Some People Believe That Women Are to Blame For Being Raped
November 21, 2005 by NML
According to an article on the BBC website, there are people out there that actually believe that a woman is asking to be raped if she behaves or dresses in a certain way.
“A third of people believe a woman is partially or completely responsible for being raped if she has behaved flirtatiously, a survey suggests.
The Amnesty International poll of 1,000 people also found over 25% believe she is at least partly to blame if she has worn revealing clothing or been drunk.”
Rape is a brutal, unjustifiable crime that nobody should have to go through and these people that have these views are a minority albeit a dangerous one.
Flirting has its various meanings which won’t be examined here, but whatever the circumstance of the flirting, does it mean that the woman should be made to have sex against her will? Men talk about teases and being ‘led on’ but does it mean that they should take what they think they’re owed? The problem with this ‘flirting’ is that people have their different interpretations of what this means. ‘Revealing’ clothing is subjective too and quite frankly it shouldn’t be a license for someone to think they are entitled to rape someone either. Being drunk is being drunk which means like the average Joe we’re not as switched on as we normally are, which means that someone like a rapist can take advantage.
“more than a quarter (26%) of those asked said that they thought a women was partially or totally responsible for being raped if she was wearing sexy or revealing clothing, and more than one in five (22%) held the same view if a woman had had many sexual partners.
Around one in 12 people (8%) believed that a woman was totally responsible for being raped if she’d had many sexual partners.
Similarly, more than a quarter of people (30%) said that a woman was partially or totally responsible for being raped if she was drunk, and more than a third (37%) held the same view if the woman had failed to clearly say “no” to the man.”
I really cannot believe that there are people out there who actually believe that any of these reasons makes a woman partially or wholly responsible.
I’m inclined to believe that if a man wants to rape a woman, he will, and clothing, alcohol and flirtation are a poor excuse. I really don’t think that someone becomes a rapist when they see a slip of skirt going down the street or when a woman ‘flirts’ with them but doesn’t want to take things further. These guys that are rapists already have issues and a skewed view of things, hence they will see these things how they want to. We all make a lot of assumptions about people based on how they are dressed even when we have the best of intentions, however there is a difference between the guys that think a woman is more ‘up for it’ because she is flirty and dressed a certain way and the guys that that think that a woman is their next rape victim because she is flirty and dressed in a certain way. The latter is a rapist carrying out a dangerous crime based on bad assumptions and the other is a guy making bad assumptions but having enough balls and respect not to treat a woman in such a way. One doesn’t want or need consent, the other one seeks it and accepts it when she says no.
I have seen what rape can do to a woman and those closest to her and it is incredibly damaging with the effects having the potential to be extremely lasting and they creep into every area of the victims life. It’s called rape for a reason and once it’s done, the onus of guilt is on the offender, not the victim and we should not be in the position of finding ways to justify why someone should be raped.
What this survey does reveal is that there is something very wrong with society because if there are people out there believing that women are partially or wholly responsible for their rape if they do certain things, what hope do women have when they have to face a jury and a humiliating trial? Very often the fear of being put through the mill and having an irrelevant prior sexual history being interrogated, never mind the entire experience being relived is enough to deter women from reporting their crimes. UK police estimate that only 15% of rapes come to their attention which is shocking considering that the 15% represents 12,867 for 2004/5.
As long as there are a significant amount of people believing that the woman is at fault in some way for her own rape, that figure will stay where it is. This survey was conducted as part of the ‘Stop Violence Against Women’ campaign, but if anything there will be a lot more nervous women out there today.
Read via Gordon Mclean. Informationally Overloaded Amnesty International Press Release
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