Read Online Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman's Guide to Why Feminism Matters by Jessica Valenti - Free Book Online
Authors: Jessica Valenti
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remember seeing one of those anti-drug commercials a while back that was supposed to be about marij uana. It showed a house party where a youngish teen girl was smoking pot. It then showed her passing out on a couch and a creepy-looking guy coming to sit down next to her. He looks around and then starts to put his hand down her shirt. The screen fades out and you hear the girl say “no” in kind of a whisper. Here’s the kicker: After the screen fades out, the message says, “Marijuana lowers your inhibitions.” Huh? But she was the one smoking, so I guess her inhibitions were lowered enough to be passed out and assaulted? Yeah, victim-blaming at its government-funded best.
Another example: A writer for The Wall Street Journal, Naomi Schaefer Riley, wrote a piece on the rape and murder of New York college student Imette St. Guillen. Riley wrote that the student “was last seen in a bar, alone and drinking at 3 AM,” and that “a twenty-four-year-old woman should know better.” 3 I guess St. Guillen wasn’t aware of the woman-only curfew and alcohol prohibition. Do you really want to live in a world where someone is going to blame you for being raped (and murdered!) just for going to a bar and getting a drink? This isn’t to say that women shouldn’t be aware of how alcohol and drugs can affect them. Of course we should try to be as safe as possible. But the focus needs to be on the perpetrator—not women.
NO HYMEN, NO RAPE
God help you if you’ve been raped and you’re not a virgin. Because apparently if you’ve slept with one guy, you want to sleep with them all. Remember our friend Bill Napoli on the only girl who should be able to get an abortion? The sodomized virgin? It’s kind of like that. An Italian court ruled in February 2006 that sexual abuse is less serious if the girl isn’t a virgin. 4 Seriously. Now, obviously your sexual history has nothing to do with sexual assault, but somehow it’s always brought up. A study in the United Kingdom showed that a third of people believe that a woman is partially or totally responsible for being raped if she has been “flirtatious,” and one in five think she’s responsible if she’s had “many” sexual partners! 5 In a case in California where a teen girl’s gang rape was videotaped, the defense team called her “trash” and a slut who wanted to make a “porn” video. 6 Never mind that she was unconscious. Never mind that she was raped with a pool cue, a lit cigarette, a can, and a Snapple bottle. Never mind that during the attack, passed out, she urinated on herself. At the end of the first trial, the case was put on hold because of a hung jury. 7 Now tell me that the slut-baiting doesn’t work. If you don’t fit into the “good girl” standard—or if people can convince others that you don’t—you’re in real trouble. If you’re a stripper, prepare to be disbelieved. If you’re a prostitute, forget it.
Just so you know: April is Sexual Assault Awareness month, and October is Domestic Violence Awareness month.
WOMEN SHOULD KNOW BETTER (MY PERSONAL FAVORITE)
This is the ultimate in victim-blaming: the all-encompassing “She should have known better.” Known better than to wear a skirt. Known better than to walk home alone. Known better than to be drinking. Known better than to be alone with a guy. The real danger of this whopper is that it plays on the guilt that rape victims feel—and that’s seriously fucked up. Not to mention, it pretty much ignores the rapist. It assumes that rape is inevitable, and that the onus should be on women to protect ourselves. What about the folks doing the raping? I guess they’re off the hook. Women (and men) have to know that there is nothing you can do that warrants being raped. Nothing. I don’t care if you’re a naked, drunk, passed-out prostitute. It doesn’t matter.
Thankfully, the rates of sexual assault are dropping (thanks in part to legislation enacted by feminists), but the
Another example: A writer for The Wall Street Journal, Naomi Schaefer Riley, wrote a piece on the rape and murder of New York college student Imette St. Guillen. Riley wrote that the student “was last seen in a bar, alone and drinking at 3 AM,” and that “a twenty-four-year-old woman should know better.” 3 I guess St. Guillen wasn’t aware of the woman-only curfew and alcohol prohibition. Do you really want to live in a world where someone is going to blame you for being raped (and murdered!) just for going to a bar and getting a drink? This isn’t to say that women shouldn’t be aware of how alcohol and drugs can affect them. Of course we should try to be as safe as possible. But the focus needs to be on the perpetrator—not women.
NO HYMEN, NO RAPE
God help you if you’ve been raped and you’re not a virgin. Because apparently if you’ve slept with one guy, you want to sleep with them all. Remember our friend Bill Napoli on the only girl who should be able to get an abortion? The sodomized virgin? It’s kind of like that. An Italian court ruled in February 2006 that sexual abuse is less serious if the girl isn’t a virgin. 4 Seriously. Now, obviously your sexual history has nothing to do with sexual assault, but somehow it’s always brought up. A study in the United Kingdom showed that a third of people believe that a woman is partially or totally responsible for being raped if she has been “flirtatious,” and one in five think she’s responsible if she’s had “many” sexual partners! 5 In a case in California where a teen girl’s gang rape was videotaped, the defense team called her “trash” and a slut who wanted to make a “porn” video. 6 Never mind that she was unconscious. Never mind that she was raped with a pool cue, a lit cigarette, a can, and a Snapple bottle. Never mind that during the attack, passed out, she urinated on herself. At the end of the first trial, the case was put on hold because of a hung jury. 7 Now tell me that the slut-baiting doesn’t work. If you don’t fit into the “good girl” standard—or if people can convince others that you don’t—you’re in real trouble. If you’re a stripper, prepare to be disbelieved. If you’re a prostitute, forget it.
Just so you know: April is Sexual Assault Awareness month, and October is Domestic Violence Awareness month.
WOMEN SHOULD KNOW BETTER (MY PERSONAL FAVORITE)
This is the ultimate in victim-blaming: the all-encompassing “She should have known better.” Known better than to wear a skirt. Known better than to walk home alone. Known better than to be drinking. Known better than to be alone with a guy. The real danger of this whopper is that it plays on the guilt that rape victims feel—and that’s seriously fucked up. Not to mention, it pretty much ignores the rapist. It assumes that rape is inevitable, and that the onus should be on women to protect ourselves. What about the folks doing the raping? I guess they’re off the hook. Women (and men) have to know that there is nothing you can do that warrants being raped. Nothing. I don’t care if you’re a naked, drunk, passed-out prostitute. It doesn’t matter.
Thankfully, the rates of sexual assault are dropping (thanks in part to legislation enacted by feminists), but the
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