Things to Think About

If you agree with this, you probably also agree with the statement “some women are just asking for it.”

So I have a challenge for you.
If some women are “asking for it” by being with a certain person, or in a certain place, or drinking, doing something risky, etc, aren’t some people asking to be falsely accused by doing the same things? If they’re with someone they suspect could be malicious, or in a place that could be sketchy, shouldn’t they take every precaution to make sure they are not in a position where they could potentially be falsely accused?
They’re just being careless, hanging out with people, going places, and drinking without taking the proper precautions.

• Have an alibi or carry a recorder in you pocket. 
• Have friends around that can vouch for you. NEVER leave their company under any circumstances.
• Avoid low-light areas where witnesses may not be able to see you well, and wouldn’t be able to speak on your behalf.
• Don’t go places where you may be put in a situation where a person might falsely accuse you. 
• Don’t wear clothes that make you look like you would sexually assault someone. 
• Don’t give questionable looks to strangers. 
• Be careful of who you sleep with (if you want to risk having sex at all).
• Be careful of who you trust at all.
• Make sure you don’t say anything possibly suggestive. 
• Don’t do anything that could look even remotely threatening. 

Ah, but you think that sounds a bit ridiculous? Like all these “precautions” are really fucking arbitrary and won’t stop the situation from happening, and that women should simply not falsely accuse people of rape?

That’s the fucking point.

Starting claim: If a woman is dressed in something revealing, she is advertising herself and wants sex.
If she gets raped, it’s because she was “asking for it”.
But if she was truly asking for it, it would be consensual.
Rape is non-consent.

It’s not a question of what you personally think of the way a person is dressed.
IT’S ABOUT CONSENT.
It’s whether or not they gave that consent of their own free will. 
And consent does not look like fishnets or a skirt. 

You just don’t say to someone ”sure, you were mentally/emotionally/physically abused against your will by some criminal, but you must have secretly wanted it based on what you were wearing/how much you drank/where you were.”

Well, this is upsetting. According to a new study, people can’t tell the difference between quotes from British “lad mags” and interviews with convicted rapists. And given the choice, men are actually more likely to agree with the rapists.

The University of Surrey reports on the study, to be published in the British Journal of Psychology. Researchers gave a group of men and women quotes from the British lad mags FHM, Loaded, Nuts and Zoo, as well as excerpts from interviews with actual convicted rapists originally published in the book The Rapist Files. The participants couldn’t reliably identify which statements came from magazines and which from rapists — what’s more, they rated the magazine quotes as slightly more derogatory than the statements made by men serving time for raping women. The researchers also showed both sets of quotes to a separate group of men — the men were more likely to identify with the rapists’ statements than the lad mag excerpts. The only slightly bright spot in the study: when researchers randomly (and sometimes incorrectly) labelled the quotes as coming from either rapists or magazines, the men were more likely to identify with the ones allegedly drawn from mags. At least they didn’t want to agree with rapists.

Still, the results as a whole are pretty disturbing. Says lead study author Dr. Miranda Horvath, “We were surprised that participants identified more with the rapists’ quotes, and we are concerned that the legitimisation strategies that rapists deploy when they talk about women are more familiar to these young men than we had anticipated.” Her co-author Dr. Peter Hegarty adds,

There is a fundamental concern that the content of such magazines normalises the treatment of women as sexual objects. We are not killjoys or prudes who think that there should be no sexual information and media for young people. But are teenage boys and young men best prepared for fulfilling love and sex when they normalise views about women that are disturbingly close to those mirrored in the language of sexual offenders?

Many of the rapists quoted in the study talked about coercing women or having sex with them even though they were initially unwilling. However, so did the lad mags. Horvath says, “Rapists try to justify their actions, suggesting that women lead men on, or want sex even when they say no, and there is clearly something wrong when people feel the sort of language used in a lads’ mag could have come from a convicted rapist.” A lot of these stereotypes — that women say no when they really mean yes, or are “asking for it” by going out with a man or wearing a short skirt — have indeed been normalized, and it’s sad but not surprising that they appear in a lot of lad mags. Defenders of such statements like to frame them as innocent, or even helpful, observations. But perhaps the news that they sound just like rapists will make people — and magazines — rethink their words.

Middlesex University generously provided us with a copy of the quotes the researchers used. See if you can tell the difference between the rapists and the lad mags:

1. There’s a certain way you can tell that a girl wants to have sex … The way they dress, they flaunt themselves.

2. Some girls walk around in short-shorts … showing their body off … It just starts a man thinking that if he gets something like that, what can he do with it?

3. A girl may like anal sex because it makes her feel incredibly naughty and she likes feeling like a dirty slut. If this is the case, you can try all sorts of humiliating acts to help live out her filthy fantasy.

4. Mascara running down the cheeks means they’ve just been crying, and it was probably your fault … but you can cheer up the miserable beauty with a bit of the old in and out.

5. What burns me up sometimes about girls is dick-teasers. They lead a man on and then shut him off right there.

6. Filthy talk can be such a turn on for a girl … no one wants to be shagged by a mouse … A few compliments won’t do any harm either … ‘I bet you want it from behind you dirty whore’ …

7. You know girls in general are all right. But some of them are bitches … The bitches are the type that … need to have it stuffed to them hard and heavy.

8. Escorts … they know exactly how to turn a man on. I’ve given up on girlfriends. They don’t know how to satisfy me, but escorts do.

9. You’ll find most girls will be reluctant about going to bed with somebody or crawling in the back seat of a car … But you can usually seduce them, and they’ll do it willingly.

10. There’s nothing quite like a woman standing in the dock accused of murder in a sex game gone wrong … The possibility of murder does bring a certain frisson to the bedroom.

11. Girls ask for it by wearing these mini-skirts and hotpants … they’re just displaying their body … Whether they realise it or not they’re saying, ‘Hey, I’ve got a beautiful body, and it’s yours if you want it.’

12. You do not want to be caught red-handed … go and smash her on a park bench. That used to be my trick.

13. Some women are domineering, but I think it’s more or less the man who should put his foot down. The man is supposed to be the man. If he acts the man, the woman won’t be domineering.

14. I think if a law is passed, there should be a dress code … When girls dress in those short skirts and things like that, they’re just asking for it.

15. Girls love being tied up … it gives them the chance to be the helpless victim.

16. I think girls are like plasticine, if you warm them up you can do anything you want with them.

answers

I have not raped a single person in the 21 years I’ve been alive.
Easiest thing ever, not raping people.
Seriously.