Especially as this kind of advice appears to put the responsibility of rape prevention back onto the woman.
IMHO, that responsibility lies with everybody who can make a difference to that situation - men and women both. It isn't fair that women have to do part of this job - the man's conscience should be able to handle the whole thing. But until we succeed in making this world fair, which isn't going to happen any time soon, anybody who counts on it treating them fairly is in real trouble. I don't think telling people "this world is unfair, and you need to protect yourselves against that" is condoning that unfairness.
I suppose the real trouble is it's all very well to be informed about risks - but really, the risks we are informed about are so all-encompassing that it is virtually impossible to live without having to take one of these 'risks' daily.
Sure, and I'm not saying women should attempt to live risk-free lives. There's no such thing. But there's a lot that can be done to reduce risk without cutting onto one's lifestyle very much - for instance, picking a parking spot in the morning that'll be safer to come back to at night.
And while the average 14-year-old might know that there are a lot of dangers out there, I'm not convinced she knows so much about how to deal with them when things start to turn bad. For instance - at the age of fourteen, if a guy had grabbed your wrist and refused to let go, would you have known how to get away?
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-12-04 07:55 am (UTC)IMHO, that responsibility lies with everybody who can make a difference to that situation - men and women both. It isn't fair that women have to do part of this job - the man's conscience should be able to handle the whole thing. But until we succeed in making this world fair, which isn't going to happen any time soon, anybody who counts on it treating them fairly is in real trouble. I don't think telling people "this world is unfair, and you need to protect yourselves against that" is condoning that unfairness.
I suppose the real trouble is it's all very well to be informed about risks - but really, the risks we are informed about are so all-encompassing that it is virtually impossible to live without having to take one of these 'risks' daily.
Sure, and I'm not saying women should attempt to live risk-free lives. There's no such thing. But there's a lot that can be done to reduce risk without cutting onto one's lifestyle very much - for instance, picking a parking spot in the morning that'll be safer to come back to at night.
And while the average 14-year-old might know that there are a lot of dangers out there, I'm not convinced she knows so much about how to deal with them when things start to turn bad. For instance - at the age of fourteen, if a guy had grabbed your wrist and refused to let go, would you have known how to get away?