In a Rape Culture, Women Are Still to Blame

Citing a blog entry about rape and sexual assault by Damon Young at Very Smart Brothas, Racialicious editor Latoya Peterson says that some men still think women who are sexually assaulted are being let off the hook for reckless behavior.

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... Turns out, Damon (a.k.a. The Champ) decided to create a really flip response to Zerlina Maxwell’s Ebony.com piece “Stop Telling Women How to Not Get Raped.” …

Damon still decided to write his piece, essentially asking this question:

“But, why can’t both genders be educated on how to act responsibility around each other? What’s stopping us from steadfastly instilling “No always means no!” in the minds of all men and boys and educating women how not to put themselves in certain situations? Of course men shouldn’t attempt to have sex with a woman who’s too drunk to say no, but what’s wrong with reminding women that if you’re 5’1 and 110 pounds, it’s probably not the best idea to take eight shots of Patron while on the first, second, or thirteenth date? Yes, sober women definitely get raped too, but being sober and aware does decrease the likelihood that harm may come your way, and that’s true for each gender … ”

Damon’s already (somewhat) apologized and been raked over the coals by folks on his site, Twitter, and Tumblr.

First, the primary premise is flawed.

Damon seems to think that reinforcing to men that circumstances and consent are different things means that we are also letting women off the hook for reckless behavior. However, most men aren’t privy to all the rape prevention tactics women employ everyday, as a matter of course. (For the purposes of this discussion, the framing will be around cisgender, heterosexual men and women, though we are not the only people impacted by this type of thinking and this type of violence.) …

Read Latoya Peterson’s entire blog entry at Racialicious.

Latoya Peterson is a hip-hop feminist, anti-racist activist and deputy editor of Fusion’s Voices section, opining on pop culture, news, video games and everything that makes life worth living.

Update: 5/5/20, 2:18 p.m. ET: This story has been updated to remove broken and nonexistent URLs.