(no subject)

[hellison]

At the risk of opening the can of messy worms that posts about rape always seem to, this quote this morning, tagged on the end of a brief news report just made me twitch -
The attack was condemned by local politicians who urged women to look out for each other during the current party season
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4551200.stm

Because of course
a. You can't trust ANY men to look out for you
b. It's entirely the responsibility of women to make sure you're safe.

Yes, it is good that they are concerned, it is good advice in its way and yes, I may well be reading too much into it, but that's just how it struck me.
I'm not sure if it's the implication that you can't trust/rely on men or that it's all down to women too look out for each other because it's our responsibility to make sure we are safe, not men's responsibility to have some self control/respect for women that bothers me more.
Why aren't they urging men not to be rapists in the first place?

Hmm. I was going to say I've obviously been lucky with the men I know/have met, but surely it's not 'luck' that my male friends aren't rapists and that I can trust them fully? Surely that's NORMAL?

Comments

[whit-merule.livejournal.com]

Well, no.

Because obviously all men who'd commit rape are monstrous creatures outside the bounds of society, therefore not human, therefore animals. And everyone knows animals don't read the news. So there's not a lot of point in targetting them.

[thesme-01.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't necessarily go along with that, tempting though it may be. Sadly, rapists are humans. Who often feel rage and impotence. Rape is often about the abuse of power and the need to control - the victim is dehumanised and is made to represent something or someone else - almost becomes a symbol of whatever the perpetrator feels rage against. This is not a justification of rape, it's just to say that if we remove the humanity from perpetrators we run the risk of utterly failing to engage with the reasons why rape occurs and therefore fail to deal with the problem in a meaningful and effective way. It's bloody goddamn difficult though

[whit-merule.livejournal.com]

That's what I meant. :P I was being sarcastic about the tendecny of TEH MEDIA to deny the humanity of 'them', whoever 'them' may be - obviously they are never going to be the people reading this newspaper.

my sarcasm clearly needs some work!

[thesme-01.livejournal.com]

Whooooops!

Or Thesme needs a brane transplant ;)