Christmas: the season for bells, baubles and blaming victims of sexual assault
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Version 0 of 1. Ah, Christmas! ’Tis the season for bells, baubles and blaming the victim. Here are three recent headlines: “Women urged to avoid walking alone following series of sexual assaults in west London” “Urgent hunt for serial sex attacker as women are told not to go out at night alone” “Hunt for sex pest: Grimsby & Cleethorpes women warned not to go out alone after NINE incidents” We’re so used to this kind of response to sexual offences that it can be hard to recognise the absurdity of such advice. Indeed, when I posted about these incidents on Twitter, I received a wave of responses along the lines of “Don’t be stupid, of course women should take precautions” and “That’s not victim-blaming, it’s just common sense”. The message that women are partly responsible for their own “vulnerability” to sexual assault is so deeply ingrained in our society that many struggle to see any problem with this (often well-meaning) advice. In reality, it’s very problematic indeed. First of all, it’s incredibly impractical to suggest that half the population of a particular area change their routines and moderate their behaviour, rather than rigorously focus efforts on the actions of a single perpetrator. Imagine police suggesting that people stay in their homes at all times to steer clear of drink-drivers (as comedian Nadia Kamil has pointed out). This approach is rarely raised for other types of crime – imagine somebody saying, of a murdered person: “Yes, but, to be fair, they shouldn’t have been walking alone.” If there’s a series of hit-and-runs, we search for the perpetrator – we don’t tell everyone to stop crossing the road. If you still think mass action is the solution, why impose restrictions on women, who have been the victims of every attack? Why not impose a curfew on men, or advise men against walking alone in the area in question? Perhaps if men took along a friend wherever they went it might make assaulting a lone woman that bit more awkward. If this sounds absurd, ask yourself why it’s more acceptable to suggest that women should change their schedules, or arrange to meet with a chaperone in order to go about their daily business, than it is to ask the same of men. One of the problems with suggesting that women should prevent their own assault is that it makes those who experience such crimes feel less able to report them. If you’re assaulted in an area where women have been warned not to go out alone at night and choose to come forward, you might feel that you will be at least partially blamed for what happened. This is a very real risk in a world where victims so often experience blaming and shaming, and where only 15% of female victims of the most serious sexual offences report them to the police. It also reinforces such beliefs among the general population, where these ideas already present a problem, particularly when they become so ingrained that they may be affecting juries or police officers. This is, particularly, a festive problem. Around this time of year, both individuals and campaigns often misguidedly place the onus on women to take extra precautions to avoid assault at Christmas parties and events. Last week, an Everyday Sexism Project follower tweeted a picture of a poster she’d seen that day in a Nottingham police station. It featured a picture of two young women dancing, accompanied by the words: “No Regrets. Good night out? Make sure it stays that way. Alcohol can make you vulnerable to rape and sexual assault.” In the article mentioned above about the sexual assaults in Grimsby, a local news outlet provided advice with a seasonal focus. It read: “With many young people attending parties in the run-up [to] and during the festive season, young persons independent sexual violence adviser Kirsty Hodges gave a series of tips to women.” Among other suggestions, the advice included: “When going out, women should make sure someone knows where you are. Try to arrange and stick to a curfew, and try not to get separated from your group.” The idea that women should take precautions to avoid sexual assault both erases male victims and feeds into popular myths and misconceptions by suggesting that some victims play a part in bringing it upon themselves. This is partly due to the persistent idea that a rapist is almost always a stranger in a dark alleyway. According to Rape Crisis, around 90% of rapes are committed by perpetrators known to the victim – such as a colleague, a friend or a partner – meaning that it simply isn’t true that women are safer at home or at work than in public spaces. Granted, the advice in these recent cases was in response to particular perpetrators who were committing assaults in public spaces, but it still fails to take into account the wider picture and reinforces unhelpful stereotypes. If we advocate restricting women’s movement in response to stranger assaults in public spaces, should we also address the vastly more common problem of rape within relationships and advise women to take “precautions” by avoiding their own homes? Should women avoid going to work because of the risk of being assaulted by a male colleague? Clearly not. It’s impossible to tell women how to “avoid” sexual violence, because it’s so widespread that it happens in all places, regardless of women’s dress, age, behaviour or any other factors they could control. There is, however, one common factor that unites all these cases: the rapist. Logically, that’s where the focus of our attention should lie. |