When we say the victim isn't to blame, we don't intend to discourage safe practices. We still need those safe practices! I can understand what you're getting at, but (hopefully) we're not sending the message that people have no control over the situations they're in.
Many in this very thread have painted the encouragement of safe practices as some sort of assault on women's rights. "Who are you to tell me what to do?" That sort of a thing. But your approach is more defensible, I think.
As to the topic as a whole, I support and promote receiving clear consent before engaging in sexual intercourse. Heck, I believe in waiting till marriage, so that's kind of the ultimate form of clear consent (besides marital rape, of course). However, I must address some of the logical fallacies and baseless arguments I'm seeing. The minority opinion's baseless arguments have been dismantled quite well by the majority, so I'll just focus on the majority's faulty arguments.
The people arguing on either side are basically arguing over two things:
1. Whether a woman should take precautions to help prevent being raped, and
2. How clear the rape standard is.
I'll discuss my thoughts on each in kind.
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1. Whether a woman should take precautions to lower the risk of being raped
Fallacies
a)
Strawman: "I guess all women should lock themselves in their houses!"
Faulty because: The argument is that women should take
reasonable precautions to mitigate the risk of getting raped. So saying, "Yes, but look at all these unreasonable things you could do that would lower her risk!" is a strawman, because no one is encouraging those. Furthermore, the argument contains a faulty premise: if unreasonable precautions exist, then either all precautions are unreasonable or reasonable precautions should also not be encouraged.
b)
Strawman: "Stop blaming the victim! Rapists bear the sole responsibility!"
Faulty because: The argument is NOT that women are morally or legally culpable for the rape; no one is arguing that the rapist is any less at fault for raping a provocatively-dressed woman. Rather, the argument is, "Wow, that sucks she got raped. As a side note [that has nothing to do with the culpability of the rape], as a matter of safety, she probably shouldn't be getting piss-drunk at a party with a bunch of drunk dudes." The logic breaks down like this:
- Premise I: Undertaking reasonable actions to reduce the risk of personal harm is wise.
- Premise II: People should do wise things.
- Premise III: A woman avoiding getting piss-drunk at a party with a bunch of drunk dudes is a reasonable action that reduces the risk of personal harm.
- Conclusion: Women should avoid getting piss-drunk at a party with a bunch of drunk dudes.
At no point in the premises or the conclusion does the culpability (the "blame," if you will) for the rape lessen for the rapist or shift from the rapist to the victim. That's a strawman in its purest form. If people do contest the conclusion, it will usually be because they disagree with Premise III's assertion that avoiding drinking is reasonable (or one of the premises upon which this premise is based, such as drunk dudes being less safe than non-drunk dudes/non-dudes). That's a fine counter-argument to support; speak up about why you think it is not reasonable. But the strawman of victim-blaming (which is a real thing, but alleged far more pervasively than is sound) is not useful to dialogue or rape prevention.
- Side note: The argument "most rapes are by someone you know" does not conclusively speak to the reasonableness of prevention measures. While a man is more likely to die in a car crash than by lightning, that does not mean it is unreasonable to seek insulated shelter during a lightning storm. By the same token, it is not conclusively shown by that statistic that it is an unreasonable preventative measure for a woman to avoid walking alone at night in sketchy neighborhoods. The argument can, however, be somewhat relevant; it's just not conclusive, or even very enlightening.
c)
Strawman: "Stop infringing women's rights for the sake of their safety!"
Faulty because: No one (on this forum) is infringing (or even has the ability to infringe) upon anyone's rights. Encouraging women to undertake safety precautions removes exactly zero of their autonomy. It is merely sharing with them what you think is wise, and therefore what you think they should do. They will receive no negative repercussions as punishment for ignoring your advice. They will not go to jail or lose their job. They've merely been informed of your opinion on what you believe is wise. The opinion can be disagreed with, but the claim that it's infringing on rights is completely false.
2. How clear the rape standard is
Logical fallacies
Begging the question: "Rape is rape." Alternatively: "67% of men said they thought a raped woman who didn't give a clear enough 'no' was partially to blame for the rape."
Faulty because:
These fallacies assume that (criminal) rape is defined as rape by calling it rape, and generally from the woman's perspective. Calling it rape in a catchphrase or survey does not make it rape, and how clearly the consent or lack thereof was communicated is a huge part of determining whether or not it was rape at all. In the old days, the question of rape DID focus on the woman, but rape reform correctly redirected it to the man's perspective. It seems at first glance to be unfair, but the old way was actually far worse in practice.
In the traditional common law, rape was: the vaginal penetration of a penis, by force, without the woman's consent, and against her will. The State had to prove "force" (generally, physical force), "without the woman's consent" (generally, physical or verbal cues would suffice, but it was the burden of the State to affirmatively prove the absence of consent), and "against her will" (generally, verbal AND physical resistance needed to be shown). In practice, the focus was pretty much entirely from the woman's perspective: What did she do to resist? What did she do to communicate her lack of consent? This approach not only made rape extremely difficult to prosecute, but it laid the burden upon the woman to perform physical and verbal actions to clearly communicate how very much she did not want to have sex. The State had to prove her actions, rather than his.
To make this history lesson short, rape reform generally changed the definition of rape to: sexual penetration without consent. Furthermore, the focus shifted from what the woman did, to the man's actions (
actus reus) and his state of mind (
mens rea). Rather than asking, "Did the woman physically fight back?" the question is now, "Did the man believe he had consent?" The State still has the burden to prove his lack of belief of receiving consent, and this still is generally done by looking at some of the woman's actions (e.g. "she said, 'I don't think I'm ready' and began to walk away, which no reasonable man could mistake for consent"), but it is still a much easier burden to meet, and the focus is more fairly upon the man's understanding.
My point in bringing this up is this: the over-simplification of "rape is rape" does a disservice for understanding what rape is. Rape is sexual penetration without consent, with the need for both the man's
actus reus AND the
mens rea. In other words, if a man has sex with a woman, and all the cues he's been given reasonably lead him to believe he has consent, and at no point does he receive signals that should lead him to believe he's lost his consent, then he is not guilty of rape,
even if the woman herself believed she had not given consent. It seems unfair when I write it out this way, but it actually works in women's favor MUCH better, and also results in more fair outcomes for the man.
Now, like I said above, I don't think anyone should be having intercourse unless they have a clear go-ahead. That's not always verbal, but it should be clear. But when judging men accused of rape, we should at the very least be mindful that "reasonableness" and "belief" allow for a whole lot of ambiguity and gray areas. I admire the "rape is rape" message for promoting the acceptance of clear consent before intercourse, but that does not make it any less of a logical fallacy.
Conclusion
Don't have intercourse with ambiguous consent, people. Get clear consent. The legal line for intercourse and rape is never clear when applied on a case-by-case basis, so avoid the risk. Get clear consent. At the same time, when judging other people, don't assume that because the girl didn't actually want to have sex that the man is a dirtbag rapist. Maybe he is, but it shouldn't be a snap-judgment without consideration for whether or not he believed he had consent. If he did believe, and it was a reasonable belief considering the circumstances, then he did not criminally rape. Remember, there are two human beings involved. Never forget the woman's point of view, but also never forget the man's point of view.
With regards to women dressing a certain way or avoiding drinking at parties, remember that nothing justifies rape. Don't victim blame. It's a real thing, for some people. But also remember, for the majority of people, they are giving safety tips in "should" form, and nothing more. Most people do not relieve the rapist of any culpability regardless of the unsafe decisions of the victim, and most people do not shift blame from the rapist to the victim. So do not use strawmen, and let's discuss this reasonably so that we can both promote affirmative, clear consent before intercourse, and also proliferate appropriate and reasonable safety tips for women.