The Blame Game

This survey was widely reported in the media earlier in the week. It's about rape. The fact that rape happens sickens me and I understand why so many people try to avoid even thinking about it. It's the classic Ostrich syndrome; fear and disgust lead to a refusal to acknowledge the problem. It's understandable but at the same time, it's clear that ignoring the problem won't make it go away. People are raped in our country. Lot's of people. More needs to be done to stop it happening.

One person who consistently highlights these issues is bookdrunk at rhetorically speaking.

More than a third of people believe that a woman is totally or partially responsible for being raped if she has behaved in a flirtatious manner

And that's the culture of rape, plain and simple, that says that the victim of crime has invited that crime. Remember, this is a critique that applies to women and women alone for exhibiting behaviour that would never be used to criticise a male victim of crime.

It is a truly appalling statistic. Bookdrunk has also collected some readers comments from the Daily Mail website. Some of them may make you feel quite ill.

I'd also recommend reading this excellent post by Emma at gendergeek (via bookdrunk).

Apologist attitudes to rape should not be allowed to go unchallenged. There is no excuse.