‘I’m Asking For It’ is the most offensive sexual assault campaign I’ve ever seen

‘She was asking for it’ is the victim-blaming rally cry of sleazy men the world over, yet a new campaign – which is calling for the law to be changed to incorporate affirmative consent – has decided to take that phrase and run with it. All it will do is cause more hurt, writes survivor Amelia Loulli

When I first saw the new sexual assault campaign, backed by Right to Equality, I felt numb (Supplied)

I wasn’t “asking for it”. Likewise, the 85,000 other women who experience rape and sexual assault every year in England and Wales weren’t “asking for it” either.

Sexual assault continues to be an overwhelmingly common experience, and more than 99 per cent of rapes reported to the police do not end in a conviction. Do you know why that is? It’s because the defence will often claim the victim was “asking for it” – that something we did, said or wore proves that we were, in some way, to blame for our own assault.

When I first saw the new sexual assault campaign, “I’m asking for it”, backed by Right to Equality, I felt numb. I felt queasy. Embarrassed, even. “She was asking for it” is the victim-blaming rally cry of sleazy men the world over, yet this new campaign – which is calling for the law to be changed to incorporate affirmative consent – has decided to take that phrase and run with it.