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punk phd / feminism / motherhood

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Gagging for a drink?

Reading the latest post over at brand new feminist blog on such things as this poster from the Home Office. What is it with this relationship between being raped and being under the influence of alcohol? And why is it this relationship which the government/media jump on? It's obvious to me that it's yet another way of pointing the finger, moving the blame away from the real issue at hand. Let's bring attention to statistics regarding victims of rape (implying in the poster that these are predominantly female) who had been drinking but not address the issue of how these rapes were allowed to happen. Similar to - let's bring attention to the woman who was raped but was wearing a short skirt and was therefore 'asking for it'.

Why is it that as women we are expected to adapt or monitor our behaviour and actions for fear of becoming the victims of rape? We're scared into thinking that we're more likely to become a victim of rape for having that next drink, for wearing that particular outfit, for walking home in the dark...

How about directing the real issue here? That we live in a society in which individuals think that rape is acceptable and who would carry out such an activity. How about targeting them for a change?

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1 Comments:

Blogger Grace said...

Hey Laura, thanks for the link - sorry this is a delayed response! Great post by the way - you're so right about the portrayal of the female victim.

11:56 AM  

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