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Path: utzoo!watmath!watcgl!dmmartindale
From: dmmartindale@watcgl.UUCP (Dave Martindale)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Nothing ever happens to people unless they want it to
Message-ID: <2036@watcgl.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 21-Jan-84 15:23:27 EST
Article-I.D.: watcgl.2036
Posted: Sat Jan 21 15:23:27 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 9-Feb-84 02:27:18 EST
References: <3411@tekecs.UUCP>
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 15

I think that when people (it isn't just men!) who say that "a woman who
is raped must have been asking for it" are pointing out that the woman
does have some influence over whether she is likely to be raped.
That is, by itself, true.

However, these people seem to believe that it is the woman's responsibility
to do everything in her power to lessen those chances - to avoid walking
alone, to avoid dressing attractively - and that any man who rapes her is
simply sucumbing to his perfectly-natural desires.

Garbage.  Women should avoid deliberately provoking rape, or any other
unpleasant act against themselves, but that is as far as their responsibility
should go.  Men should be held responsible for their actions, and in the
case of rape the blame rests pretty squarely on the man unless the woman
clearly went out of her way to provoke him.