It's no surprise that women undertake all responsibility for their sexual trauma. Not by their own choice of course, but by society making them feel as though they were somehow asking for it. In almost every instance when we talk about women being sexually assaulted, the media tends to highlight the scenario, before the action itself. What's even worse, is the zero mention of the perpetrator at all. A headline from The Sun back in July of 2016 will forever haunt me: "Woman drank six Jager bombs in ten minutes on the night she was raped and murdered"
Anyone else see the issue here?
Right off the bat, we blame her rape and murder on the fact she was drinking. It's the first thing we read. Suggesting that Jager Bombs attributed to her rape and death.
There is zero mention of the man who raped and killed this woman. None. Leaving a bit of a ghost figure.
This is just one out of the thousands of examples where we dance around the real issue by blaming the woman for being sexually violated. We mask a woman's sexual trauma by victim or situational blaming, making her feel that was completely responsible for what happened.
The reality is, the Jager bottle didn't rape this woman. Her shirt skirt didn't magically grow a pair of legs and arms to do the violating and most certainly women do not put themselves in compromising situations looking to be assaulted.
Statistics show (just in the UK alone), that 11 sexual assaults happen every hour. Which means about 264 assaults every day here in the UK. I'm sure, as this number rises so will the number of accusations a woman will face, inevitably reverting away from the real cause. Men who are perpetrating women think women are objects and they can do what they please. Not all men, but enough men. Enough men are the ones causing 264 assaults every day in the UK.
If you or a loved one has been sexually assaulted and are looking for help, please get in touch with us at support@notanobject.org. In emergency situations, please call 111 or 116 123 for the suicide prevention line.
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