What does your anti-rape face look like?

Last week Ramapo College in New Jersey told students that they should take preventative measure to avoid sexual violence — like, for example, making appropriate facial expressions. One student explained that a campus administrator “was saying that women need to watch their body language and that women should practice how they articulate their face [in a social setting] by practicing in the mirror.” Basically, Ramapo told students to make sure their faces clearly expressed that they do not, in fact, want to be raped.

I don’t know about you, but I think the school was just really asking for it… and by it, I mean a sassy hashtag response.

#MyAntiRapeFace has sprung up in response. Some participants pointed out that every face, really, is an anti-rape face:

Some participants couldn’t hide their disdain for the idea of an anti-rape face on their anti-rape faces:

Some explicitly pointed out the idea’s flaws:

And others just had a lot of fun:

Tweet under the hashtag #MyAntiRapeFace to show us what your anti-rape face looks like, to show solidarity with Ramapo students, and to prove to universities their victim-blaming won’t go unnoticed.



Alexandra Brodsky is an editor at Feministing, a founding co-director of Know Your IX, and a student at Yale Law School. Her anti-rape face looks like this.

