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Trust your gut instinct

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"Trust your gut instinct!" is a common trope of child-safety PSAs first associated with self-appointed 1990s CSA prevention experts such as Ken Wooden, but possibly adopted before their era. It is applied to both children/minors and their adult guardians who are urged to "spot the signs".

Newer child safety videos such as those circulated with great success on YouTube by the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center[1] have discarded the stranger danger message, and often target much older minors. However, the core message of "trusting your gut instincts" still persists in these efforts as it is very useful as a catch-all device. Once primed with such wise words, who would be so "stupid" to have ones instincts confounded by the over-promising uncle, or "creepy" supply teacher?

At its core, the trust your instincts trope can be said to conceal aspects of slut-shaming, in that it implies young people whose instincts are to interact with adults who get close to them, are somehow stupid, or deficient in character.

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