Victim Blaming
Originally Written: April 28, 2021
Victim blaming is getting more prevalent by the day. With the BLM movement, people claim that the victim was "harboring illegal drugs." With the Stop AAPI Hate movement, people claim the perpetrator was "having a bad day." There are thousands more examples of how society continues to blame the victims for crimes that were done to them as if they deserved whatever happened. This happens especially when the criminals were white/men and the victims were of a minority group, whether for their gender, race, or sexual orientation. This mindset is toxic and prevents us from thoroughly understanding the situation at hand because we are overwhelmed with the prejudices and biases. We let people's identities and differences get in the way of understanding the situations. Today, let's examine the different ways society has victim-blamed victims of sexual assault and how we can look further into a situation to prevent mindsets like this.
Some of the most common excuses used in victim blaming in sexual assault cases include "She shouldn't have been wearing that," and "She shouldn't have been walking around at such a late hour." In fact, there were rules in Japanese schools that mandated girls to wear their hair down as to not "trigger" the guys who saw their necks. First off, there are so many things wrong with these statements. They are claiming that we as a society cannot control these men that are committing terrible acts. They claim that women must simply endure and take precautions to watch out for the men when in reality, the root cause of any sexual assault case is the man. These men should be the ones controlling themselves because they are the ones that committed the act.
Women are also human beings who have the right to dress how they want and enjoy walks outside whenever they want without the fear of having a man attack them. In fact, there was a post surveying TikTok users, asking what they would do if there were no men on the planet for a day. The overwhelming response? Wear revealing clothing. Take walks in the city at night while enjoying the views. Wake up early to take walks on the beach. These aren't even difficult wishes to grant, yet so many have refused to acknowledge that men need to control themselves. It's simply stupid to hear congressmen and jurors tell the women that they should have been more careful if they knew a man was going to attack them.
But the real question is, if we know that there are predatory, dangerous men outside who threaten the health of countless women, why are there no actions being taken against them? Are they not the real cause as to why victim blaming is even happening? Telling women to stop wearing clothes they want to and stop going outside during night times does not solve the issues of sexual assault. Telling the assaulters, the ones who are committing these acts without anyone telling them to do so, to take responsibility for their actions and learn how to control themselves is the solution. We're not going to keep women indoors forever; we might as well solve these attitudes that men have instead of conceding to them and implying that their mindsets are correct. Just like how (most) women do not see a man with revealing clothing, or a man walking alone at night in a dark alley and immediately think that she must touch him inappropriately, men must realize the same.
Unfortunately, victim blaming is so heavily prevalent in our society that it will be a long ride to changing the overall mindset towards victims of a minority group. For permanent and genuine change, we need to focus on the people that committed the acts; NO ONE ever "deserves" sexual assault. It's quite obvious that the reason the sexual assault even occurred was due to the assailant. What we are asking for isn't even a huge request; all we want is that men do not prey on women. Since solving this issue is going to take some time, we first must make sure everyone understands this issue and why common arguments against the victim are wrong in every way. Women can't stand to have curfews and restrictions on their garments as much as men do, and there is no need to enforce them. Instead, let's look at sexual assault cases in a simple way: the assailants must take full blame for their horrendous acts. Victim blaming was, is, and always will be weak and irresponsible.
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