If you pay attention to the society we live in survivor
blaming would come as no shock. All too often we hear cases of sexual-assault
and the survivor of the crime is accused of being one thing or another. Had she
just not been wearing that short skirt that man would have been able to keep
himself under control. Had she not drank so much she would have known to not
get herself in that situation. Frankly I think it’s unacceptable. Blaming the
survivor of any crime, especially a sexually related one is absurd. Just
because I leave my car unlocked, does that make it any more reasonable for
someone to break into it? No, and it sounds ridiculous to even suggest it! This
is more than applicable to sexual-assault cases.
But it almost seems inevitable in the world we live in. When
men and boys are taught they always need to be in control, that anything less
means they’re not a “real” man, we are left with misguided men who think they
don’t have to accept responsibility for their actions. Please note that I’m
very aware that not all men perform acts of sexual-assault, that not all
perpetrators are men, and that females are not the only individuals who are survivors
of these crimes. However, in this hyper-masculine society we live in, men are
targeted as the ones who need to be in control and have power.
Blaming a survivor is bad enough on its own but this also
deters other survivors from reporting their crimes. Incidents are terribly under-reported as it is and this could be considered one of the bigger reasons
why. No one likes to be told they’re lying when they know that they are only
telling the truth. It’s discouraging, it’s unfair, and it’s infuriating.
Fortunately there has been a survivor that has had the
courage to speak out against her perpetrators. Recent national news coverage
has been talking about the case of a 16-year-old Ohio girl. She was
sexually-assaulted at a party last August and the courts are finally making
their verdicts. While I am so glad she has spoken out against this event, I am
disgusted by the defense. They have tried to attack her character and reduce
her to a substance abusing liar.
To read more about the case you can do a Google search of
the town in Ohio, Steubenville, but the article I read can be found here.
It was absolutely disgusting to read or hear about any of the tweets/facebook posts/text from students and people in the Stuebenville community blaming the rape victim for what happened to her. It is backwards thinking, like you said. Unfortunately and arguable worse even, the victim blaming and sympathetic feelings towards the attackers didn't stop with the boys' friends and family. It stretched all the way to the national news. If you haven't seen CNNs report after the verdict you can watch a video here: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/cnn-steubenville-rape-poppy-harlow-144458279.html. This kind of reaction from the media only further embeds this backwards idea into our culture. People are so easily influenced by the media, and while people might be able to consciously see the victim blaming and how it is wrong when reading the tweets/facebook post by there friends, it takes a lot more an aware and conscious effort to be able to spot it and disassociate ideas like that when they are coming from such a credible source.
ReplyDeleteI think that the misconception that rapes occur because someone was "asking for it" needs to be discussed more in mainstream contexts. When we were discussing this in class, this was a really good "Aha!" moment: the realization that rape is an issue of control and dominance much more so than it is about how attractive someone looks.
ReplyDeleteYou also raised an excellent point about how victim-blaming can deter people from reporting rape crimes. The problem with this issue however is that it isn't so much an issue with public policy as it is with culture and society. There isn't really any legislative way to solve the problem of victim blaming. Thus, methods of educating the public about rape crimes and the ramifications of how they react to rape crimes are needed if significant progress is to be made on this front. The idea of rape being more about dominance and control and less about the way someone dresses should be emphasized in such education.
I really liked the way you wrote this blog. I think that many people have to face victim-blaming in cases of sexual assault. It's sad to read about and see the case unfold. Even if she is a substance abusing liar, that doesn't mean someone can have sex with her against her will. If she doesn't give the yes to sex, then sex shouldn't happen. I like how you related it to leaving your car unlocked, I think that is a good way to look at it. You could go through all the precautions of making sure it's locked, but someone could break in if they really wanted to. Just because someone lets their guard down for a few minutes, or hours even, that doesn't mean they deserve what's coming to them. I hate the way people look at things like this. A problem for people, i think, is seeing the big picture. If you could step back and look at the situation from afar, you would see that someone's BODY, not stuff, was taken advantage of. It doesn't matter if there was alcohol involved, or any substance, there could have been a talking unicorn that said it was okay, nothing matters accept the consent of both people to engage in sexual activity. No exceptions.
ReplyDelete