With the recent news of the Stanford student rape case, I've been pleasantly surprised to see a lot of support poured out for the victim. Many of my Facebook friends have been sharing posts that support the victim and her right to justice. Recently even Vice President, Joe Biden, expressed his support for the victim in a letter he wrote.
Unfortunately though, I have still come across some people who feel that this victim of rape, as well as others, deserve blame for what has happened to them. Here are some common arguments against this victim and rape victims in general that I have heard, and why I disagree with them.
1. She drank too much at a party so she put herself at risk.
My problem with this argument is fairly simple. Drinking alcohol at a party is not in itself an illegal act, but raping someone is. Young women are allowed to drink if they so choose to. Drinking is a common occurrence at parties and it's obvious that a victim is usually not the only one drinking. When people make this argument I wonder what they are trying to say. Is it that every time a woman drinks alcohol she's therefore sacrificing her right to safety? Excessive drinking is a problem in it's own right, but it does not justify a rape being committed.
2. She left her friends and went off on her own.
Once again, it is not illegal for a woman to go outside on her own. Women do not need to be escorted everywhere they go. Women are taught from a young age that they should travel in groups, but it is just not possible to always have someone by your side. This argument also doesn't take into consideration that 3 out of 4 rapes are committed by someone known to the victim. This means that sometimes a woman would be safer on her own than with someone she knows.
3. What was she wearing?
This question bothers me because it implies that men do not have self control. The majority of men would not have a problem keeping themselves from raping someone no matter how revealing that person's outfit was. This is because they know that raping someone is wrong, plain and simple. Many rape victims were not even dressed provocatively at the time of their rape so there is not much evidence to support that it is a victim's outfit that causes a rape to occur.
A campaign that does a good job of proving this point is Not Your Fault by Teen Vogue. One of its projects is called "What Was I Wearing When I Was Raped" and in it the magazine worked with RAINN to create a photo series of the clothing items victims were wearing when they were assaulted. The outfits vary from a school uniform to workday clothes and clothes to wear at the gym. The assortment shows that rape can happen in any place at any time and that the outfit a victim is wearing doesn't seem to make a difference to the rapist.
A common theme that I've come across when hearing people voice their opinions on rape is that often they dwell on the past of the victim and focus on the future that the rapist could have. In the Stanford case, the rapist was described as a star-swimmer and many media outlets focus on the potential he could have had to be successful. Some people seem more concerned with his reputation being tarnished than the lasting negative effects that his crime could have had on the victim. Perhaps he could have had a bright future, but he knew that what he was doing was illegal and that he was risking his future by doing it. I hope that now that this case has become so public, we as a society can start to focus on supporting our victims and their futures instead.
For more info:
http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2016/06/us/stanford-rape-case/
https://rainn.org/statistics/perpetrators-sexual-violence
http://www.teenvogue.com/gallery/what-i-was-wearing-when-i-was-raped#1
