Reference no: EM133798462

Response

The Response that I chose is below

The video highlights the division between male and female awareness, fear, and consideration of sexual violence. When women were asked what they do to protect themselves from sexual violence, each woman had multiple examples, including not walking alone at night, knowing where blue boxes were, telling a friend where you are going and when they should be coming home, walking in pairs, having a fear of someone walking behind them, parking close to campus and having a walking with a route in mind to stay out of trouble. It is clear that all the women interviewed think about the risks of sexual violence or attacks on a day-to-day basis, and they have tactics in place to keep themselves safe from an attacker. The women have to plan, be aware, and take the initiative to avoid an attack. They have learned things to help keep them out of harm's way and feel the need to be on the defense to not be attacked, meaning they are facing the responsibility of trying not to encourage an attacker by being in a "risky" situation such as being out at night. This places blame on women who are out at night, alone, walking distracted, generally just going about their life in a way a man might who gets attacked arguing she was partly to blame. Because of the social constructs we have built around sexual violence, we live in a world where it is a gendered problem that women face and not a gendered problem that men enact. This shows the inferior position of women in our society and the power and privilege men have based on their gender.

This is further exposed when the men are asked what they do to avoid sexual violence, and they all retort that they either don't think about it or haven't really considered it because it is "something that typically happens to women.". One man even remarked that sexual violence is something that "happens to women walking alone at night," which places blame on the women for being in that situation instead of on the attacker. The video exposes this social inequality that women face and even mentions that most women are blamed for being raped for things such as wearing revealing clothing or drinking too much. This is a social issue that needs to be addressed. However, victim blaming is so prominent in our culture that sexual assault victims often have delayed healing, self-blame, depression, guilt, and suicide attempts, and often victim-blaming keeps victims from coming forward for support, care, treatment, or justice (Fairfaxcounty.gov, 2024). This furthers the issue for women because they do not get the support that they need and often attackers do not face repercussions.

Fairfaxcounty.gov. (2024). Who's Blaming the Victim and Why? | Family Services. [online] Available at

1. How can we change the dialog so acts of sexual violence are not presented as a problem that happens to women, but crime people commit towards victims?

2. Should we focus more on teaching people consent and safe sexual practices and encourage men to respect women instead of focusing on teaching women how to stay safe from attackers (mostly men).