'Sussex Police is taking an innovative approach' to their new Rape awareness campaign

[DuelingFanjo]

story

Innovative my arse.
Their Twitter response has been "we are not blaming victins! We can reduce number of victims in many ways. Friends can play a key role"

I would like to know which activities do they consider to be vulnerable and risky? Maybe just being a woman? Going out? Drinking?

[DragonWithAGirlTattoo]

for all we want the rapists to stop, they dont do they?

i'm just going to put this here again, and then leave the thread, my world is not black and white, like you are saying , i live in a world which is shades of grey.

^
"But how do you tell the difference between sensible self care and victim blaming advice? "

I think you have beautifully summed this up in one sentence.
Victim blaming advice for me is "dont wear a short skirt as you might get raped"

sensible self care for me is " dont walk down a dark alley, especially if you are drunk or otherwise not fully functional, as you might get attacked"
^

[cailindana]

So we just throw our hands up and say "Oh men, what are they like, they keep on raping!" and continue to tell women they are the ones who need to change. Great solution Dragon. How about we stop telling women to change and start focusing on the actual criminals?

[ChopperGordino]

What is this black and white and shades of grey stuff you keep mentioning and how is it relevant here? Does "shades of grey" mean you think rape victims have degrees of responsibility for what happened to them?

[cailindana]

I notice you ignored my question about the hypothetical racial abuse poster Dragon. I wonder why that is?

[ChopperGordino]

"So we just throw our hands up and say "Oh men, what are they like, they keep on raping!" and continue to tell women they are the ones who need to change"

It's plastic women and cardboard men, Cailin:

glosswatch.com/2015/04/09/plastic-woman-cardboard-man-or-can-you-have-a-feminism-which-doesnt-expect-men-to-change/

[cailindana]

Really interesting blog Chopper.

It hits me so hard that there are women defending this. It reminds me what a number men have done on us that there are women here saying "we can't stop men raping so we have to stop women enjoying themselves instead." There is such a sad defeatist ring in that, a sense that there is no way to save ourselves from the world we live in, we just have to lie down and take it and accept that, in the world we live in, police will ignore sexual assault but take the time and money to bring out posters telling women to change what they're doing. It makes me so fucking angry. Why do we accept this shit?

[DuelingFanjo]

The Police have withdrawn the campaign. link

I would be really interested to know how they are going to re-educate themselves and also would have liked to have seen the other posters they were planning on revealing.

[cailindana]

That's good news. Perhaps now they can go about targeting criminals rather than women who do nothing wrong.

[BossWitch]

At least they've had the sense to pull the campaign. I've, luckily, never been a victim of sexual assault. I've always thought that if it did happen, I would feel completely confident in going to the police with the firm belief that they would believe me, be on my side, and do their best to catch and prosecute the person responsible. I don't feel that confidence now.

[PuffinsAreFictitious]

OK. Bear with me, I'm thinking this one through in writing....

So.. yahoos are still blaming women for men raping them and comparing their bodily autonomy to various crime against property rather than the violent crime against the person that rape is so far, so MN.

Buffy explained the difference really well. There have been all sorts of analogies used to help explain it to the hard of thinking over the years I've been on MN and none of them have worked.

What they all agree on though is that you can't stop men from raping.

So... how about, instead of telling women that if they do X piece of magical thinking they will save themselves from being one of the

[HelenaDove]

Glad they have withdrawn this campaign but it never should have been orchestrated like that in the first place.

Rape is the fault of the rapist......END OF.


I remember hearing the same/similar rape apology back in the 80s when i was growing up. And here we are thirty years later STILL having to point out why its wrong.

[StillLostAtTheStation]

The Police have withdrawn the campaign. link he Police have withdrawn the campaign. link

If any one is interested "Caitlin" who replied to the comment from the ex-policeman Steve is me.