One of My Many Musings
*Sweeps away dust*
Phew haven't been here for awhile. Hopefully this marks the beginning of more frequent posts. Anyway without further ado.
A few weeks ago I was watching a segment of ABC's What Would You Do that involved sexual harrassment in the workplace, in this instance a resturant. One actor was the male manager, the harrasser and the actress was the victim, the employee. Two actresses played the victim, both dressed in different attire. The first actress was wearing modest attire, a simple dress with a short sleeved jacket. The other actress was wearing a form-fitting red dress, an outfit that one would consider inappropiate in that particular worplace.
When the first group of scenerios played out involving the modestly dressed actress, some customers in the resturant came forward and tried to help the victim. A few even confronted the manager. One man offered the young woman a job working for him. However, with the second group of scenerios involving the actress in the inappropiate dress, much fewer people came forward to help.
Why???
When the host of the show interviewed the customers, one woman said that she was "asking for it". Others were saying that she was inappropiately dressed. People were less sympathetic. As the host said, it seemed that more people had a problem with what she was wearing than what the employer was doing. Basically blaming the victim.
This segment touched on something that absolutely bothers me to no end. Victim-blaming. Putting the blame on the victim in regards to crimes committed against them.
Keep in mind that there's a difference between victim-blaming and simply discussing percautions or pointing out what a victim did to put him/herself in a situation. Even if a rape/harrassment victim made poor judgment concerning his/her safety, that doesn't negate the fact that the perpetrator CHOOSE to commit that crime against that victim. The victim isn't to blame for being raped or sexually harrassed. The perpetrator was.
But what tends to happen is that the discussion turns into picking apart every single thing the victim did wrong that caused him/her to get into that situation (I'm thinking that in the instance where the victim is a woman, there's a connection to the previous mentioned discussion and behaviors that is seen as improper when it comes to traditionally proper behavior in women....or something like that). It's one thing if the discussion is generally about what steps to take in personal safety, but it's another thing entirely if the victim is put at the same level of blame as the rapist for simply trusting a person they recently met, kissing someone, dressing a certain way, drinking (and no I'm not condoning getting drunk) etc. For example, certain behaviors imply consent so one should be careful as to how they present themselves and their actions in certain situations. With that being said they shouldn't be held responsibile for being raped. Yet, are they responsible for putting themselves in a dangerous situation, yes. Now maybe I'm wrong and the two are one and the same.
Anyway, I'll leave you with a few interesting links that inspired this post. This one is a very insightful, objective, and unique discussion about mating, consent, and rape. Fair warning though, you may need some thick skin or rather, you would need to be VERY objective.