Dr Jesicca Taylor on R4 Woman's Hour today, discussing her new book "Why Women Are Blamed For Everything: Exploring Victim Blaming Of Women Subjected to Violence and Trauma"

I hadn't noticed that, Gasp0de. How curious.

Lewis' Law is a belter. Not heard that before.

Loved the "ambassador's" excuse/explanation that Dr Taylor is a radical feminist rather than an intersectional one, so the student ambassador's use of classically misogynist attacks against her book on blaming victims of sexual violence is therefore justified.

I agree, they can't help but demonstrate what they really think when they're not hiding behind their word salads.

Yes its surprising that was removed

Have ordered the book

Dreadful comment. This is the person that made it. Name and image removed from The Tab article since first publication. I wonder why.

They just. Can't. Help. Themselves.

"‘Nice pair of milkers’: Former Uni of Sheffield student ambassador slammed over ‘disgusting’ comment"

thetab.com/uk/sheffield/2020/04/26/nice-pair-of-milkers-uni-of-sheffield-student-ambassador-slammed-over-disgusting-comment-43606/amp?__twitter_impression=true

Some of the accounts on #IwasBlamed are tragic.

We maybe need a law like Lewis's law for this.
Taylor's Law - the comments when a victim of abuse discusses victim-blaming justify the movement against victim-blaming type of thing.

I've not looked forward to a new book arriving on the doormat this much in such a long time.

It's all making me want to do a BSc in Psychology when I finish what I'm currently studying.
I wonder if I can explore similar themes within sociology to ensure she gets lots of footnotes.

It's sort of useful that these men make their hatred of women so clear. It's such obvious proof that women are at risk and men are the problem. But it's still disgusting that they can make these attacks and get away with it.

Thanks Jessica Taylor. And thanks too Socrates11 for introducing me to Lewis's law: "The comments on any article about feminism justify the existence of feminism".

Thank you

Muttonindistress, I misunderstood before.
If you tweet starting with #IwasBlamed and then write something (just something you feel safe disclosing on twitter) then it will add to the other tweets on that hashtag. And you can retweet tweets on that hashtag too. Ones you want to share with others.

The author Joanne Harris has a fab one.

Her radio interview was so good.

Honestly I work in the same sort of area and I do see a lot of women, as well as men, blaming victims of abuse.

I think her 'just world' theory is right. I also think the more freedoms women have gained since 1960 (the pill, working outside the home, bank accounts, going to night clubs without being seen as inherently immoral (until you are)) the more need there is to delineate between women who are raped and women who are not.
We need to believe that if we do xyz or avoid xyz we will be safe.

Before, men protected us (when it suited them) from other men.
Now, we have to protect ourselves.

Rapists still rape in more or less the same numbers, so there is a drive to make sense of the world in light of that.

Also, the definition of rape has changed, rightly. But I think it was a little easier for people to clearly see the wrong in dragging a young, virginal stranger off the street, whereas rape within a relationship or between adults where they have had consensual sex before, or raping someone who is drunk or asleep, are obviously very wrong to me, but some people struggle with them.

Funny how these types always seem to be pretty good with IT...

She's very impressive. I'm in awe.

I suppose the only silver lining of the recent horrific attacks on her is that reporting as a result of these will have inadvertently likely turned her book into a (much deserved) best seller.

Nice to think that those who sought to shut her up have instead achieved the reverse, and ensured the book is a success.

@ SuperLoud - thank you. Tbh, I’m not even sure what type of account I’ve got. That’s how social media savvy I am! But I’ll try to figure it out.
@ AskingQuestions - good point. That hadn’t even crossed my mind.

I love the resources on her website - went on to order the book, and was happy to see she's also written books for reflection on these issues for academics, practitioners and survivors.
I'd love to have all 3 as they're all relevant for me, but got the one for my studies as I have reflection essays due soon.
Might try and see if there's budget at work to get the one for practitioners and her flash cards look so useful.

A big group of VAW training workers from different agencies have sat and wracked our brains about how to start conversations on eg victim blaming. Obviously I do this already in my work but thinking of a neutral, context-free, non-threatening way to do it for us all to use together was tricky. The 'just world' flashcards are amazing.
As are all the others.
I would like to buy them all as resources for training.

On twitter, do you have a public or locked account? Public accounts will be able to influence things more.

You can retweet with your own comment.
You can reply.
You can start a tweet thread of your own, linking to the book. For eg this is the last day to pre-order and get a signed copy.

" But I can’t think why women would be more likely to do it now than previously."

Might it be anything to do with who is now defined as a woman?

Have just ordered the book. But how do you get something trending on Twitter? Do you just have to look at it - or do you have to comment?

Please look at Twitter and get this trending!

I think it's that men are victim blaming less due to awareness, the current climate in relation to addressing the issues and I'd say the main one is many more males are now speaking about their experiences of sexual crimes and if a man can feel empathy towards a male victim it then is easier to feel that same empathy for female victims too.

I think historically men saw female rape victims as the lying, attention seeking, dramatic female, in fact this was used in court 8 years ago to try to tear me down because his team were clutching at straws, and I think this is normal in most sexual offence trials with a female victim.

I'm an adult survivor of CSA, I was abused from birth, all my life I've been blamed even after my abuser went on to get 20 years in prison.

I have experienced shocking attitudes from both male & female GPs & IAPT Trauma Informed CBT Counselling. With the focus being on what's wrong with me and/or my behaviour, when I know I'm having a normal & rational response to the traumas of my past & a horrendous trial.

I have pointed this out to a therapists, as they struggle to help me, & seem to take it almost offensively, as I don't have drink or drug issues, or unhealthy coping mechanisms & I've had a good career and stable life, which they always seem quite shocked by. Yet I still need help.

I'm a member of the All Party Parliament Group for Adult Survivors of Childhood Abuse & the research found only 16% of Adult Survivors found Mental Health services of use. I think this point hits the nail on the head as to the reason why.

Thank you for doing this research if your reading 💐

Jessica is an excellent writer on/around this subject, so I'm looking forward to hearing her speak.

The abuse for writing her book is so meanspirited, abusive & unecessary. Why do men think it's necessary for others to hear/see their spitefulness & what are they hoping to gain from it? It must be pretty obvious to people that know them what incontinent arseholes they are, proving Lewis''s law.

That really struck me as well Lunaria. The explanation that it makes people feel safer to victim blame, because you can tell yourself it won’t happen to me if I behave differently, makes a lot of sense, I think, and
would help to explain women doing it. But I can’t think why women would be more likely to do it now than previously. Or is that men are less likely to - and that’s why it’s equalised? Be nice to think it’s the latter.

I wish Jennie Murray had followed up on the question about why women and men blame victims equally. Yes misogyny, yes patriarchy but why has the figure for women blaming victims become equal with men's. Patiarchy and misogyny existed before. What's changed?

It made me realise how lucky we are to have Woman's Hour. Who else would've included that interview?