You don’t need superpowers to make a difference. Photo Yulia Matvienko via Unsplash On the train, the bar, the supermarket, and, with a little bad luck, also at the university of student association: you could witness inappropriate behaviour anywhere. Do you look away or intervene? And if so, how? That was the topic of the third SafeTEA evening. Resource joined in.
Social SafeTEA is an initiative by the Student Service Centre related to ‘feel safe at WUR’. The initiative consists of a combination of online challenges and events on campus. The workshop showed that active bystander is typically a topic that requires a live approach. Because how do you respond to a threatening or uncomfortable situation? Will it put you in danger?
Drunk
The hesitation the approximately fifteen participants felt at the start of the session had almost entirely vanished after half an hour. In a concluding role-playing game, they joined forces in an improvised but well-coordinated manner to end inappropriate behaviour. The role-playing involved semi-aggressive drunken behaviour, convincingly displayed by one of the participants. The typical drunk intrusively demanding another drink after the final round. But, it could just have easily been a situation in which a person invades someone’s personal space, a fellow traveller harassing a passenger on the train, or the umpteenth person wanting to touch your friend’s frizzy hair. The participants offered suggestions for a range of situations with which they are frequently confronted..
Positive feeling
The exercise in handling the drunk gave them a positive feeling, they said. For the victim, because they felt supported in getting out of a difficult situation, and for the bystanders because acting is better for your self-respect than being a helpless witness. Even the “drunk” felt okay, he said. The active bystanders had successfully redirected his focus and guided him to a spot a little further away, enabling him to back down without losing face or engaging in a confrontation. Thus, an escalation is prevented.
More sessions
Workshop facilitator Sergi Domenech-Carbo was satisfied. His tips were understood and applied well by the students. And that is excellent news for anyone who ever has the misfortune of being harassed in the vicinity of any of these fifteen participants: they will likely not be left to their own defences, Resource believes. Naturally, WUR and the world at large can use many more active bystanders. Students or employees of WUR who are interested in learning how an active bystander can intervene in an unpleasant situation without risking their personal safety: Domenech-Carbo is happy to facilitate more sessions on this subject. Do not hesitate to contact him by e-mail.
Those who want to join the Social SafeTEA programme can do so until 29 December. The last two SafeTEA Evenings are on 29 November and 7 December.
