Women’s Self Defense Against Sexual Assault

[justiceischeap]

33. I read the entire article

You should entitle it "Women's Self-Defense Against Stranger Sexual Assault" but as many have told you on their comments already, the majority of rapes happen by people we know... not strangers.

Also, although your intent was not to victim-blame, your writing comes across as victim blaming and you don't seem to like hearing that. Take it from the women in this discussion, we know what victim blaming looks like and this is it (whether intentional or not).

Your answer to the question is stated in a way that blames the victim. You may as well have written, "If only Vicky hadn't been in the wrong place at the wrong time, she wouldn't have been raped." That's what your answer means to women even though you didn't write it that way.

This would have been better:

Q. What is the most important thing you can do to not become the victim of an attack by a predator?

A. Situational awareness.

Let’s take situation that could happen in real life in cases of stranger attacks. As you read through this scenario, see if you can determine what this woman could have done differently that leaves her less vulnerable to an attack.

A woman normally works regular hours in downtown office building. She usually gets off around 4:30 so she usually walk to her car in a nearby parking garage a couple of blocks in the daylight when there are usually a lot of people around.

Lately, however, her workload has increased dramatically and she been working nearly late every night on a big project. Often she feels that she could work all night and still not get everything done, but she has her limits and has been routinely knocking off at about 8:00 every night.

Every evening at about that time she walks, in her high heels, a couple dark, usually deserted city blocks from her work place to the deck where she parks her car.

That answer covers everything you're attempting to impart and doesn't put the onus on the woman for the attack (just by changing the way it's worded).