10 Tips to Prevent Rape

[coldwed]

Should this leaflet be handed out to the public?

www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2141096

Soooo...

Again.

Used to work in a pub. wouldn't allways have enough in tips to get taxi home (buses stopped at 11pm, I wouldn't get out til 12). Following "friend" trying it on that time, I didn't trust people enough to get a lift home, so would walk home. What should I have done?

And no, it's hardly a yawning chasm...

You'd be suprised at how easily it gets turned from one into the other.

i disagree, cory i have heard mates of mine who have been mugged for being in certain parts of Manchester i.e Moss Side. All of us were are ok? what the fuck where you doing there?

Everyone shoudl take resonsibility for there own safety and there is allot of Police campaignes with regards to this. Have you ever heard of the police coming round to peoples house who leave there windows open at night and giving them a grilling???

The police DO make posters saying "don't leave your valuables on display in your car" and there was that whole "don't make it easy for them" campaign against burglary on tv recently so I don;t think it's true to say rape is the only crime where prevention advice is given.

However, I still find things like "don't get too drunk dear, you'll only have yourself to blame if you get raped" and "well, wearing that dress what did you expect" pretty horrific and what a lot of rape prevention advice boils down to.

My understanding is that rape is often committed by someone well known to the victim as well so a lot of it seems way off the mark.

I liked the leaflet - very funny

well said Catgirl and i agree with everything you have just said.

In the town I used to live there was actually a far greater risk for a man to get beaten up in the town centre than for a woman to get raped. I used to feel safer walking home on my own than with a male escort who might well attract the attention of belligerent drunks.

Yet in all the years I lived there, I don't remember a single campaign aimed at getting men not to roam the town centre in the small hours. Never a suggestion that a man laid himself open to attack simply by moving around his own town at the hours when most people seek amusement. But women- oh yes, that is a different matter. Of course you can't tell a man what he should or shouldn't be doing.

Advising your daughters (and your sons) not to walk down dark lanes alone when drunk is one thing. Nobody would say that was a bad thing to do.

Telling them that they are 'putting themselves at risk' by what they wear or how they behave is another, though.

cory at the moment there is a advert/radio commercialc on Galaxy (sorry Capital FM) radio station every moringing warning blokes about the dangers of excess drinking, fights etc.

Also there is a TV commerical that is played every day spouting the same crap.

I would call you a liar but you may just not have a radio or tv.

Als there are posters such as this in most pubs in Manchester

tbh MrsBethel it's you that made it all or nothing when you said, 'I'll protect myself, thanks', as though the tips on those sheets are much help outside of a very limited set of circumstances. the point is, to protect yourself adequately you'd have to give up all hope of a normal life.

Thats a very black and white statement SinicalSal and i would say I am dissapointed for you to assume ALL males are rapists.

kelly2000 I know that many women are raped at home or by someone they know in a place where they are safe. No amount of care by her can prevent that - certainly there is nothing the police can advise her to do.

But there are some rapes to which that does not apply and advising women what to do to prevent them - which is no more than applied common sense - does not absolve the rapist. Not a bit.

where does she assume that?

If you could stop rape as easily as you could stop valuables being stolen from a car, and if rape cases were never tinged with notions about the victim having courted, risked or asked for it, then maybe it would be fair to treat it as a crime which the victim can reasonably prevent. But because the two are not the same, it is actively dangerous and wrong to suggest that the power lies with the victim not the rapist.

I don't think that's what SinicalSal was saying at all, MrSpoc.

You can't guess a rapist by looking at him. The only way to avoid ever being raped would be to avoid all human contact.

I refuse to live my life avoiding every possible situation where I could be raped. That'd mean I'd avoid life itself.

C&P from another thread:

HeresTheScaryThingBooyhoo said:

telling women to "dont be a victim" is telling women that they have a choice in whether they are a victim or not when in actual fact the only person who has a choice in who is a victim is a rapist. saying 'dont be a victim' is like saying a woman would make the choice to be a victim!! in other words, if you chose to drink you are chosing to be a victim. and we all know that is bullshit.

If someone is determined to mug me he will, and there are people who will blame me for my choice to be where I was when I was. Undoubtedly not as many as in rape; I don't deny that. But Elaine if you have a DD you will explain, or have explained, depending on her age, some basic rules of self-preservation, without thinking you were absolving anyone with evil intent.

eh Mr Spoc? NO WAY do I think all men are rapists -ffs - just you can't know by looking at 1000 men which one, if any, is dangerous. Jesus. That's hardly controversial, is it? Logically, to adequately protect oneself, one would have to avoid that unknowable man. Wouldn't give much room for living a normal life.

Sooo...

I ask again. How do us women prevent ourselves from acquaintance rape? I mean, if we never leave the house, stranger rape is a lot less likely. But how do we protect ourselves from acquaintance rape? Or, y'know. The few rapists who break into people's houses? How do we protect ourselves from then?

And again. If a rapist wants to rape, he'll rape. If there's no women on the street for him to rape, he'll find other ways to rape

I have a DD and I certainly won't tell her how to avoid getting raped by a stranger, because that advice is completely impossible to give.

I will give her advice on staying safe in general when out and about, but nothing specific to rape because there is nothing solid enough advice wise to say.

My aunt was raped by a stranger. He climbed in her bedroom window. None of the clap-trap rape avoidance advice could have saved her.

Your post does seem further to suggest that you're not too clear on what satire is

That was your term, I used the term "amusement mechanism" - bit clunky, but what I meant was the way the joke is organised.

The same trick was used on a few Topman T-shirts awhile back (one asked what breed your girlfriend was, one was an apology for making a mistake ticksheet). I can see how the amusement mechanism works on them, so I can see how they would amuse, its just that - to me - they were not.

So I can also see how this Rape poster is "funny" - and I find it funny - but I can also see that if the boot was on the other foot it would not be at all funny, as the stereotype that it is lampooning - that any male is a potential rapist - is not a humorous assertion at all.

thanks Dontcall you said it in a more measured manner than me - sorry for being a bit snappy MrSpoc

Its Ok SinicalSal. I did not read your post properly and i was wrong.

With regards to acquaintance rape i agree there is NO WAY of avoiding it which is scary. (unless you just avoid men full stop).

Its a joke.I especially like number 9.

thats not really that useful becuase if a man rapes a women its out of choice NOT becuase he can't avoid it. Here is 10 more useful steps we women can take to avoid being a victim

www.ehow.com/how_8556_avoid-becoming-rape.html

sherole - you've missed the point.

i dont understand, why would you not want to help prevent rape?