That is unfortunately an accurate assessment of the way things are, although I'm not sure who the "we" is you're referring to at the end.
If you are female, you are prey. Wherever you are, whoever you're with, whatever you're doing...you don't have the luxury of feeling safe, because you are not. And if you let your guard down for an instant and get raped, society won't blame the man who raped you. It will blame you for letting your guard down in the first place. Apparently, men are considered so incapable of self-control that they are not to be held responsible for committing assaults if the opportunity presents itself.
I live in a first-floor apartment. Sometimes I sleep with my windows open. If someone comes in my window and rapes me, I won't even bother to report it. Because I know whose fault it will be considered to be. He didn't rape me...I got myself raped, because I made the mistake of feeling safe.
Shame on me.
1) The we he was referring to is all of us. Not just women. Yes, unfortunately women DO have to be more careful than men. This isn't excusing the predators in our society, but to ignore the fact that they exist is, imo, asking for trouble.
Here's a story from my past: I was living with a young lady. She'd go out once or twice a week with girlfriends and come home late, using around 11. We lived about 7 blocks from the subway/bus station closest to our apartment. The way to get to the station is via side streets, parking lots and through other apartment building property. This was at the time when the scarborough rapist was in action......the police warned women to not travel alone, not travel at night on foot, and stay in well lit populated areas....
This girl refused to do any of the above.......There are always a dozen cabs at this station, it'd cost less than $5.00 to take a cab, I even said to her CALL me, I'd pop over and pick her up, but nope, she'd never do any of that......I got pissed at her, her family got pissed at her, even her girlfriends got pissed at her.
Yeah, her actions IMO were inviting trouble.....
2) You know my feelings about a single women taking a ground floor apartment in a questionable neighbourhood.....if you feel you need a handgun and a guard dog, you made a very stupid decision
3) No, you won't be blamed for letting your guard down for a minute......you can however be held accountable if you do something that invites attack. The best example I can think of is: if a guy gets plastered out of his head, goes into a hell's angels bar and yells out at the top of his lungs that harley davidson's suck and all bikers are fags........the equivolent of that would be if a woman got totally smashed and went wandering around half naked in the wrong part of town.
There was a story in the paper a few years ago and over at "the other board" I got into trouble for stating she was an idiot. What did she do? She got stinking drunk, came home at 3 am (I think it was 2 or 3 am) and instead of taking the elevator to her 3rd floor apartment, she took the stairs.....she got attacked. Sorry, that was stupid, dumb, and she was asking for trouble. Hell, I DON'T/DIDN'T take the stairs at 3 am......
The thing is, women are susceptible to being victims more than men. That's a fact of life. What we are all trying to say is that it is bad that our society is this way that people who would do others harm walk our streets. That's life in a free society. Unfortunately, women have to take steps to protect themselves at all times. This involves not putting themselves in positions that are obviously perilous. They shouldn't travel the streets alone, especially at night. They should choose living quarters that will provide maximum protection. etc etc.
I mean hell, when I went on dates and dropped them off at their apartment, I'd either walk them to their door (the apartment door) or have them call me when they got into their apartment........If
I'M that careful, why shouldn't they be?
