“Women must better protect themselves”

[CeeBeeBee]

says Pamela Anderson. No Pamela, it really isn’t ok to suggest that women “know” what they’re getting into when they go for an audition.
So depressing!

If she means that when you go into an audition you are expected to read lines and , if it is a musical, sing or dance, then yes, women should know what to expect. But that isn't what she means, is it?

Awesome, so from now on women should all take an Uzi with them to auditions. After all, Pam, they need to protect themselves, right?

Funny how fine the line is between reckless self-endangerment and misandric paranoia when it comes to women's behaviour wrt sexual assault

Gender neutral loos are perfectly safe but women should know better than to attend auditions?

Yeah whenever a woman does actually take steps to protect herself (which doesn't involve modifying her behaviour but impacts on a man) she just gets Not All Men Are Like That thrown at her.

And she's going out with Julian Assange....

Ah, well I guess one would have to be somewhat flexible on the subject of victim blaming to do that.

‘Protect yourself’ is quite vague. My reading of it is that women must educate themselves about sexual harrassment and develop and maintain healthy boundaries.

I am a woman who has been sexually assaulted and harrassed and it progressed as it did because I hadn’t learned how to deal with it and had very weak boundaries. That isn’t victim blaming. That is identifying one of the factors that led to a longer, more traumatic experience.

The men concerned are entirely responsible for what they did to me independently of my weak boundaries. They assaulted me and took advantage of my behaviour.

Sorry to hear that, Iris. You shouldn’t blame yourself, for it progressing, either.

Iris I agree. Good boundaries are extremely important, but at the same time it's absolutely not our fault if we are not taught growing up that we are allowed to have them, or if men decide to ride over them roughshod when we do assert them.

I'm sorry for what you've been through and I hope things are better now.

Good boundaries are important. If you have them, it won't stop abuse. It might shift it to someone else.

That's the problem with victim blaming; predatory men just move on to a younger, more alone, more vulnerable woman.

@MrsTerryPratchett I do agree with you, but teaching girls good boundaries and assertiveness should be alongside teaching boys what is acceptable and unacceptable.
Society should have zero tolerance for sexual harrassment and assaults.