'Rape victims should have moral responsibility'

[muminthecity]

I have just read this article (it's the Telegraph) and I am sitting here in stunned disbelief. How on earth can these views still be held? By a seemingly intelligent, educated woman as well. So, so sad that this kind of victim blaming is still going on .

I've just realised this is the same woman who believe the legal age of consent should be reduced to 13 .

Ugh makes me sick.

I had a lengthy debate/argument with someone recently, who said that if a woman chooses to get drunk, chooses to talk to a man, chooses to walk home, chooses to go home with someone, and ultimately gets raped... She's made a choice that led to her rape therefore must bear some responsibility.

I actually had to get up and walk away by the end.

I got as far as her comparing rape to falling off a bar stool and banging your head whilst drunk and I couldn't read any more.

I am so angry I am actually at a loss for words just now.

omfg. just lost for words. victim.blaming bullshit.

i despair.

I want to throw up. Internalised misogyny anyone? I do wonder why she wants to blame women for their own rapes and why she wants to make girls more vulnerable to predators.

Makes you wonder what has gone on in her world for her to reach those views, or whether she's just not that good at critical thinking. Being a barrister though you'd hope the latter wasn't true. Mind you being a barrister I'd hope she wouldn't have those views.

I stopped reading at 'doubt of long term effects'

What a twat she is. Her opinion w go fuck itself.

I stopped reading at 'doubt of long term effects'

What a twat she is. Her opinion can go fuck itself.

Oh ffs. Lost for words here too. I just don't understand how folk can think like this. Ffs

What a thoroughly disgusting human being. How anyone can think that about rape is beyond me.

Oh and me being drunk and falling off a bar stool would be an accident. A man sticking his dick in someone who doesn't want it is not an accident - it's a crime, I would have thought as a barrister she would have grasped that concept.

What scallops said.
What on earth has happened in this woman's life to make her think like this?

Every time this sort of thing raises its head in our social circle and people start going on about how having sex with a 13 year old girl is alright really, I point out how old their own children are in relation to that 13 year old: ie, so are you happy for your daughter to have sex in 2/3/4 years time etc and it seems to concentrate their minds somewhat.
If they can't see it then I tend to have a row and defriend them in real life.

And then I wonder why I thought having kids was a good idea.
This world is shit.

Someone on Twitter said that if you took her logic to full conclusion; then someone who is murdered when drunk is partly culpable for their own murder. So true, yet of course the victim would never be blamed in that circumstance, it is only ever rape that the victim gets blamed for. Gives me the rage .

Also any blaming of the victim removes blame from the perpetrator. I expect that is where she is coming from. Not wanting to blame those ickle men for putting their penises where they aren't wanted.

Barbara Hewson, a human rights and civil liberties lawyer

Yet she believes if I have had a drink i loose the human right to not be totally innocent, a victim of someone else actions if I am raped

Words fail me :(

So what she's basically saying is that men cannot be held responsible for their actions, that men can't be expected to control their penises, and that they're akin to untamed beasts in the wild; slaves to their sexual urges...

And they say feminists are man-haters.

This description, by the way, doesn't apply to a single man of my acquaintance. Not one. Presumably because none of them are rapists.

I have done a lot of things while drunk... I never fell over and landed on a penis.

Because that's how that rape would work for you to compare it to falling off a bar stool and bumping your head.

from now on "dumber than Barbara Hewson" is going to be my go to phrase when someone is showing themselves to be a complete idiot.

APartridge

How deeply depressing - both her beliefs, and the fallacious reasoning she's using to justify them.

Perhaps it's unkind to say, but my first thought is that she'll be singing a different tune if and when it's her / her daughter / her friend who is a victim of sexual violence. Her position is such a reflection of her wealth and privilege, it's an expression of how safe she feels.

Exactly. Rape happens to other women. 'Loose' women.

By being a 'good girl' you can avoid rape. Didn't y'all know...?

I can only guess that Barbara and indeed no one close to her has been raped. Or if they had they wouldn't tell her in case she blames them. Where does her 'logic' stop? Women in short skirts make it easier for a man to rape her because trousers or jeans would need to be taken off? Women out after dark make it easier because they could be doing whatever they are doing in daylight hours?

One last time for the obviously cheap seat at the back that Barbara is sitting on - Rapists cause rape. End of.

“It seems to me, simply factually, we all know if you’re drunk you are more likely to have accidents."

Rape is an accident then? Nothing to do with the rapist really at all.

Bloody hell. What a waste of DNA (BH that is).

partridge i may pinch that!

it is very depressing and yes i would conclude her views may change if it was her or her daughter. or maybe not, and she really is deluded.

uggh.just ughh.

I was just thinking that, amuminthecity...so, if you were raped and then murdered (or even the other way round) are you only responsible for the rape aspect and the attacker should be prosecuted for the other or are both your fault for daring to drink alcohol/wear something short or low cut/walk anywhere unaccompanied?

Christ, I wish I hadn't read that.