The rape blame game

How many ways can we blame women for causing harm to themselves?

If one reads the media and looks at some online comments, the ways are myriad.

Notice, that although rapists are not let totally off the hook, they are to a certain extent.
Because.....wait for it.....

They are men.

Oh I am not one of those who blame the male gender as a whole. I respect a lot of men, I am actually married to one....

I happen to know that real normal men don't lose their minds in an uncontrolled sex crazed frenzy when they see a woman in a short skirt.

That is what some fundamentalist Muslims believe btw. Yet another item the fundies here have in common, they believe men are the weaker sex and must be shielded. "good women" don't show anything above their ankles.

Bad women can be identified by the way they dress, according to media, advertisers and the porn industry......they like it rough....

This week has been a busy one for the Rape blame game.

Lara Logan was sexually assaulted in Egypt, and now some would have you think that it happened because of what she did. I will not link to one particularily odious column, but it is outlined in that link.

She is attractive.

Well, yes she is. She is on the Tee Vee, most TV journalists are attractive. In this world they would not be hired otherwise. But that is not why she was sexually assaulted. Elderly women are raped, women in very nondescript clothes are raped.....Children are raped. ( 15% of sexual assault and rape victims are under age 12. ) Men are raped.....Disabled people....

You know that there is a high incidence of sexual assault against the disabled? They cannot fight back, and depending on the disability may not even be able to tell.  

Are helpless disabled people too "attractive"?

She asked for it....LOOK where she was! 

Rape, happens everywhere. 

Some believe that rape is inevitable in all cultures, however Patrick brought up Peggy Reeves Sanday who has concluded in her research that sexual assault rates vary from different cultures. She found that the prevalence of rape is directly linked to status of women within that society. A Canadian woman is raped every 17 minutes; this demonstrates the problem Canada has with how our culture views women.

And.......

In 2002, a study was done by the United Nations on the number of rapes in each country. Canada and the United States of America had the highest rape counts in 2002 according to the study. Canada had 24, 350, and the US had 95,136 recorded rapes. That says something about North American views and actions towards women.

Most often, it happens in someone's home....

More than 50% of all rape/sexual assault incidents were reported by victims to have occured within 1 mile of their home or at their home.2
* 4 in 10 take place at the victim's home.
* 2 in 10 take place at the home of a friend, neighbor, or relative.
* 1 in 12 take place in a parking garage.

Lara Logan was just doing her job. Do I understand why a pack mentality took over a bunch of men? No.

I do know that it was women and some soldiers that intervened and got her out of there.

But it happens here too. Those who watched, even took pictures.

A police "officer" (I use that term loosely)

A Toronto police officer has issued a written apology after reportedly telling a safety and security forum at Osgoode Hall Law School that women can avoid sexual assault by not dressing like “sluts.”

The officer has also been “disciplined” by the professional standards unit of the Toronto Police Service, spokesman Mark Pugash told the Star.

Yes. Imagine that police "officer" arriving on the scene of a sexual assault and talking to a victim who may be wearing what he considers "slut" clothing......

Attitudes like that contribute to the non reporting of rape.

Along with family and friends who will place the same judgments upon women who have been raped.

I have actually seen some say that women make false accusations simply out of revenge....
Knowing what the steps are in getting charges laid, and what can happen to a woman because she speaks out? Knowing what the courts and defense lawyers put women through?

It is a "joke" to some.....Young men who simply do not have any compassion nor common sense, and middle aged men who should damned well know better.  Legitimizing a rape as "teh funny" is not going to help alleviate the problem.

Rape is a tool of war in some countries.  It is about power, and the ownership of women. 

The US Military has also been getting some attention this week....

This week, 17 veterans and active-duty service members filed a landmark lawsuit accusing the Pentagon of looking the other way despite frequent reports of rape and other abuse against women in the armed forces. The suit singles out Defense Secretary Robert Gates and his predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, accusing them of running an institution in which violence against women is tolerated. A Pentagon spokesman said "sexual assault is a wider societal problem" and the military is trying to prevent it, just as civilian leaders are. What might the lawsuit accomplish?

When women who have signed up for military service cannot escape an Institutionalized blame game......Do the military brass think that this is just a case of boyz will be boyz? Or do they think that women should have stayed home?

Men who rape women and children do so because there is something wrong, with them.

Why do so many make excuses for those sick bastards?

Is it because they believe men are the weaker sex? There is no other explanation. None.

Remember the bible? Women are in fact responsible for that original sin and all that crap......Should we just make all the men stay home then? For their own good and all.

Personally, I am not going to be letting rapists off the hook so easily.

All can be victims of rape. It will be someones Mother, sister, daughter....Human beings who are not objects that brought harm to themselves.