Post by ck4829 on Feb 11, 2017 16:12:45 GMT
Eight reasons why victim-blaming needs to stop: Writers, activists, and survivors speak out
About once a day someone comes to this website by searching “Are rape victims to blame?” I hope when these visitors arrive they find some solace in the message they find here that rape victims are not culpable, ever, no, never. Unfortunately, they will also find information on how rape survivors are blamed mercilessly around the world for the violence perpetrated against them.
From Mexico to Sudan, women who survive brutal sexualized violence are forced out of their homes, divorced, and killed. Men chastise women who have been raped, such as in this instance in Burma: “Prostitute! If you want to sell sex, we will build you a small hut in the jungle,” one woman’s husband said after a soldier raped her. “You can sell sex there.” Her own children told her: “Whore, you are not our mother, don’t come see us anymore.”
In this country, we’ve seen our politicians and leaders make ignorant and insensitive statements such as what one judge said to a woman who’d been sexually assaulted in a bar in Arizona last summer: “If you wouldn’t have been there that night, none of this would have happened to you.”
“This.” “Happened to.” “If you wouldn’t have been there.” Dismissive, fault-finding, victim-blaming.
These words have an impact. We are watching women commit suicide in Syria and living with the toll of honor killings globally. According to a 2011 report in the Journal of the American Medical Association, 35 percent of women in an Australian survey who had experienced gender-based violence later tried to commit suicide.
Women are literally dying from blame.
With all this in mind, we held a Twitter chat last week on victim-blaming with the hashtag #RapeIsRape. I asked Gloria Steinem, this project’s founder, if she’d be willing to share some thoughts on the subject with our followers. She wrote what you’ll see below, and inspired me to seek out more thoughts from leading writers, activists, and survivors.
Invading and devaluing: The double impact of victim-blaming
Born ‘evil’: When men think women deserve abuse
The many faces of victim-blaming
Let’s talk about systems, not victims
‘Little compassion was shown for victims like me’
Respect a woman's body—and her right to it
Silencing the witness
What if?
www.womenundersiegeproject.org/blog/entry/eight-reasons-why-victim-blaming-needs-to-stop-writers-activists-and-surviv
About once a day someone comes to this website by searching “Are rape victims to blame?” I hope when these visitors arrive they find some solace in the message they find here that rape victims are not culpable, ever, no, never. Unfortunately, they will also find information on how rape survivors are blamed mercilessly around the world for the violence perpetrated against them.
From Mexico to Sudan, women who survive brutal sexualized violence are forced out of their homes, divorced, and killed. Men chastise women who have been raped, such as in this instance in Burma: “Prostitute! If you want to sell sex, we will build you a small hut in the jungle,” one woman’s husband said after a soldier raped her. “You can sell sex there.” Her own children told her: “Whore, you are not our mother, don’t come see us anymore.”
In this country, we’ve seen our politicians and leaders make ignorant and insensitive statements such as what one judge said to a woman who’d been sexually assaulted in a bar in Arizona last summer: “If you wouldn’t have been there that night, none of this would have happened to you.”
“This.” “Happened to.” “If you wouldn’t have been there.” Dismissive, fault-finding, victim-blaming.
These words have an impact. We are watching women commit suicide in Syria and living with the toll of honor killings globally. According to a 2011 report in the Journal of the American Medical Association, 35 percent of women in an Australian survey who had experienced gender-based violence later tried to commit suicide.
Women are literally dying from blame.
With all this in mind, we held a Twitter chat last week on victim-blaming with the hashtag #RapeIsRape. I asked Gloria Steinem, this project’s founder, if she’d be willing to share some thoughts on the subject with our followers. She wrote what you’ll see below, and inspired me to seek out more thoughts from leading writers, activists, and survivors.
Invading and devaluing: The double impact of victim-blaming
Born ‘evil’: When men think women deserve abuse
The many faces of victim-blaming
Let’s talk about systems, not victims
‘Little compassion was shown for victims like me’
Respect a woman's body—and her right to it
Silencing the witness
What if?
www.womenundersiegeproject.org/blog/entry/eight-reasons-why-victim-blaming-needs-to-stop-writers-activists-and-surviv