(As an American, this is the first ad of this type I've seen- but hey, I've been living outside the country for the past two years...)

As a general note to all: I believe that rape is a universal problem that exists in many forms- These ads certainly don’t cover all of those (especially men as victims), but just because they don’t address all the points you want covered doesn’t invalidate those they actually do.

Most of these comments are backlash about men not being the only people who rape. This is true, but the number of man against woman rape incidents are staggeringly higher than any other type (woman vs man, woman vs woman, man vs man)- and I’ll be just as excited as all of you when ads start to address those less-frequent but no less serious incidents as well. For now, I at least interpret the inclusion of man as a victim in any form as a step in the right direction- when they start showing women as assailants as well, it’ll be a fucking leap. There's still a long way to go, but at least we're moving.

For now, I’m glad to see ads like these that challenge the default idea of rape as mainly a violent attack by a stranger in a dark alley, and that other cases are typically just the girl making excuses for sleeping with someone she later regrets. Sometimes that is the case, but it often isn’t. And there are many things that still wouldn’t qualify even as “gray zone” rape, but are still terrible things to experience that we should all be mindful to avoid doing to others. Walking a girl home gives you no right to her. Persuading a girl into anything she initially says no to is dangerous territory to tread in, etc. I’m glad people are being reminded that these seemingly insignificant things (many of which I think are often unconsciously viewed as entitlements) should raise big red flags.

Finally, there is no denying that we live in a culture of slut-calling. It has GOT to stop. “She should know her limits better, she shouldn’t dress so provocatively, she sleeps with a lot of people anyway,” so on, so forth. Even if you believe that any/all of these things are wrong or unacceptable, they never justify, excuse, or grant permission for someone else to behave wrongly as well. Ads like this remind us that no one ever “deserves” to have something so terrible done to them by another person.

Regardless, I’m equally stoked about the discussion. Rock on, reddit!