Fiction, but sadly not fantasy

“Welcome to your Tape” is a discussion with Sarah Pitcher and Kenny Ardouin originally broadcast on Christchurch’s Plains FM that looked at many of the issues that occur in the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why. The discussion centred on many issues, a number of which are very relevant to the White Ribbon Campaign.

Sarah and Kenny discuss issues surrounding consent after the lead character is the victim of a rape, and is persecuted because she did not explicitly say no, whilst the perpetrator of the sexual assault faces no justice. The discussion addresses the concept of “male entitlement” whereby the rapist felt entitled to have sex with his victim and was unable to see that what he was doing was wrong.

The discussion addresses the reality that often the perpetrators of sexual assault are not who you would expect – it may well be a popular, well-respected man such as is the case in 13 Reasons Why, and 90% of the time, the person is known to the victim.

They also discuss the heart-breaking inaction of others when it comes to speaking up about men’s violence towards women which only serves to encourage perpetrators of sexual assault/violence and wrongly apportion blame to the victim. Sarah and Kenny offer strategies to help victims of abuse to ask for help, as well as offering strategies for the people who victims of abuse turn to in their hour of need.

Sarah and Kenny discuss the themes from 13 Reasons Why within the New Zealand context, and the messages around consent, respect, speaking out and listening up that we as a society can take heed of from viewing the series that may be fiction, but sadly is not fantasy.

Click here to listen to the full audio recording of ‘Welcome to your tape’

The piece starts at eight minutes minutes.