Can we do anything about this?

[tethersend]

Knowing the power of MN, I am sick of walking past this poster every day, and wonder if there is anything we can do about it?

Or is it just me?

"If this ad makes ONE person think twice and not end up in that situation, it is worth it. " ...think about what? Quite clearly she was asking for it then, wasn't she by getting in the cab.Not. That is the point people are trying to make here, Portofino

I don't use unbooked cabs because you're not insured if they have an accident. You could make a pretty graphic and shocking poster about that, showing a man and a woman if you wanted, with less disturbing undertones.

Clearly she wasn't asking for it - she was 17 years old and nearly died. It destroyed her family! The point is that you see a cab, you trust that the driver will take you home safely. In this case it nearly cost her her life!

We can't legislate for sick bastards. We can help women make better choices.

And the sick bastards won't be paying any attention to any posters....

Portofino,I'm sorry about your friend, you're missing the point of the thread...the emphasis on preventing rape should never be about the victim's circumstances. Your 17 year old friend is probably blaming herself quite nicely, without the reinforcement of public opinion

I understand the point is that it is not the fault of the woman, but of the rapist. Fine with that. Why should she be blaming herself? She did nothing wrong. She wasn't aware that getting into an unlicenced cab could be dangerous. Now maybe if she WAS aware.....

Of course she did nothing wrong, rape trauma syndrome involves blame as part of the cycle.....she will probably be experiencing that rightly or wrongly.

Focus is on the offender, he was a rapist unlicenced cab or not...that is the emphasis

but you are making yourself vulnerable....It shouldn't be that way,rape is the fault of the rapist,murder is the fault of murderers,a campaign along the lines of the "she said no,she means no" sounds like a really good idea,and I don't think that "you are making yourself vulnerable" also suggests that it is then your fault if something happens.
I know that lots(most??) of you don't agree though.
Do you all think the safety advice given by (eg) the Suzy Lamplugh Trust,covering a wide range of situations,is also saying"and if you ignore this advice and something happens it will be your fault?"

I take your point about it not being acceptable as an advert though.

OK - he is a rapist - and now serving a long prison term fortunately. What might have prevented that from happening though.

Him seeing a poster stressing that it is not acceptable to attack young girls? Or her seeing a poster that you should not get into unsolicited, unlicenced minicabs?

I don't get the feminist argument on this one I am afraid. People who commit crimes like this are beyond sense, education, PCness. Women have to protect themselves and make sensible choices. You could have a Reclaim the Night march everynight, but sadly this would make no difference to the perpetrators.

It's NEVER your fault. That doesn't mean we shouldn't take sensible precautions to try to ensure it doesn't happen to you though.

Sadly, at the moment, people are not taking notice. I'm glad your friend's attacker was convicted. We need to be more proactive in our approach as to what is acceptable in society and what is not. We have a very passive view of horrendous crimes like this...what do we do as a society to actively address negative attitudes to women?

What about the women who were raped by that licensed black taxi driver in London?

This ad is a travesty.

dittany, so how do women STOP rape?

Women don't stop rape. Just like victims of theft don't stop thieves. rapists don't rape women because of anything they have or haven't done. they rape women because they are rapists.

"Only women can stop rape. Once we stop doing all those things there will be no more rape as I understand it. "

I am asking Dittany.

Andie, I agree with you - criminals are criminals. It is not anti-feminist to install a burglar alarm, or put a firewall on your pc to prevent hackers.....

To me there is a big difference between "fault" and "taking preventative measures". It is not your fault if some one breaks into your house, whether you have Fort Knox security or a yale lock.

It is the fault of the criminal that commits the crime. Always. However, if you live in a dodgy area, you might want to think twice about how you can protect yourself against such a thing happening.

To me, it is the same with rape. You can never guarantee such a thing will never happen. But you can and should take precautions to minimise the risk. You can talk about these crimes being unacceptable all you like.

"You know, if the ads said something along the line of "There are lying bastards out there who will pretend to be taxi drivers in order to drive you off and rape you and even some taxi drivers too are rapists too so be careful" I'd have a lot less of a problem with it."

This sums it up for me- the fact that the advert takes as a given that there are rapists procuring victims by driving minicabs is what irks. The advert does nothing to challenge this. It sort of shrugs its shoulders and takes it as a fact of life.

If TFL really want to help prevent rapes, they could run the tube service all night and/or bring in more stringent checks for minicab drivers.

"It is not anti-feminist to install a burglar alarm, or put a firewall on your pc to prevent hackers....."

Whoever said it was? Those crimes are not specific to women; it's hard to take the analogy very far...

OK - so tell me how we can STOP rape! Rapists are criminals so therefore don't care about normal moral guidelines presumably. How do we, as women, stop rape from happening?

It is down to society to educate those people inclined to such behaviour and to place the emphasis on what makes an offender offend not what makes a victim a victim

Well actually most rapists aren't criminals.

They aren't convicted of any crime.

God give me strength!