Battlepanda: "She asked for it" attitudes still alive

Battlepanda

Always trying to figure things out with the minimum of bullshit and the maximum of belligerence.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

"She asked for it" attitudes still alive

People suck:
A new ICM opinion poll commissioned by Amnesty International indicates that a third (34%) of people in the UK believe that a woman is partially or totally responsible for being raped if she has behaved in a flirtatious manner.
For instance, more than a quarter (26%) of those asked said that they thought a women was partially or totally responsible for being raped if she was wearing sexy or revealing clothing, and more than one in five (22%) held the same view if a woman had had many sexual partners.

But I have to say, I'm not entirely surprised. There is one female relative of mine (and she's not even that old) who thought that the central park jogger who was brutally raped and left for dead had it coming for being female and running through the park alone at night.
I wonder how much of the damage done to rape victims occur after the attack, either from the victim-blaming attitudes of the society if she chooses to pursue her case, or in the shame and guilt she feels because she internalized those attitudes.
I wonder how much women who are not raped lose nevertheless because of the curbs placed on their freedom through fear of rape -- is that skirt too short, is that makeup too provocative, is walking alone in the dark tantemont to asking for it.
I wonder how much men who are not rapists lose nevertheless because women are taught to treat them all as potential rapists.
(Amanda has more at the Pandagon)