https://variety.

com/2017/film/news/angela-lansbury-women-blame-sexual-harassment-
1202624492/amp/

Angela Lansbury Says Women Must Accept Some Blame for Sexual
Harassment
 Dave McNary

November 28, 2017 9:29AM PST

Angela Lansbury has received fierce backlash for saying women must accept some blame for sexual
harassment and abuse because they make themselves attractive to men. “We must sometimes take
blame, women,” she said in an interview with Radio Times magazine. “I really do think that. Although
it’s awful to say, we can’t make ourselves look as attractive as possible without being knocked down
and raped.”
The 92-year-old’s comments were published on Tuesday amid a wave of sexual harassment
allegations in Hollywood sparked by New York Times and New Yorker exposes detailing decades of
alleged misconduct by disgraced mogul Harvey Weinstein.
“There are two sides to this coin,” Lansbury said. “We have to own up to the fact that women, since
time immemorial, have gone out of their way to make themselves attractive. And unfortunately it has
backfired on us — and this is where we are today.”
“Should women be prepared for this?” she added. “No, they shouldn’t have to be. There’s no excuse
for that. And I think it will stop now — it will have to. I think a lot of men must be very worried at this
point.
Lansbury’s comments were rebuked by the organization Rape Crisis England & Wales, which said in
a statement: “It is a deeply unhelpful myth that rape and other forms of sexual violence are caused
or ‘provoked’ by women’s sexuality or ‘attractiveness.'”
Twitter users were also highly critical, accusing Lansbury of victim-blaming.

http://www2.southernct.edu/sexual-misconduct/facts.html

RAPE CULTURE, VICTIM BLAMING, AND THE

FACTS
WHAT IS RAPE CULTURE?
Rape Culture is an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual violence is
normalized and excused in the media and popular culture. Rape culture is perpetuated through the
use of misogynistic language, the objectification of women’s bodies, and the glamorization of sexual
violence, thereby creating a society that disregards women’s rights and safety.
 EXAMPLES OF RAPE CULTURE
 Blaming the victim (“She asked for it!”)
 Trivializing sexual assault (“Boys will be boys!”)
 Sexually explicit jokes
 Tolerance of sexual harassment
 Inflating false rape report statistics
 Publicly scrutinizing a victim’s dress, mental state, motives, and history
 Gratuitous gendered violence in movies and television
 Defining “manhood” as dominant and sexually aggressive
 Defining “womanhood” as submissive and sexually passive
 Pressure on men to “score”
 Pressure on women to not appear “cold”
 Assuming only promiscuous women get raped
 Assuming that men don’t get raped or that only “weak” men get raped
 Refusing to take rape accusations seriously
 Teaching women to avoid getting raped

VICTIM BLAMING
One reason people blame a victim is to distance themselves from an unpleasant occurrence and
thereby confirm their own invulnerability to the risk. By labeling or accusing the victim, others can
see the victim as different from themselves. People reassure themselves by thinking, "Because I am
not like her, because I do not do that, this would never happen to me." We need to help people
understand that this is not a helpful reaction.

Why Is It Dangerous?
Victim-blaming attitudes marginalize the victim/survivor and make it harder to come forward and
report the abuse. If the survivor knows that you or society blames her for the abuse, s/he will not feel
safe or comfortable coming forward and talking to you.
Victim-blaming attitudes also reinforce what the abuser has been saying all along; that it is the
victim’s fault this is happening. It is NOT the victim’s fault or responsibility to fix the situation; it is the
abuser’s choice. By engaging in victim-blaming attitudes, society allows the abuser to perpetrate
relationship abuse or sexual assault while avoiding accountability for his/her actions.

What Does Victim-Blaming Look Like?

Example of Victim-Blaming Attitude: “She must have provoked him into being abusive. They both
need to change.”
Reality: This statement assumes that the victim is equally to blame for the abuse, when in reality,
abuse is a conscious choice made by the abuser. Abusers have a choice in how they react to their
partner’s actions. Options besides abuse include: walking away, talking in the moment, respectfully
explaining why an action is frustrating, breaking up, etc. Additionally, abuse is not about individual
 actions that incite the abuser to hurt his partner, but rather about the abuser’s feelings of entitlement
to do whatever he wants to his partner.
When friends and family remain neutral about the abuse and say that both people need to change,
they are colluding with and supporting the abusive partner and making it less likely that the survivor
will seek support.

HOW CAN MEN AND WOMEN COMBAT RAPE CULTURE AND VICTIM
BLAMING?
 Avoid using language that objectifies or degrades women
 Speak out if you hear someone else making an offensive joke or trivializing rape
 If a friend says they have been raped, take your friend seriously and be supportive
 Think critically about the media’s messages about women, men, relationships, and violence
 Be respectful of others’ physical space even in casual situations
 Let survivors know that it is not their fault
 Hold abusers accountable for their actions: do not let them make excuses like blaming the victim,
alcohol, or drugs for their behavior
 Always communicate with sexual partners and do not assume consent
 Define your own manhood or womanhood. Do not let stereotypes shape your actions.
 Be an Active Bystander!
Adapted from Marshall University and Center for Relationship Abuse Awareness

DATING AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE FACTS

FACT: Regardless of their actions, no one deserves to be physically, verbally or sexually abused. In
fact, putting the blame for the violence on the victim is a way to manipulate the victim and other
people. Batterers will tell the victim, "You made me mad," or, "You made me jealous," or will try to
shift the burden by saying, "Everyone acts like that." Most victims try to placate and please their
abusive partners in order to de-escalate the violence. The batterer chooses to abuse, and bears full
responsibility for the violence.
FACT: Many victims love their partners despite the abuse, blame themselves, or feel as if they have
no support system or resources outside of the relationship and so they feel as if they can’t leave.
Furthermore, the period immediately after leaving an abusive relationship is extremely dangerous.
FACT: Jealousy and possessiveness are signs that the person sees you as a possession. They are
one of the most common early warning sign of abuse
FACT: Abuse can come in many forms, such as sexual, physical, verbal, and emotional. When a
person in a relationship repeatedly scares, hurts, or puts down the other person, it is abuse.
Harassment, intimidation, forced or coerced isolation from friends and family and having an
independent social life, humiliation, threats of harm to you or your family or pets, threats of suicide if
you leave, violating your privacy, limiting your independence and personal choices are all examples
of abuse.
FACT: While the majority of victims of domestic violence are women, men may also be victims of
relationship violence. Men face many of the same barriers as women that prevent them from
reporting abuse, but also face a different kind of stigma since many do not believe that men can be
victims of dating/domestic violence.
FACT: The majority of men and young men in our community are not violent. The use of violence is
a choice. Men who use violence in their relationships choose where and when they are violent. The
large majority of offenders who assault their partners control their violence with others, such as
friends or work colleagues, where there is no perceived right to dominate and control.
Stating that 'All men are violent' places the blame for the violence elsewhere and prevents the
perpetrator from being responsible for his violence. The majority of men and women want and can
be allies to help in the fight against this kind of violence.
FACT: As many as one-third of all high school and college-age young people experience violence in
an intimate or dating relationship. Physical abuse is as common among high school and college-age
couples as married couples.

SEXUAL ASSAULT FACTS

FACT: Men, women and children of all ages, races, religions, and economic classes can be and
have been victims of sexual assault. Sexual assault occurs in rural areas, small towns and larger
cities. It is estimated that one in three girls and one six boys will be sexually assaulted by the age of
eighteen. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, a rape or attempted rape occurs every 5
minutes in the United States.

FACT: Sexual assault is NEVER the victim’s fault. Sexual assault is a violent attack on an individual,
not a spontaneous crime of sexual passion. For a victim, it is a humiliating and degrading act. No
one “asks” for or deserves this type of attack.
FACT: Most sexual assaults are committed by someone the victim knows. Studies show that
approximately 80%-90% of women reporting sexual assaults knew their assailant.
FACT: A sexual assault can happen anywhere and at any time. The majority of assaults occur in
places ordinarily thought to be safe, such as homes, cars and offices.
FACT: Reported sexual assaults are true, with very few exceptions. According to CONNSACS, only
2% of reported rapes are false. This is the same rate of false reporting as other major crime reports.
FACT: Men can be, and are, sexually assaulted. Current statistics indicate that one in six men are
sexually assaulted in their lifetime. Sexual assault of men is thought to be greatly under-reported.
FACT: Almost all sexual assaults occur between members of the same race. Interracial rape is not
common, but it does occur.
FACT: Sexual assault is motivated by hostility, power and control. Sexual assaults are not motivated
by sexual desire. Unlike animals, humans are capable of controlling how they choose to act on or
express sexual urges.
FACT: Sexual offenders come from all educational, occupational, racial and cultural backgrounds.
They are “ordinary” and “normal” individuals who sexually assault victims to assert power and control
over them and inflict violence, humiliation and degradation.
FACT: Anytime someone is forced to have sex against their will, they have been sexually assaulted,
regardless of whether or not they fought back or said "no". There are many reasons why a victim
might not physically fight their attacker including shock, fear, threats or the size and strength of the
attacker.
FACT: Survivors exhibit a spectrum of emotional responses to assault: calm, hysteria, laughter,
anger, apathy, shock. Each survivor copes with the trauma of the assault in a different way.
Adapted from Connecticut Sexual Assault Crisis Services (CONNSACS)
https://www.woodrufflab.org/blog/changing-culture-victim-blaming

CHANGING THE CULTURE OF VICTIM BLAMING

A disturbing trend in many cases of domestic abuse, sexual

assault, and rape against women is the tendency to blame the victim of the crime, rather
than the perpetrator. Over the past several months, there have been a number of high
profile cases of violence against women that highlight the victim-blaming culture we live
in.This was seen in the aftermath of the recent Steubenville, Ohio trial in which two male
high school football players were found guilty of raping a sixteen-year-old girl who was
unable to consent to sexual activity after drinking alcohol at a party. Many individuals,
both male and female, reacted to the trial and the guilty verdicts by harshly blaming the
young woman for being raped, and declared the men’s innocence, despite the evidence
against them. There has also been strong backlash against CNN’s reporting of the
verdict, and its emphasis on the impact on the lives of the two men found guilty, rather
than the victim. Reporter Poppy Harlow stated “These two young men that had such
promising futures … literally watched as they believed their life fell apart,” and Candy
Crowley reported “What’s the lasting effect though on two young men being found guilty
in juvenile court of rape essentially?” She failed to discuss what the lasting effect on the
young woman who was raped might be (Shapiro).

Similar incidences can be seen throughout the world. In mid-March, a Swiss woman was gang
raped by a group of men while camping overnight in India with her husband. The men robbed
the couple, tied up and beat the man, and gang raped the woman. During the course of the
investigation, local police claimed that the tourists were at least partially to blame, as they failed
to tell the police where they were staying (Sieczkowski). While these are just a couple of cases
that made headlines, women are victims of sexual and domestic violence every day, usually
without any media attention.
Within this culture of victim blaming, women are told to change their own behavior in order to
avoid being assaulted or raped. Women are told repeatedly to dress less provocatively, drink
less alcohol, and not put themselves in risky situations. This proliferates the belief that women
are at fault when they are attacked, and leads to a lack of accountability for men. Recently
though, there has been a push to increase rape and assault prevention education for men.
Zerlina Maxwell, a rape survivor who appeared on the Fox News show “Hannity” to discuss this
issue, advocates rape prevention education for young boys and men, stating that “we need to
teach them about consent and to hold themselves accountable.” This is significant because
despite the common perception that rapists are usually violent strangers, women are often
raped by men they trust and consider friends (Williams). This strategy was used in a 2011
Canadian ad campaign called “Don’t be that guy.” One poster consisted of an image of a
 woman appeared to be passed out, surrounded by alcohol, along with a quote stating “Just
because she isn’t saying no doesn’t mean she is saying yes.” After the launch of this campaign,
rates of sexual assault in Vancouver dropped for the first time in years, by a rate of 10%
(Matas).
While it’s important that women continue to be empowered and educated on how to prevent
rape, this education needs to be extended to men as well. Men and women need to work
together to change the culture of victim blaming, and help reduce violence against women.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-369262/Women-blame-raped.html

Women 'to blame' for being raped

09:15 GMT 21 Nov 2005, updated 09:26 GMT 22 Nov 2005
A third of Britons believe a woman who acts flirtatiously is partially or completely to blame for
being raped, according to a new study. More than a quarter also believe a woman is at least
partly responsible for being raped if she wears sexy or revealing clothing, or is drunk, the study
found. One in five think a woman is partly to blame if it is known she has many sexual partners,
while more than a third believe she is responsible to some degree if she has clearly failed to say
"no" to the man. In each of these scenarios a slightly greater proportion of men than women
held these views - except when it came to being drunk, when it was equal. In fact more women
(5pc) than men (3pc) thought a woman was "totally responsible" for being raped if she was
intoxicated. Support groups described the findings as "alarming" and "appalling". The national
charity Victim Support urged criminal justice professionals and healthcare workers to "consider
how best to educate people about the terrible impact of rape, with a view to changing these
attitudes." The ICM opinion poll, commissioned by Amnesty International, also revealed that the
vast majority of the British population has no idea how many women are raped every year in the
UK. Almost all, 96 per cent, of respondents said they either did not know the true extent of rape
or thought it was far lower than the true figure. Only 4 per cent even thought the number of
women raped exceeded 10,000. The number of recorded rapes in 2004/5 was more than
12,000 and the 2001 British Crime Survey estimated that just 15 per cent of rapes come to the
attention of the police. 'Rape is an appalling crime' Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen
said the poll, part of its Stop Violence Against Women campaign, had uncovered "disturbing
attitudes". She said: "It is shocking that so many people will lay the blame for being raped at the
feet of women themselves and the government must launch a new drive to counteract this
sexist 'blame culture'." The research had also exposed the scale of public ignorance over the
true extent of rape crimes in the UK and the "dreadfully low" conviction rates, she said. "The
government has an international duty to prevent this gross human rights violation yet it's clear
that the government's policies on tackling rape are failing and failing badly," she said. "These
findings should act as a wake-up call to the government to urgently tackle the triple problem of
the high incidence of rape, low conviction rates and a sexist blame culture." Joanna Perry,
policy manager at Victim Support, said: "It is alarming to read that so many people seem to
 believe that a woman is responsible for inviting a rape or sexual assault, because of what she
was wearing, what she drank or how she behaved. "Rape is an appalling crime and has a
devastating effect on victims, and those close to them. In other words, nobody asks to be
raped." 'Prejudices' in court system Ruth Hall, from the support group Women Against Rape,
criticised "prejudices" in the court system, saying: "They still put the woman on trial, including
her sexual history with other men, which is supposed to be banned and blame the woman for
what happened to her and hold her accountable. "If that is the standard set by the people who
are supposed to be prosecuting rapists and protecting us it is not surprising if members of the
public say the same thing." She added: "Rather than another Government awareness
campaign, the Government's responsibility is to get the criminal justice authorities to prosecute
violent men. Let them worry about the awareness of the police, judges and the Crown
Prosecution Service and public awareness will change." Sheila Coates, director of the South
Essex Rape and Incest Crisis Centre, said the poll showed people had little idea about the true
extent of rape in the UK. The support systems for victims were already stretched, she warned.
"The situation for rape victims and women's specialist sexual violence services are at critical,"
she said. "Those needing counselling face waiting lists of up to one year and this can only get
worse as more rape crisis groups close or cut back services due to a lack of funding and
government support. This situation has forced victims into a postcode lottery when trying to find
support." The Home Office said it was determined to increase the number of rape cases which
were successfully prosecuted. A spokesman said: "We have made a number of changes to the
legal system and to how the police and Crown Prosecution Service work, to put victims needs
first and to make it easier for cases to get to trial and secure convictions. "We are determined to
close the gap between the increasing number of rape cases reported and the low number of
convictions." ICM interviewed a random sample of 1,095 adults aged 18+ by telephone. They
were given a series of scenarios and asked to indicate whether they believed a woman was
totally responsible, partially responsible or not at all responsible for being raped. If the woman
was drunk, 4pc said she was totally responsible and 26pc said she was partially responsible. If
the woman behaved in a flirtatious manner, 6pc said she was totally responsible and 28pc said
she was partially responsible. If the woman failed to say "no" clearly to the man, 8pc said she
was totally responsible and 29pc said she was partially responsible. If the woman was wearing
sexy or revealing clothing, 6pc said she was totally responsible and 20pc said she was partially
responsible. If it is known that the woman has many sexual partners, 8pc said she was totally
responsible and 14pc said she was partially responsible. If she is alone and walking in a
dangerous or deserted area, 5pc said she was totally responsible and 17pc said she was
partially responsible.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-england-45809169

Victim blaming: Is it a woman's responsibility to stay safe?

 10 October 2018
 England

 Jessica Eaton, who campaigns on behalf of the victims of sexual violence, called
the advice "ridiculous" and "useless".

 "No-one will talk about the most common denominator here," she said.

 "Headphones don't rape women, nor do skirts, or dark streets, or clubs, or

alcohol, or parties, or sleepovers, or school uniforms.

 "Name the perpetrators. Name the problem. We can't help if we can't even name
it."

 She added there was a hypocrisy to the police's sexual assault message and that
given out following other types of crime.

 "When there is a terrorist attack, government, police and public figures say 'we
will not change our way of life, we will not change our behaviours... we will carry
on as normal because we deserve a safe society'.

 "But when women are being raped and assaulted, government, police and public
figures say 'women, change your behaviours... do something different'. Why are
women supposed to change their lives and their behaviours for sex offenders?"

 Her sentiments were mirrored online in response to the BBC's story.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/supersurvivors/201803/why-do-people-blame-the-
victim?amp

David B. Feldman Ph.D.

Supersurvivors

Why Do People Blame the

Victim? March 2 2018
Virtually anyone who has survived sexual assault or experienced sexual
harassment knows how painful victim-blaming can be. Survivors are often asked
what they were wearing, what they did to “encourage” the perpetrator, or even
why they didn’t fight back more.

Despite the recent rise of the #MeToo movement, victim-blaming remains

a tenacious problem.

In fact, it may be more tenacious than any of us imagined. That's because the
tendency to blame the victim may be programmed into the human mind at a very
basic level. Ask yourself if you've even wondered whether the victims of
a crime or accident had done something to set themselves up for their tragedy?
Victim-blaming doesn’t have to involve accusing survivors of directly causing
their own misfortune. It can involve the simple thought that you would have been
more careful, implying that the tragedy was at least partially their fault. Recently,
when my neighbor’s house was burglarized, I found myself tempted to blame him
for it. Given that the crime occurred in broad daylight, I initially was convinced
that he must have done something to invite it. Perhaps he had made enemies.
Perhaps the burglary was intentionally targeted at him. Perhaps he simply hadn’t
taken proper precautions to protect his home. This explanation gave me great
comfort because it meant my house was safe.
Our tendency to blame the victim shouldn't be something we're proud of, of
course. It marginalizes the survivor, minimizes the criminal act, and makes
people less likely to come forward and report what has happened to them. For
these reasons, it’s important to understand the psychological roots of victim-
blaming, so we can help prevent it.

Although some instances of victim-blaming undoubtedly originate from

ignorance, meanness, or a smug sense of superiority, there may be another,
even more significant cause. Specifically, psychologists believe that our tendency
to blame the victim may originate, paradoxically, in a deep need to believe that
the world is a good and just place. To understand how this is possible, it’s
important to consider how we human beings make sense of the world around us.
On a daily basis, we’re bombarded with news of pretty scary events. A brief
perusal of virtually any day's top news stories reveals a menagerie of shootings,
terrorist attacks, and war, not to mention burglaries, accidents, and personal
crimes. If we were truly rational creatures, we would feel utterly terrified. After all,
these events could happen to us.

So, if you’re not terrified, ask yourself why.

If you're like most people, your answer is probably something like, “because it
won’t happen to me.” But why wouldn’t it? Why wouldn't you be vulnerable to the
same events that everyone else is?

According to University of Massachusetts psychologist Ronnie Janoff-Bulman,

we’re able to so easily believe in our personal invulnerability because of what she
calls our “positive assumptive worldview.” On some level, most of us believe that
that the world is basically good, that good things happen to good people, and that
we, fortunately, are good people. In other words, we believe the world is
generally a just and fair place.

Most of us internalized these beliefs at an early age, at about the same time we
learned to believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. But unlike our belief in
these mythical Good Samaritans, we don’t entirely surrender our rosy worldview
as we mature. We’re not stupid, of course. On a conscious level, we all know that
bad things happen to good people. But, despite this superficial realization,
Janoff-Bulman argues that, on some deeper level, most of us still grasp onto the
belief that the world is basically fair. This is why we have sayings like, “What
goes around comes around,” “Your chickens will come home to roost,” and “You
reap what you sow.”

Despite the delusional nature of these beliefs, we should be happy we have

them. Imagine how terrible life would seem if we truly thought the world was
dangerous, unfair, and that we were not good people. Our positive beliefs help us
to function and live happily in a world that can often be downright frightening. So,
the brain fights hard to maintain them.

According to pioneering research by psychologist Melvin Lerner, our need to

maintain a belief in a just world may be at fault for our tendency to blame victims.
When bad things happen to someone who seems a lot like us, this threatens our
belief that the world is a just place. If that person could fall victim to rape, assault,
robbery, or attack, perhaps we could, too. So, to comfort ourselves in the face of
this troubling realization and maintain our rosy worldview, we psychologically
separate ourselves from the victim. We wonder if he or she had done something
to invite the tragedy. Maybe that survivor of sexual assault was wearing
provocative clothing. Maybe that shooting victim was involved in gang activity.
Maybe my neighbor had invited that burglary by associating with the wrong
people. If this is the case, we tell ourselves, then it won’t happen to me. After all,
the world is a just place.

This isn’t just speculation. In a classic experiment published in the Psychological

Bulletin, Lerner and his colleague Carolyn Simmons provided evidence for this
explanation of victim-blaming. In their study, a large sample of women were
asked to watch through a video monitor as another person received a series of
apparently painful electrical shocks. The women believed they were observing
an experiment in human learning in which the person on the screen was
receiving the shocks as punishment for her errors on a word-memorization task.
Although they were led to believe that the victim was another participant like
themselves, the person was actually an actor, so nobody was really harmed in
the experiment. Not surprisingly, all of the participants were initially upset by the
victim’s suffering. But this is where the experiment gets a bit more complicated:
Some participants were offered the opportunity to compensate the victim by
voting to stop punishing her errors with shocks, instead rewarding her with
money when she got the answers right. That is, they were given the opportunity
to restore justice, to make the world good again. A second group of participants
were not given this opportunity; they were asked simply to sit and watch the
victim get repeatedly shocked, with no way of remedying the situation.

https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2018/09/27/1855290/leni-robredo-rape-should-not-be-blamed-
beautiful-women
Janvic Mateo (The Philippine Star) - September 27, 2018 - 8:23pm
MANILA, Philippines — In an apparent reference to President Duterte, Vice President Leni Robredo
stressed Thursday that incidents of rape and sexual assault – whether a joke or not – should not be
blamed on the presence of beautiful women.

Speaking at the 60th anniversary of the Federation of Asia Pacific Women’s Associations, Robredo
highlighted the challenges being faced by women in the region, including cases of rape and assault.

“Society should never blame widespread assault and rape on the presence of beautiful women, nor
should rape even be considered a laughing matter,” she said.

“We, women – and men too – should know this by heart. Men should make it their business to
respect us,” she added.

Duterte earlier drew criticisms for citing the presence of beautiful women as the reason for high
number of rape incidents in Davao City.

Malacañang defended the President and claimed that he was merely joking when he made the
remark.

But according to Robredo, issues facing women are no laughing matter.

“In many developing countries, women are still vulnerable to indecent working conditions,
inadequate social security, and discrimination,” she said.

“Social media, the very means to freely express one’s opinion, is now a space for harassment. In
some respects, protecting (a) woman’s dignity and character is more difficult in the virtual sphere,
where just about anyone can make irresponsible comments primarily because they can be made
anonymously, with no accountability,” Robredo added.

The Vice President also cited emerging issues such as the violent extremism, forced migration of
refugees, heightened abduction and human trafficking and the harmful effects of climate change.

She said women should be included in efforts to create a heritage of lasting peace and sustainable
development.

“We need to work harder together and much more effectively in ensuring that every woman is
empowered to rise above her struggles and freely live out her dreams,” she said.

“It is critical that we take care of our sisters, especially those who are unable to take care of
themselves,” the Vice President added.

https://victimfocus.wordpress.com/2018/11/25/she-could-have-been-your-sister/

25th November 2018

Jessica Eaton

I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently. Why is it that we blame women and girls
so much for sexual violence and abuse? And why is the retort so often, ‘She could
have been your sister, mother, daughter or girlfriend!’

On face value that seems like a pretty logical sentiment, doesn’t it?

The approach of this sentiment is to gain empathy or understanding from the other person
by encouraging them to imagine that the rape or abuse could have happened to their
female family member. People would most likely assume that by using this retort, the
person might think ‘Oh gosh, yes, I would hate it if that happened to my own daughter,
maybe I need to re-evaluate why I blame women and girls for rape?’

The reality is a little bit murkier than that. The reality is less optimistic and less effective
than that.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0199808

The role of self-objectification and women’s blame, sympathy, and support for
a rape victim
Casey L. Bevens, Amy L. Brown, Steve Loughnan
Sexual aggression is prevalent and damaging in our culture, and sources of support or
blame following an attack of this kind can be important influences on the recovery process.
This pair of studies investigate the nature of women’s blame reactions towards survivors of
sexual aggression, as well as the potential for provision of sympathy and support.
Specifically, we focused on the previously neglected role of female self-objectification. It
was expected that increased self-objectification would lead to decreased sympathy and
support, and more rape victim blame. However, results of Study 1 showed that chronic self-
objectification was actually related to higher levels of sympathy and support for a rape
victim. Study two built upon the limitations of study one, and examined similar questions. It
was expected that women who engaged in greater self-objectification would again show
greater sympathy and support for the victim, replicating study one’s results, and this was
supported with a different scale. The overall relationship between self-objectification and
sympathy and support was driven by body-relevant control beliefs. Implications and future
directions are discussed.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/40435895?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Pic