With therapy and support from family and friends, people who have been raped can overcome the consequences and get on with their lives. Such advice is also based on the erroneous assumption that most perpetrators are strangers. Another approach is for individuals to empower themselves through self-defense training. Active resistance strategies, such as fighting, yelling, and fleeing, are more effective than passive strategies, such as pleading, crying, or offering no resistance. Ultimately, we must work to prevent rape by addressing its causes.
Men can do peer education to change the attitudes of other men.
Schools can present age-appropriate programs that challenge bullying in preschool and elementary years, that discuss consensual sex in later years, and that challenge sexism and emphasize respect in all years. We can challenge victim-blaming remarks and jokes that portray rape as funny. We can write letters to advertisers who sponsor ads or television shows that promote sexism or violence. We can consider how public policies affect women's social, economic, and political equality when we write to government officials and when we vote. Ultimately, only social change can prevent rape.