Article: Blame the Victim: Religious Leaflet...

[Nikolita]

Taken from: http://www2.tricities.com/tri/news/local/article/blame_the_victim_religious_leaflet_claims_ungodly_dressed_women_provoke_rap/42253/

Full title: "Blame the victim: Religious leaflet claims ‘ungodly’ dressed women provoke rape"


BRISTOL, Va. – Nineteen-year-old Keshia Canter handed three burgers, fries and milkshakes to a car-load of Tuesday afternoon customers at the Hi-Lo Burger’s drive-though window. A lady sitting in the backseat leaned forward, between the two men in front, and handed her a leaflet: “Women & Girls” it said across the top.

“Even though nothing is showing, you’re being ungodly,” Canter recalled the woman telling her. “You make men want to be sinful.”

Canter was wearing boots pulled up over jeans, a pink zebra-print shirt with a black jacket zipped up over it. She has blond hair, dark eye make-up and a little red lip ring. “I just asked if she needed any salt, pepper or ketchup,” Canter said. “I mean, how do I respond to that?”

Minutes later, Canter’s mother, Pam Yates, who owns the restaurant, returned from the bank. Canter handed her “Women & Girls” and Yates started reading.

“You may have been given this leaflet because of the way you are dressed,” it begins. “Have you thought about standing before the true and living God to be judged?”

It continues with one essential theme: The sins of men are, in part, the fault of women, specifically women in tight-fitting clothing. Yates was annoyed. Then she got to a section on page two:

“Scripture tells us that when a man looks on a woman to lust for her he has already committed adultery in his heart. If you are dressed in a way that tempts a men to do this secret (or not so secret) sin, you are a participant in the sin,” the leaflet states. “By the way, some rape victims would not have been raped if they had dressed properly. So can we really say they were innocent victims?”

The hand-out is signed “anonymous.”

Yates was angry.

“What if my daughter had been a rape victim?” she said. “I hope that they never handed this to anyone, especially a young person, who’s been through that and struggles with that daily. And then they get handed something that says they are at fault. I cannot believe that a Christian, someone who walks in God’s shoes, would have made this.”

Leaflet in hand, Yates locked eyes with the old man driving the old white car, still parked in the lot, and stormed outside. The car quickly drove away.

Sandra G. Rasnake, the sexual assault program director at Bristol’s Crisis Center, had one eyebrow cocked as she read through the leaflet Thursday morning.

She cocked the other as she read aloud: “some rape victims would not have been raped if they had dressed properly.”

“Wow,” she said. “This idea that men don’t have enough self control – and evidently they shouldn’t have to – plays into all the old myths that we’ve tried for years to overcome: Rape happens to 2-year-olds and 92-year-olds, not just attractive young women. How about we hold the person doing the action accountable, whoever it is going against the will and consent of somebody else?”

Rasnake said she confronts similar ideas, although not generally printed and distributed in mass, from the women she talks with daily. Victim blaming, she said, is the most prominent reason rapes are so rarely reported and even more rarely taken to trial. Sexual assaults, she said, come in second for the country’s worst conviction rates.

Victims blaming themselves often comes from a religious place, but not always, Rasnake said. It’s become a societal defense mechanism for dealing with issues of sexual assault.

“Blaming victims is the way we who have not been victimized feel safer,” Rasnake said. “If it’s their fault then I’m safer because I wouldn’t do that. If someone steals your purse, can you imagine someone asking why you had a purse? If you are sexually assaulted, it is not because you come with breasts.”

The Rev. Bill Houck, pastor of Northstar Christian Church, shared Rasnake’s concerns about the leaflet.

“It is this type of thinking that would cause a woman not to report being raped and to somehow think it is her fault,” Houck wrote in an e-mail. “As a Christian, a father and a husband, that is a horrific statement. The rapist is wrong period.”

Houck also questioned the leaflet’s interpretation of its occasionally cited Bible passages.

“You must look at the cultural context,” he wrote. “I was surprised the article did not reference Peter 3. Many of the same ideas are put forth. Here, it gets to the crux of the issue where the Bible says that a lady’s lifestyle should be focused more on the inner person than the outward clothing. This is why, while I agree with ‘modest’ dress, there is so much more to this issue.”

Houck said his 19-year-old daughter, a student at King College, asked why the leaflet doesn’t mention how men should dress.

“If I choose to sin, that’s my choice,” Houck wrote.

Rasnake was similarly perplexed by the leaflet’s little faith in mankind.

“It’s insulting to men,” she said. “The men that I know and associate with are not so lust-driven that they cannot control their urges. By this person’s argument, everyone working at Hooters deserves to be raped.”  

[fizznomore]

This is a great article, with some great questions:

- What about men's self control?
- What about how men dress?
- If I carry a purse, is it my fault if I get mugged?

It's this kind of 'blame the victim' thinking that perpetuates rape and abuse.  

[Lovely Lolita Love]

This is ridiculous!

Though not a woman who has ever experienced such atrocities, the people who purpetuate such claims are (in my book) the "ungodly" ones.

As a Buddhist I am practicing the thought of "what will be will be," but as a woman I would GLADLY take a baseball bat to the knee caps of the people who create and distribute this garbage.  

[Ebania]

Quote:

"I cannot believe that a Christian, someone who walks in God’s shoes, would have made this."

Exactly what I was thinking. As I Christian myself, I am blown away by the fact that there are people out there who think this way.

I, myself, have never been raped or molested, and I thank God for that. But my mother was molested, as a small child, by the men who worked in her father's carpentry business. Perhaps these people could tell me what kind of ungodly traits a four-year-old may exhibit to make her deserving of such an atrocity.  

[Valgex]

My mom looks at how women dress these days. She says, "No wonder rape is on the rise. These women dress in such a fashion that is almost welcoming it at times"

Don't hate me, I'm just the messenger. I hate the whole, even thinking like that is a sin, ah, it's kind of hard to avoid! If a nice looking girl is dressed sexy, I'm going to think about how I wish I could make out with that. Lust is part of human nature, both men and women, men probably a bit more. But unless I act upon it, I see no problem.  

[Riku is my Twin]

Ebony the Peacian

Quote:

"I cannot believe that a Christian, someone who walks in God’s shoes, would have made this."

Exactly what I was thinking. As I Christian myself, I am blown away by the fact that there are people out there who think this way.

I, myself, have never been raped or molested, and I thank God for that. But my mother was molested, as a small child, by the men who worked in her father's carpentry business. Perhaps these people could tell me what kind of ungodly traits a four-year-old may exhibit to make her deserving of such an atrocity.

Probably the four year old that likes to run around the house naked after a bath.

It seems like no matter what happens, women get blamed for it. Women never seem to catch a break in any society! If men have sex with multiple women, then each woman is a "score". If a woman has sex with multiple men, then they're sluts or whores. And now these goddamn "Christian" extremists think that just because a woman wears jeans and a short sleeved shirt then it's suddenly become the equivalent of the said woman putting up a bright neon sign that reads, "PLEASE RAPE ME!"

Women have it hard enough biologically and society speaking without with these religious freaks blaming them for their own rape just because a guy couldn't control his urges and keep it in his pants. Of course I'm glad that I've never been raped, but for the millions of girls who do, condemning them for something that was out of their control deserve a good b***h slapping.

That's just my opinion, of course. [/rant]  

[Intoxikace]

That is just ridiculous. D;

Imagine if you got raped at a young age and got handed that pamphlet?
I can't imagine how messed up that would make you after reading that it's YOUR fault.  

[fizznomore]

Valgex

My mom looks at how women dress these days. She says, "No wonder rape is on the rise. These women dress in such a fashion that is almost welcoming it at times"

Don't hate me, I'm just the messenger. I hate the whole, even thinking like that is a sin, ah, it's kind of hard to avoid! If a nice looking girl is dressed sexy, I'm going to think about how I wish I could make out with that. Lust is part of human nature, both men and women, men probably a bit more. But unless I act upon it, I see no problem.

But, as you point out, you have the capacity to choose not to act on your lusts. How you react to arousing things is up to you, not whoever you find arousing.  

[Nikolita]

Valgex

My mom looks at how women dress these days. She says, "No wonder rape is on the rise. These women dress in such a fashion that is almost welcoming it at times"

Tell your mom to take a criminology class. They, thankfully, teach (based on evidence) that what your mom is perpetuating is very untrue. Rape has nothing to do with how the victim is dressed.

Not hating on you, just wanted to mention it because I've heard this arguement many times before. wink  

[Eruresto]

I don't even know what to say. First, as a religious person (Jew), I am shocked, appalled, and repulsed. Second, as a human being with at least of modicum of common sense and decency, I am, quite frankly, depressed.  

[Valgex]

Nikolita

Valgex

My mom looks at how women dress these days. She says, "No wonder rape is on the rise. These women dress in such a fashion that is almost welcoming it at times"

Tell your mom to take a criminology class. They, thankfully, teach (based on evidence) that what your mom is perpetuating is very untrue. Rape has nothing to do with how the victim is dressed.

Not hating on you, just wanted to mention it because I've heard this arguement many times before. wink

Yeah and she watches CSI and stuff like that. I blame the Media XD, cause when they show victims and stuff, they always seem to wear those type of clothes and my mom detects a pattern and there you go.  

[Nikolita]

Valgex

Nikolita

Valgex

My mom looks at how women dress these days. She says, "No wonder rape is on the rise. These women dress in such a fashion that is almost welcoming it at times"

Tell your mom to take a criminology class. They, thankfully, teach (based on evidence) that what your mom is perpetuating is very untrue. Rape has nothing to do with how the victim is dressed.

Not hating on you, just wanted to mention it because I've heard this arguement many times before. wink

Yeah and she watches CSI and stuff like that. I blame the Media XD, cause when they show victims and stuff, they always seem to wear those type of clothes and my mom detects a pattern and there you go.

Sometimes, yeah. sweatdrop  

[!namorata]

Wow, that just makes me so mad. Just goes to show what little research Christians do before trying to turn certain situations into an opportunity to chastise the masses.

Rape has nothing to do with wanting sex and everything to do with power. Rapists want power and use rape as a way to express it over their victims.  

[Valgex]

!namorata

Wow, that just makes me so mad. Just goes to show what little research Christians do before trying to turn certain situations into an opportunity to chastise the masses.

Rape has nothing to do with wanting sex and everything to do with power. Rapists want power and use rape as a way to express it over their victims.

Christians research stuff using the man made book called, "Holy Bible". Which has been a very questionable source at times.