labellementeuse | (no subject)

I found this on my wanders and thought it was important enough to re-post, even with my relatively limited time. Not sure where it originated.

A lot has been said about how to prevent rape.

Women should learn self-defence. Women should lock themselves in their houses after dark. Women shouldn't have long hair and women shouldn't wear short skirts. Women shouldn't leave drinks unattended. Fuck, they shouldn't dare to get drunk at all.

instead of that bullshit, how about:

if a woman is drunk, don't rape her.
if a woman is walking alone at night, don't rape her.
if a women is drugged and unconscious, don't rape her.
if a woman is wearing a short skirt, don't rape her.
if a woman is jogging in a park at 5 am, don't rape her.
if a woman looks like your ex-girlfriend you're still hung up on, don't rape her.
if a woman is asleep in her bed, don't rape her.
if a woman is asleep in your bed, don't rape her.
if a woman is doing her laundry, don't rape her.
if a woman is in a coma, don't rape her.
if a woman changes her mind in the middle of or about a particular activity, don't rape her.
if a woman has repeatedly refused a certain activity, don't rape her.

if a woman is not yet a woman, but a child, don't rape her.
if your girlfriend or wife is not in the mood, don't rape her.
if your step-daughter is watching tv, don't rape her.
if you break into a house and find a woman there, don't rape her.
if your friend thinks it's okay to rape someone, tell him it's not, and that he's not your friend.

if your "friend" tells you he raped someone, report him to the police.
if your frat-brother or another guy at the party tells you there's an unconscious woman upstairs and it's your turn, don't rape her, call the police and tell the guy he's a rapist.

tell your sons, god-sons, nephews, grandsons, sons of friends it's not okay to rape someone.

don't tell your women friends how to be safe and avoid rape.
don't imply that she could have avoided it if she'd only done/not done x.
don't imply that it's in any way her fault.
don't let silence imply agreement when someone tells you he "got some" with the drunk girl.
don't perpetuate a culture that tells you that you have no control over or responsibility for your actions. You can, too, help yourself.

discussion welcome, as per usual. Repost if you wish.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

My god, you've found the answer! Now let's have one for,
if someone is alive, don't murder them
if you see something don't steal it
and it's the end to crime!

I don't mean to trivialise the issue, but how does this help?
Whilst obviously there are extremes, everyone has to take some care in looking after themselves.
In any society, there will always be scum. It doesn't matter what you say or do, one day you may run into that scum.

In any society, there will always be scum. It doesn't matter what you say or do, one day you may run into that scum.

This is the mindset that I find most frustrating. People who have done bad things get compartmentalized into this other box and then it doesn't matter what they do. They've been differentiated.

Those Scum are people. They were children. They had parents. At some point in their life its hard to imagine they didn't experience love of some sort.

I'm not saying that decado is mean or anything. but I hate that people seperate criminals out like that.

This is the mindset that I find most frustrating. People who have done bad things get compartmentalized into this other box and then it doesn't matter what they do. They've been differentiated.

Particularly with rape and other sexual crime- and, lately, terrorism. And I think it's really a way that society tries to absolve itself- these people are unusual/throwbacks/genetically meant to be rapists/terrorists, we have done nothing to cause it. Which while it handily exonerates the victim- which is what we're talking about with rape here- I agree that it's totally insufficient as it relates to the offender.

I'm not saying that decado is mean or anything.

I would. ;)

Kidding.

Righto,
next time I'm walking through manners mall at 4am and some thug tries to steal my shoes, I'll just hug him, poor devil, he's had a tough life.

Please. I hate people that try to defend the action of someone such as a rapist. Ever had to comfort a friend who's just been raped? Then try saying "oh, but they're people too".

I recently saw a news piece on a guy who had just escaped from the cells in wellington. Burgler, P-user, violent, armed etc etc. Then the say the name. I went to primary school with this guy, he grew up in a upper-class wellington suburb, had ordinary, good parents and went to a good school. He was an evil little shit back then, and nothing has changed. Scum. Plain and simple.

Seeing as they are people, then you have to concede that they have the same free will as the rest of us and knowingly make a choice.

If mean is disliking a rapist then I am mean.

I didn't say they don't deserve punishment. I didn't say what they do is right.

My point is that they are human too.

Humanity goes from Jesus, Ghandi and more right through to Hitler and those idiots who flew planes into the Twin Towers.

But its is crazy to treat some of them like they aren't human. As if they are not as good as One. Because who knows what'll happen next.

I hate people that try to defend the action of someone such as a rapist.

Since we're all hating things, I hate it when attempting to defend the person is read as a defence of the act. There is nothing that can ever excuse or make up for rape- or murder- or crime generally (well, depending on the crime.) But sometimes there is a defence of the person, who can't be separated from their crime but- the more we seek to demonise the rapist, to say that some people are just bad, the further away we go from actually eliminating violent crime. Because the only way to do that- or reduce it- is to understand it, just like any other phenomenon.

if someone is alive, don't murder them
if you see something don't steal it
and it's the end to crime!

But the thing is? Society says that every day (with some exemptions for some specific forms of crime like tax dodging or whatever. And I do think that's a problem, too.) Society constantly stands up and says that the people who murder other people are responsible, that the people who steal something are responsible for it, and not the people who are stolen from- no-one tells the billionaire who's just had her $1mill necklace stolen that she shouldn't have had that necklace, or- before the crime- that she shouldn't have expensive things because they might get stolen; no-one tells the mother whose son was murdered that she should have had a more expensive alarm, or that he shouldn't have been home alone with the door unlocked- because it is accepted that it is not our responsiblity to prevent our own death by violence, although it is sensible to do so.

So I think you're slightly missing the point in that this isn't meant to be a guidance manual as to how to prevent rape; this is meant to bring attention to the ways we deal with rape. It's a crime almost exclusively committed by men, against (mostly)women and (sometimes)men; and yet our efforts to combat it start and practically end with focusing on what the woman should do to be safe.

I think people's attitudes have mostly gone beyond "she was asking for it" but this has got me thinking about when we talked about the whole idea of having to protect ourselves from rapists in Philosophy. Most of the group decided they didn't think it was fair that women's lives should be put out by having to make sure we didn't get raped...and you're right. The blame once it's happened isn't on the woman, but rapists are demonised so that potential victims are supposed to protect themselves, probably because we DO treat rapists as so inhuman that they can't control what they do. Or something.

Yeah OK, fair enough. Perhaps being a guy I don't see it as much.

I'm surprised to see you of all people advocating personal freedom though! :P

Perhaps that's it.

Oh har har har, I am very much for liberty! And freedom! And stuff!