this once or twice. It's a little more personal, and that might help drive the message home.

I've already seen reactions to this ad where the point flies over the viewers' heads.

And I think it may be because this ad fails to address the assumption that it seems many people have (especially potential offenders) that 'asking for it' just means 'asking for sex'. And the assumption therein is that if a woman is 'asking for sex', then she has already implicitly consented to any man who takes her up on the presumed offer, therefore making an ensuing rape not "rape-rape".

Argh, I followed the link to the Salon article and the comments are infuriating. So many people (men?) missed the point.

There's a difference between "she's asking to be raped" and "she's asking for sex"

One is a ridiculous justification for rape, the other has much more to do with the social status boost that men get for simply talking about having sex with a good looking woman. Just because it isnt common to hear women say in reference to a guy that "he's asking for it" doesnt mean that men dont dress a certain way when they want to get noticed in a situation like that.

I realize that neither is a good thing in that context, but drawing a direct connection between "She's asking for it" and rape justification based on what the victim was wearing is excessive.

I appreciate the effort, but this seems like one of those messages that is geared toward people that already have an understanding the issue.

This is part of a series? I'd like to see the other ads!

But the ambiguity of 'it' in 'asking for it' could be problematic: the 'it' could just mean 'sex' to the guys, not rape, because as was said a lot of rapists don't think what they were doing was rape. So if the woman in the blue skirt were to decline the man's advances, he wouldn't be thinking that she was protecting herself from possible rape but rather just 'playing hard to get'.

Plus, what about women who rape men? That has happened to me. I wasn't trumatized by the incident, but still...

There are a huge class of issues in contemporary society (domestic violence is a screamingly hideous example) where all men and only men receive the blame... even though most men don't act that way and many women do. Why are female sexist pigs not only accepted but lionized?

If you want an example, this lawyer is my ex-wife, who tried to kill me on several occasions, has completely alienated our children from me, is now making a living out of raping other men through the Courts..... and is being lionized for it. WHAT?!?!?!??!
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/health/that+want+practise/3148257/story.html

it's easy to put it this way: a woman isn't dressing up to impress ANY man (i.e. you, random douche), she is dressing up to impress A PARTICULAR man (the one - or small subset of ones - she wants to fuck). Wanting to fuck a particular guy or type of guy is NOT the same as wanting to fuck ANY guy. Sigh... so many men don't understand this.

Jess! EXACTLY. There is a stream of thinking that many men and some women subscribe to that women who seek male companionship, by virtue of our dress, send some message that we will do with any worthless ignorant dick that comes around because men are entitled to women. I noticed that many films go on this basis (men arguing over women that show no interest in either of them, Rushmore for example). The sexism comes in just here. Let's be clear: many of of us (women) want sex. JUST NOT WITH YOU, YOU FILTHY FOOL.

Men being "denied" women is a ridiculous and scary theme that legitimizes rape frequently. It is frightening.

Have to agree with some commenters, "it" is too vague here. And as some women are vouching, she kind of is "asking for it," as in "I'm meeting Michael at the bar tonight and I want him to come over." Or perhaps, "I'm going to the bar tonight and hope I find a good catch." Where it gains points in anti-slut-shaming, it loses them in confusing "asking for rape" with "potentially open to sex if you play your cards right."

MRAs strike again, derailing discussion of an anti-rape PSA with a tirade on how courts and women are undermining men. Bravo, gentle sirs.

More to the point, I really love this ad. I think we need to see more of this kind of thing, including ads which deal with the problem that other posters have pointed out: that many men don't seem to know what constitutes rape and consent.

Recently I spotted a wave of anti-abuse posters in the bathrooms at my uni, which addressed victims rather than perpetrators of abuse. These posters were in the men's and women's bathrooms, and while I recognize that men can be and are the victims of abuse, I still want to see posters with messages more like this PSA in men's bathrooms and other spaces. I've seen some posters about defining consent in the past but I've never seen them on quite the same scale as those which advise women on what to do and not to do in order to not "get raped" (which is, of course, absurd -- nobody "gets raped").

There is a misconception (or fallacy) persisting that claims that men excuse or encourage other men regarding rape. That is not the case and what I'm seeing is a disconnect between men and women in nearly every dialog regarding the subject.

The vast majority of men do not condone or support the idea of rape (despite what you may see internet trolls posting otherwise). These men have mothers, sisters, and daughters and none of them want to see the women in their lives suffer the horror of violent rape or even the trauma associated with unwanted/misconstrued sexual contact. And despite what a number of rape prevention advocates and some feminists think, the men who counter some of these arguments are not "rape apologists."

Another thing is a misconception regarding any dialog regarding womens safety being viewed as "victim blaming." The question "is there anything you could have done to prevent this from happening" is not blaming the victim for what happened. It is a standard question asked when any person is victimized by a crime. That statement does not ignore the fact that a crime happened nor does it absolve the criminal of any responsibility for their crime. Discussion regarding personal responsibility for individual safety is a realistic approach in the light of a crime.

I guess the final thing that I want to say is that overall, what I am seeing with a number of initiatives toward stopping rape is that somehow in the mix, the message of preventing a crime has become intertwined with the demonizing of male sexuality.

Traditional roles have always placed the male as the initiator of any sexual activity, which in a way has always been viewed as being an aggressive role. Today, women still have been hesitant to adopt the role of initiating sexual activity in social settings, yet now we are seeing that traditional behavior by men being more and more associated with negative and unwanted sexual contact.

I'm not going to even get into the specter of "date" or "gray" rape...not in the context of this discussion.

@Dragonclaws: I'm replaying here because your post was at the maximum depth.

I will read the site you have posted and consider its points. I should probably add that I have always defined myself as a feminist in that I believe in gender equality. It's just the perversion of that ideal in the name of feminism, which I've discussed at ridiculous length here, that gets in my craw. :-)

Sorry but we reap what we sew. when women start dressing like sex objects and pieces of meat, they get treated accordingly. When they start dressing like ladies, then we can talk about "rape". how does one rape a whore?

@Murray Pearson

While I cannot say I appreciate your conduct on this thread, I am sorry for all that you have suffered, and hope that you are able to get the help you need.

I would like to gently remind you that domestic and sexual violence against women is far more common than domestic violence against men.

I base this claim upon statistics provided by the American Bar Association, which is hardly known as a bastion of radical feminism.

http://new.abanet.org/domesticviolence/Pages/Statistics.aspx

Some of the data is old, but the general trends are unmistakable.

Women are roughly 3 times more likely to be assaulted by an intimate partner; almost 3 times as likely to be murdered by a partner; almost four times as likely to be stalked; and almost four times as likely to be raped.

Your case would be stronger if you refrained from making dubious claims.

Of course, domestic violence against men is under-reported, and receives dispropportionately little attention in our culture.

But even the few credible sources that seem to support your claims state that domestic violence against men is about as common as violence against women; I have yet to find a single credible source that says it is more common. And even those sources acknowledge that violent women are more likely to be violent in self-defense, while men are more likely to be primary aggressors; and that women are several times more likely to be seriously injured in a domestic confrontation.

Obviously, domestic violence against men is a real issue. But you don't need to discredit attempts to protect women, or "debunk" the established facts about domestic violence, for that to be true.

There are many women whose needs have been ignored by the authorities, too.

Playing oppression Olympics, based upon your own anecdotal experience, comes across as a derailing tactic, more than anything else.

That's especially true since the ad was about (date) rape, not about domestic violence at all.

This has been the most tiring thread I've ever read. It shows that even men (M.P.) who actively derail the conversation and are trying to bring the focus on themselves and their individual lives STILL get treated nicely here. Unfortunately M.P. has trouble understanding this.