Client: Hype Magazine / Tears Foundation

Product: Women's Day

Media: Film / Social / Digital / PR / Integrated / Design / Experiential / Branded Content / Activation

Year: 2020

Role: Chief Creative Officer

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South Africa has the world’s worst rape statistics. Rape culture has become so normalised that we’ve become desensitised to the daily headlines and horror stories. Most South Africans feel a sense of helplessness about the situation. But many are part of the problem, often without even realising it.

 

From campus conversations to Twitter threads, a culture of victim blaming thrives in South Africa. It’s one of the main reasons why an estimated 1 in 4 rapes is reported here, and why perpetrators so often get away with their crimes. Many are guilty of sustaining this culture, often without even realising it.

 

#BlameNoMore is a call for change, aimed at every South African, calling out the moral and logical absurdity of accusing someone of their own rape. The goal? To play a role in creating a society where the victims of sexual violence have the support and confidence to speak out, and where perpetrators no longer feel so safe.

 

On International Women’s Day, Hype hip-hop magazine and The Tears Foundation seeded a short film online, starting a fire that spread far and wide. In the film, a woman at a house party quite literally rapes herself. It’s a hard-hitting, thought-provoking metaphor, depicting what you are actually saying to a rape survivor,

when you imply that it was their fault in any way whatsoever.

 

The film immediately gained traction on social media. Soon after, we took it to university campuses, and used it as a catalyst for conversation and debate at lectures hosted by The Tears Foundation and Hype. South Africa’s biggest medical faculty, at The University of the Witwatersrand, incorporated the film into their rape support syllabus. We are currently campaigning for police and nursing training colleges to do the same.

 

We gathered some of South African hip-hop’s most influential women for a special screening of the film, documenting the candid and emotional discussion that followed. Hype then featured these women in the cover story of their special Women’s Month issue. They used their influence to entrench the film’s hashtag - #BlameNoMore – into popular culture. And it soon became an important weapon in South Africa’s ongoing war on gender-based violence.

 

As protests against GBV spread across South Africa in the wake of several tragic, high-profile incidents, #BlameNoMore became an important rallying cry, from social media, to protest marches, to local and international news stations. Even the South African government joined the conversation, adopting #BlameNoMore as its official Women's Month initiative.

 

With a potential 244 million people already reached, the incredible work of The Tears Foundation has been exposed to countless rape survivors, who now see a safe space in which to speak out. Within the broader hip-hop industry, which is often accused of perpetuating gender-based violence, Hype Magazine has been able to position itself as a force for positive change.

 

The struggle continues.