Thursday, August 24, 2006

Blaming The "Victim"

I know about NYC's nightlife. So do lots of people. Pennsylvanians, those from Jersey and Connecticut, hell, tourists from all over Europe. Lower Manhattan has more "clubs" than can be accounted for, as a new one sems to have sprang into being every time I go home. The single thing they have in common is the moth to a flame attraction that draws young women. During the spring and summer months one passes an idle hour watching the secretary shuffle as they race about to catch lunch during the day, and it's off to the downtown area at night to indulge in as much eye candy as can be had without expiring on the spot from onset diabetes. They don't wear clothing, these young women, as much as carry it about with just enough coverage to prevent the police from tossing them into paddy wagons en masse.

Everyone, Pennsylvanians, Jersyians, the Connecticuters and even those tourists cannot help but wonder how these women get away with it. But they don't. Not all of them. Not when it's a given that predators are out and about, predators who rape more of these women then anyone knows because a lot of the victims will chalk it up as a bad trip on the town rather then go through the hassle of reporting a rape they've survived. The think of it as part of the package, and to some of them, the danger is the attraction. Are many, if not most of them just stupid kids in need of a serious talking to? Of course. There are things an intelligent individual does NOT do. But they drive drunk and pop pills and smoke grass and when one of them is murdered such a lifestyle is brought into question, and rightly so.

But not for some folks.

"Most people will give lip service to not blaming the victim" says Fairstein, "but most of the questions reflect more of the underlying, 'Why was the victim where she was? Why was she acting the way she did? Why was she wearing what she was wearing?'

"I still think these are very hard attitudes to change and to overcome."

Yep. Where there's a big town there's more than enough loons to stand up for so dangerous a lifestyle. Heaven forbid that someone suggest a degree of common sense. Why, these gals are feminists who should be allowed to do whatever they WANT to do. Can't blame a poor girl for partying. And so what if they use fake ID's, and consume massive quantities of illegals drugs.

They're the victims. Okay, they break the law in a dozen ways each and every night, but they're the victims. Just like the other poor kids who get mugged and murdered while in a bad neighborhood trying to score the drug of their choice.

In Loontown, it's NEVER the individuals fault. How dare anyone suggest so.

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