The experience of previous generations clearly shows that the flow of time, changes in social norms, and the availability of information aren’t the factors that could quickly and effectively destroy gender stereotypes. The latter are strong and deep-rooted in society, and the culture of rape is not disappearing and remains in the background for new generations. To a large extent, this is caused by the total illiteracy of people in intimate matters, physiology, and the way the human psyche is structured. The inability to discuss these issues with children results in a situation when teenagers lack knowledge about their own bodies. The issue of sexual literacy is closely related not only to early pregnancies, which scared girls in schools in the 90s, and not only to sexually transmitted diseases, the teenagers in the 90s were told about while they were handed out condoms. Knowledge about one's own body and other people's bodies is also linked to more effective counteraction to sexual harassment, rape, and gender stereotypes. After all, the more adolescents know that sex is something that happens between two consenting adults, the less likely they are to be able to act against their will.
Speakers:
Larysa Denysenko, lawyer, human rights activist, journalist;
Yaroslava Kravchenko, TV presenter, producer, and ambassador of the HeForShe movement in Ukraine;
Daria Chekalova, deputy director of the NGO Girls, lecturer of school courses on sex education, expert in the field of gender-based violence.
Moderator:
Anastasia Bahalika, gender coordinator of the campaign against sexism in media and politics "Povaha" and the platform "Women are 50% of Ukraine's success".
