To find it creepy the Mail on sunday have a columnist who tells women they are to blame if they are raped when drunk ?

[Cinderellaspumpkin]

I know it's an old article, ( it came up when I was googling Peter Hitchens for another reason). But it's not like his views have changed is it ? It's so depressing , that in 2023 , the Mail on Sunday employ a columnist who tells women they are to blame if raped when drunk.

AIBU to think we've not really moved that far, and women who are attacked in situations that aren't "stranger rape in an alley in the daytime," are still blamed ?

www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1045954/PETER-HITCHENS-How-Left-censored-blindingly-obvious-truth-rape.html

similar offerings from him. So not a one off....

hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2007/11/rape-is-a-very-.html

I absolutely loved Christopher Hitchens as a writer and journo and am sad that we lost him so soon. I can't quite believe that he could have a brother as repugnant as Peter frequently is.

They really were chalk and cheese.

Totally agree OP, he is vile

Would he blame a victim of a car accident for driving their car that day? Yanbu- it is absolutely disgusting but do any columnists always get it right or are they provocative on purpose for attention and online engagement?

If women want to dress provocatively, then they should be free to do so, and I say thanks a lot to those who do.

Fucking ewwww

Complain to them

But it does mean that a rape victim who was drunk deserves less sympathy.

Yeah that’s not aged well

But if they were drunk they would be to blame. I’m not saying I agree with Peter Hitchens, he is odious - but that was not a good analogy.

Why are you spreading this hideous stuff even further? The Mail is grim and I am pretty about people who read it. It is not a surprise these views are published by them - the Mail hates women, is racist etc.

Look at Dacre - not exactly a happy, life-embracing vibe coming from him is there?

I thought it was going to be a “we should be able to suggest to people it’s not sensible to go out and get wasted or to walk home at 1am on deserted back lanes” without being told we are victim blaming piece. If it was that I’d kind of understand where he was coming from but suggesting it’s fine to pay women less compensation if they are raped while drunk is vile.

Well I’m hoping he might have changed his views over the last 16 years since he wrote that drivel. Ideas about victim blaming have moved on a lot.

I agree with @whatkatydid2013.

Even back then, if you take this idea to it’s logical conclusion would you pay less insurance out to a driver who had an accident but it was partly caused by bald tires? Or treat a climber who fell off a rock face less well? What about home owners who get burgled but don’t own a safe for their valuables?

It was a stupid article then and it’s an even more stupid article now.

He writes a lot of silly nonsense. "Addiction doesn't exist" is a fun one.

How the hell as that even been printed. 🤬

But where does the victim blaming end?

Women are perhaps more likely to be attacked after dark so should only go out in daylight. Or are more at risk on their own so should only walk the streets in groups. Most rape occurs within a relationship setting so perhaps women who are part of a couple are putting themselves at greater risk than a woman who chooses to remain single…

So I guess we all need to be single, sober woman who only leave the house between sun up and sun down in a group?

The Mail is vile. Dacre is being put forward for a knighthood (again) by Johnson allegedly.

I think that you can simultaneously believe you should be able to go out and drink and walk home through back lanes and acknowledge it’s currently risky to do so and look at what you can do to mitigate risks. Saying situation x can be dangerous and these things might help reduce the risk isn’t the same as saying situation x can be dangerous so if you to it and something happens to you it serves you right. I will definitely advise my kids that getting wasted isn’t very sensible for example. I have seen some people who suggest giving advice to pace yourself drinking, keep an eye on your friends, plan transport home in advance etc is a form of victim blaming and you shouldn’t do it but I disagree. It’s not about your risk of someone raping you or murdering you or doing anything to you. It’s about you being hurt or killed because you fall and break a limb or hit your head or go over a low wall into a river or stumble into the road and get hit by a car or similar. It’s about making some foolish choices that you regret afterwards and can’t take back like managing to get into a fight or deciding to wee against a wall and getting arrested for indecent exposure or whatever else stupid can go wrong. It’s not advice I’d only give to daughters/women & in any case it’s nothing like what he wrote. I was thinking it would be along those lines and then I would have sympathy with the idea as I really do think deliberately setting out to get utterly wasted is a relatively common but pretty stupid thing to do.