Read Tony’s Excellent Article on the “Perfect” Rape Victim. Support Him if You Can!

In this episode of “What Fuckery is Rape Culture Up to Now?” Tony takes on a victim-blaming assclown. Once you’re done with the article, please click his “Donate” link if you can spare some cash. He’s about $500 short for the month, with no employment prospects in sight. Let’s keep him fed, connected, and housed so he can continue delivering the deserved smackdowns.

And this one is really epic. Here’s the three paragraphs that everyone who’s ever told a potential or actual rape victim what they should do/should have done to avoid being raped needs to print these out in 100 point, bold font on contrasting paper, and tape them to several surfaces in the house, such as on the bathroom mirror and the television. They need to have people randomly pop in with a copy and read them aloud until the words are indelibly etched upon their brains.

What advice are women and girls supposed to take in order to protect themselves from being assaulted when they can be raped no matter what they’re wearing, their level of sobriety, their location, the amount of sex they’ve had, or the people they associate with? The reason none of that advice works to reduce the incidence of rape, or afford women and girls protection is because men who rape do so under all manner of circumstances. And again, that’s why *men* need to be targeted [by rape prevention campaigns].

Also, targeting women and girls with these avoidance tips treats rape as if it is an uncontrollable force of nature. Seriously, think about the tips being offered. They all treat rape as something that’s inevitable. It’s not. Rape is an act carried out [predominately] by men. Men who *choose* to rape. Men who can *choose* NOT to rape. There is no biological imperative for men to rape. These rape tips serve to treat men as if they’re uncontrollable sexual brutes who will violate anyone and everyone. Makes me wonder why MRA’s don’t criticize rape avoidance tips, bc damn, the tips make men look baaaaaaaaaad.

Finally, women and girls have the right to participate in society to whatever level they choose, just as men and boys do. But even if we assume that avoiding rape were possible, to do so would seriously infringe upon the freedom of movement for women and girls. It is neither fair nor reasonable to expect them to change their behavior when they aren’t doing a fucking thing wrong.

Don’t just leave it at those three paragraphs, though. You should read the whole thing. The article writer he’s responding to apparently thinks you can’t rape a prostitute – it’s “theft of services.” Oh, yes, she went there. She hits all the blame-the-victim-if-she’s-a-sex-worker points, including whining about how women who sell sex should expect to be attacked, and how a real rape includes an “innocent” victim.

unacceptable

Only, her definition of an innocent victim is someone attacked by a stranger in her home and beaten nearly to death. Whelp, that leaves me out – I was attacked in my own home, but the person who broke in was a friend, and he didn’t leave more than a few scrapes and bruises, so I guess I wasn’t innocent enough!

She claims that prosecuting a man for rape rather than theft when he rapes a prostitute is an insult to rape victims. Well, this rape victim is certainly insulted, but not by law enforcement taking the violent rape of a sex worker seriously enough to set bail for the alleged rapist at three-quarters of a million dollars. I’m actually quite pleased (of course, my happiness is somewhat dimmed by the fact he’s black – I do wonder if he’d have been let go with an apology for the inconvenience if he was white). I jump up and down and scream like a Seahawks fan during a touchdown whenever law enforcement officials take a rape allegation seriously, and I practically cause a one-woman Beastquake when the victim is a sex worker. See, Mary (and people who think like her), when society treats some women as “unrapeable”, it’s pretty easy for a rapist to decide the particular woman he wants to attack falls into that category. And, while prostitutes are professionals who have sex with strangers for a fee, that doesn’t mean they can’t be traumatized by some asshole rapist who decides to attack them. They bloody well can. If you can’t empathize with a woman who’s been sexually assaulted just because she has sex regularly as part of her job, then you’re a pretty wretched excuse for a human being.

I’d have plenty more to say about it, but Tony took care of it for me:

In truth, by framing rape as a crime that can only happen to women who maintain a certain level of sexual innocence, by slut-shaming women who act outside the bounds of traditional expectations of female sexuality, and by asserting that rape is only rape if a victim is injured, it is Mary Mitchell-rather than law enforcement-who is delivering the insult. And that insult is a slap in the face to victims of rape and sexual assault.

You owe every one of us an apology, Mary. I’d suggest you start with the victim you just shat all over.

 Tony’s facing some seriously hard times. He works his ass off providing top-quality content, but blogging doesn’t pay the bills, and he hasn’t found a paying job yet. If you can help out, please visit his donation page. Thank you!

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Read Tony’s Excellent Article on the “Perfect” Rape Victim. Support Him if You Can!
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3 thoughts on “Read Tony’s Excellent Article on the “Perfect” Rape Victim. Support Him if You Can!

  1. 2

    These rape tips serve to treat men as if they’re uncontrollable sexual brutes who will violate anyone and everyone. Makes me wonder why MRA’s don’t criticize rape avoidance tips, bc damn, the tips make men look baaaaaaaaaad

    I’ve come to realize that the entire “women must remain modest to protect themselves” part of rape culture is the best illustrator of real power looks like in society. It’s the ability to come up with a negative stereotype about yourself, then restrict the rights of other people for it. If there was any other group than men (well, white men) that we believed were unable to control themselves if sexually aroused we’d keep them locked up. But, since it’s (white) men, it’s women who have to find away to work around it. Which, of course is why MRAs are all for rape avoidance tips, they’re perfectly willing to accept the worst in men, just so long as they retain the power to use that to oppress others.

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