I was on my way home tonight from Cardiff, having run a half marathon earlier today I was pretty exhausted so I ended up checking my WordPress feed without refreshing and as a result happened to see the post below about the responsibility of rape. (I tried to ‘reblog’ it but failed, so had to post it this way).

This post refers to another post written more than a couple of years ago (now both quite timely in light of Chrissie Hynde’s latest outburst on the responsibility of rape) but so poignant I had to share. 

I hope you get a chance to read both, along with some of the comments, which make up half the story. 

The most fascinating thing is hearing the guy’s firm opinion that girls should ‘take precautions’ against the possibility of rape. As though it’s a formula. As though walking in daylight not the dark means you won’t get raped, or wearing a long skirt not a short one means you won’t get raped, or being sober not drunk means you won’t get raped. Sadly it doesn’t work like that. 

And even though countless women reply, share their stories, and make some attempt at trying to explain how absurd this thinking is, he still persists down this line of argument, somewhat naively.

But what the women (and a few men) failed to argue ( I managed to skim read a few hundred of the 600+ comments!) is how do you measure and qualify what’s good enough ‘precaution’. Who would be tasked with identifying this ideal level of precaution and where would you draw the line for what is or isn’t satisfactory precaution? 

This guy’s thinking is frustrating to hear and I expect, sadly, shared by many, which goes some way in excusing men’s actions and lending the license to rape.

There were several links posted in the comments that examined this. If you don’t have time to scroll, a really good one was this, on rape culture. http://www.shakesville.com/2009/10/rape-culture-101.html?m=1 

Anyway, I didn’t want to just bookmark these posts for myself; they should be shared and shared again. Excerpt and link below:

…….

I am going to assume the person who left this comment on my post ‘Don’t get raped’ is a man: When it comes to any kind of crime, I think it is important to make a distinction between blame and responsibility. In all cases all of the blame belongs to the perpetrators. However, in some […]

https://bluemilk.wordpress.com/2010/06/05/but-why-shouldnt-she-take-some-responsibility-too-for-the-rape/