Nearly anyone who's ever suggested that women can prevent rape by being careful has heard some variation of this time-honored Feminist refrain. The reasoning goes like this: "a woman has the right to dress however she wishes, drink as much as she likes, and go wherever she wants to. If her decisions lead to her getting assaulted by a rapist, that's not her fault because she's not the one breaking the law!"
Now on the surface level that seems perfectly reasonable. Certainly any scumbag who assaults somebody else deserves to be punished for doing so, though when it comes to rape current laws are both unconstitutional and ineffective (which I'll address in a later post). However I disagree that the victim, male or female, should accept zero responsibility for any poor choices they made that led to the attack. Call it victim blaming if you like, but this applies to far more than just sexual assault. Consider the following example: a man from Chicago wants to visit his family in the western part of the city. Since he lives nearby, he decides to walk there; however, his path will take him through a crime-stricken ghetto, and he's carelessly decided to wear all-blue, a combination which strongly resembles local gang uniforms. En route a pair of mobsters, assuming he's a rival trying to encroach on their territory, draw their guns and shoot him. Were they at fault for killing him? Well yes, of course. But more importantly, was he an idiot for walking through a dangerous part of town wearing gang colors? Absolutely. Remember that however tragic the consequences for his poor decisions were, they were still a result of his poor decisions. He should have known better than to risk his life venturing into a shady part of town like that, especially since he was a native Chicagan who was presumably more aware of the risks of gang violence than the average visitor.
Now, it's true that even if you haven't placed yourself in harm's way that someone may go out of their way to attack you. Nobody, man or woman, is completely safe from that risk. But the bottom line is that each and every one of us can greatly reduce those risks by taking basic precautions. Locking your windows and doors, for example, goes a long way towards discouraging neighborhood ruffians from breaking into your house.
If this seems like commonsense advice that's because it is. Still, knowing that already puts you far ahead of most Feminists. Something as simple as "locked window = safer home" doesn't even register as sound logic in their warm, comfortable cocoons of delusion and ideology. After all, they reason, we should just teach criminals not to break into our houses! It boggles my mind that grown women can be so naïve. Short of a totalitarian government sponsoring a brainwashing programme straight from the pits of hell (á la Clockwork Orange), criminals will as a general rule continue to commit crimes so long as they have something to gain by doing so. Feminists can give as many presentations about rape as they like, but should there actually be a rapist in the audience, he (or she) sure as hell isn't going to think, "Hey, you know what? I really felt like raping somebody today, but this thirty-minute talk about women's issues has convinced me otherwise! I think I'll go to a park and frolic in the petunias instead!" That is yet another case of a well-intentioned idea that fails when confronted by the harsh reality of human nature.
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